Jennie Garth has been unusually open about what heartbreak can do to a person, and how you crawl back from it. In a new People cover story, she looks straight at the messiness of her split with Peter Facinelli, the awkwardness of coparenting in public, the curveballs in her marriage to Dave Abrams, and the slow, unglamorous work of getting herself right again.
The lowest point, in her own words
Garth says her marriage coming apart back in 2012 knocked the wind out of her. The way she describes it now is not soft-focus or vague; it sounds like watching yourself dim.
"I noticed my light really dimming. I wasn’t putting off good vibes. I could see it in the mirror. 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."
For context: Garth and Facinelli were married from 2001 to 2013 and share three daughters — Luca, Lola, and Fiona.
From exes to honest collaborators
In 2024, Garth did something most people only imagine doing: she invited her ex to talk through their history on her own podcast. On a two-part 'I Choose Me' episode, she and Facinelli walked through the divorce and the bumpy years of coparenting. Garth later said even she was surprised by how much he opened up — she had never heard him dig in like that before — and admitted the public image of them as seamlessly coparenting had masked how hard it actually was. The point of the episode, she said, was to finally tell the truth and show that relationships like theirs can evolve.
Facinelli, now engaged to Lily Anne Harrison, backed that up in early 2025, calling the conversation healing. He said they had been carrying old resentment and finally let it go, and that maintaining a real friendship with Garth — and with Abrams in the mix — mattered to him.
Dave Abrams, second chances, and the stuff you do not see
After a blind date in 2014, Garth and Dave Abrams married in July 2015. Things have not been tidy there either. She revealed in 2024 that they went through a tough IVF stretch that did not work, and it took a toll on both of them and on the marriage. They separated in 2018, and Garth says she actually found out via a TMZ article that Abrams planned to file for divorce. They ended up reconciling in 2019.
A few years before that, in 2022, she boiled their dynamic down to growth and acceptance. She is nine years older, which puts them at different stages sometimes, and she framed the work of their marriage as learning to accept where the other person is and love them through it.
What changed for her
Garth told People in April 2026 that getting past old habits — especially trying to please everyone — shifted everything. The minute she got honest about what she actually wanted her life to look like, she says, things got simpler. That tracks with something she said way back in 2014: falling apart is allowed; the rebuilding is the part that matters.
The timeline, at a glance
- 2001-2013: Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli are married; they have three daughters — Luca, Lola, and Fiona.
- 2012: Garth hits her lowest point as the marriage is ending.
- 2014: Meets Dave Abrams on a blind date.
- July 2015: Marries Abrams.
- 2018: They separate; Garth says she learned via a TMZ article that Abrams planned to file for divorce.
- 2019: Reconcile after nearly a year apart.
- September 2024: Garth tells SELF their IVF attempts failed and it was really hard on both of them and their relationship.
- July 2024: On her 'I Choose Me' podcast, Garth and Facinelli have a two-part conversation about their divorce and evolving coparenting; she later says it was the first time she had heard him really talk it through.
- February 2025: Facinelli, engaged to Lily Anne Harrison, calls that podcast sit-down healing and says their friendship is in a great place.
- 2022: Garth tells Us Weekly the key with Abrams is accepting each other’s journeys, noting she is nine years older.
- April 2026: In a People cover story, she reflects on grief dimming her 'light' and says letting go of people-pleasing helped her move forward.
- 2014: On Access Hollywood, she sums up her philosophy — let yourself fall apart, then focus on putting yourself back together.
Bottom line
None of this is tidy, and that is kind of the point. Garth is telling the story without the glossy filter: the marriage that cratered, the years of fallout, the unexpected collaboration with an ex, the false starts and fixes with a new partner, and the late-arriving clarity about what she wants. Not the usual celebrity soundbite — which is exactly why it lands.