Celebrity Splits
Why Did HGTV’s Jen Hatmaker & Ex-Husband Brandon Split? Inside Their Shocking Divorce
Jen Hatmaker isn’t holding back in her new memoir. In Awake, the HGTV star lays out exactly what led to her shocking split from her husband of almost three decades, Brandon Hatmaker. It’s the first time she’s done so publicly.
The former husband and wife starred in My Big Family Renovation, flipping houses for large and growing families, years before their divorce in 2020. Not only that, but they cofounded an evangelical church in 2008. Jen went on to become a Christian author and influencer, although her more recent circumstances have led her to take a break from services.
But what exactly happened between Jen and Brandon? Why did the former HGTV couple break up? Keep reading for a full breakdown of the details Jen provides in her memoir, her relationship status now, and more.
Why did Jen and Brandon Hatmaker split?
Jen woke up in the middle of the night to her husband drunk-calling another woman, according to Awake excerpts obtained by The New York Post. “I just can’t quit you,” she heard him whisper before falling asleep. She describes the moment as “the end of my life as I [knew] it.”
“To some degree, I almost disassociated,” she continued. “It was so outside the realm of what I would have ever considered a possibility for our life, our marriage, our story.”
Immediately, Jen decided to investigate. She looked through her husband’s computer for four hours, and though she didn’t get into the nitty-gritty of what she found in her book, the author discovered that her husband’s affair had a “devastating time span.” She also claims that Brandon plunged her family into “financial chaos” because he was giving his lover expensive gifts. So, when Brandon woke up, Jen told him to leave their house.
In the book, she adds that their marital troubles began long before her discovery. In addition to noticing “warning signs,” like unexplained absences, Jen explains that they weren’t physically intimate for two years. They were going to marriage counseling when she found out about the cheating. “I thought that we were deeply working to repair,” she said. “We had kind of reconnected sexually … And so there, at the very bitter end, I thought that we were trying, but we actually weren’t.”
Following the release of her book, Brandon released a long statement about his affair via Substack. “The lowest moment of my life was my very public affair five years ago. I caused so much pain and I brought so much humiliation into the lives of people that I loved,” Brandon wrote. “It was the culmination of a three-year personal spiral in which I had lost my anchor, felt no hope, and was the loneliest I’ve ever been in my life.”
He added, “Jen has every right to share her piece of the story. I don’t blame her for that. But I believe there are some truths left out that paint a false narrative on topics that are truly important to me. I’m not saying what she wrote is untrue. I’m saying that what’s left unsaid isn’t her responsibility to tell. The only one who can do that, is me.”
How long were Jen and Brandon Hatmaker together?
They got married in 1993 when her husband was studying to be a pastor. Jen was 19 at the time. They met while working at a Baptist youth camp in Oklahoma, where they would later launch their own church.
Who is Brandon Hatmaker’s new wife?
In her book, Jen says her ex-husband made “no reconciliation effort” in regard to their marriage. “He [told] me clearly that ‘trying requires certain feelings to be there’ and they aren’t anymore and they won’t be coming back,” she wrote. However, Brandon claims that Jen was the one who said there was “no path to reconnection.”
View this post on Instagram
Brandon has since married a woman named Tina. “It’s been assumed by some that Tina, my wife, was my affair partner. She was not,” Brandon stressed on Substack. “In no way was Tina involved or a part of my divorce in 2020. Jen verifies this in her book. To be clear, Tina and I had never met until after the divorce was filed.”
While he became exclusive with Tina before his divorce from Jen was finalized, Brandon noted that “Jen and I intentionally delayed finalizing the divorce for mutually agreed-upon reasons. None of those reasons had anything to do with giving the marriage time to reconcile. It was at Jen’s request to delay the divorce and I agreed.” Brandon and Tina got engaged in July 2022 and married in December 2023. “Tina may have saved my life. Not figuratively, but literally. That’s another story I hope to share one day,” he wrote.
Do Jen and Brandon Hatmaker have kids?
Yes, the exes share five children, two of them adopted. In her memoir, Hatmaker describes experiencing depression and anxiety while navigating the pandemic alone and parenting three teens, one remote college student, and one recent grad.
Who is Jen Hatmaker dating now?
Her ex-husband isn’t the only one who’s moved on. Jen has found new love with Tyler Merritt, a Nashville-based actor, comedian, and author. They celebrated their dating anniversary earlier this year, which Hatmaker commemorated via an Instagram post.
“Three years ago this weekend, Tyler and I ‘met’ for the second time after falling for each other long distance for two months,” she wrote in the caption.
View this post on Instagram
“Adult love stories are absolutely underrated,” she continued. “We are all so much better. The good stuff has risen and the garbage stuff has fallen away. We get to enjoy living a life together because we aren’t exhausted from building one. The building years are behind us, and we just get to relax into each other.”
