What Jennie Garth Has Said About Divorce Over the Years: ‘Noticed My Light Really Dimming’
What Jennie Garth Has Said About Divorce Over the Years: ‘Noticed My Light Really Dimming’
Miranda Siwak, Johnni Macke, Shelby Stivale, Yana Grebenyuk and Samantha BenitzThu, April 9, 2026 at 9:30 PM UTC
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Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
Jennie Garth has been candid about the pain of heartbreak — and the hard-won lessons that came from putting her life back together after public marriage struggles.
The actress opened up in a People cover story about hitting her lowest point as her marriage to Peter Facinelli fell apart in 2012.
"I noticed my light really dimming. I wasn't putting off good vibes. I could see it in the mirror," Garth told the outlet in April 2026. "I could look at the negative impact that that kind of grief and anger was having on me. I spent a good amount of years being hurt, sad, just tormented by it, and it eked out into all aspects of my life.
Garth and Facinelli were married from 2001 to 2013, during which they welcomed daughters Luca, Lola and Fiona. Garth moved on with Dave Abrams, tying the knot in 2015. Despite a brief split in 2018, the pair reconciled the next year.
Inside Jennie Garth and Husband Dave Abrams’ Relationship: From Near-Divorce to Reconciliation
Keep scrolling to read Garth’s candid quotes about divorce:
Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli’s Podcast Reunion Changed Everything
In 2024, Jennie Garth invited Peter Facinelli onto her "I Choose Me" podcast for a two-part conversation about their divorce and coparenting evolution — and the results surprised even her.
"We just both came together and really wanted it to be a positive, helpful conversation. I had no idea where it was gonna go," Garth exclusively told Us Weekly in July 2024. "I opened it up and Peter just started talking and I've never heard him talk that much. I think it was the first time he's actually ever talked about it, like, verbalized it to anybody."
Garth admitted that the coparenting journey hadn't always been smooth. "We have been really putting up a good face for the world to make it seem like it's all [seamless, but] it's been very difficult. We wanted to finally tell the truth and let people know that this evolution could happen for us and it [is a] situation many people … [are dealing with]."
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Facinelli, who is engaged to Lily Anne Harrison, echoed those sentiments.
"She's the mother of my kids and I love both Dave and Jennie. Our relationship has gotten to a really great place," Facinelli told Us in February 2025. "I think it's important to have that friendship. We had a lot of residue that we were holding onto. It just kind of felt like it was released, and it was really beautiful. It was a healing episode for both of us."
Jennie Garth’s Second Chance WIth Dave Abrams
After finding love with Dave Abrams after a blind date in 2014, the got married in July 2015. But the couple faced their own challenges, including a difficult IVF journey.
"[We] were trying to have a baby, and it kept failing," Garth told SELF in September 2024. "And that was really, really hard on both of us individually and on our relationship."
Jennie Garth ‘Never’ Thought She’d Have ‘Civil Conversation’ About Feelings With Peter Facinelli
Jennie Garth Reveals Why She and Dave Abrams Split
Jennie Garth revealed to People in April 2026 that she learned Dave Abrams planned to file for divorce via an article on TMZ. (The couple separated for nearly one year before reconciling in 2019.)
"It all comes down to people-pleasing," Garth told People. "Once you really get to the core of what you want for your life? That's when everything seems to get easier."
Years earlier, Garth told Us that the key to their marriage was acceptance.
"It's been a journey of just real personal growth for each of us," she told Us in 2022. "I'm nine years older than my husband, so we're kind of different places, on a personal level. And it's about accepting the other person's journey and loving them even more."
Jennie Garth Is All About Moving Forward
Looking back on her journey from heartbreak to healing, Jennie Garth's perspective has shifted.
As she told Access Hollywood in 2014, "I think that for anybody that's going through bad times in their life, it's really important to let yourself just fall apart — it's the putting yourself back together that's really important."
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
