The Unexpected Way Jennie Garth Found Out Dave Abrams Filed for Divorce

Jennie Garth is not sugarcoating it. While promoting her new memoir, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum says she found out her then-husband Dave Abrams was about to file for divorce the very Hollywood way - by seeing it on TMZ. Not great, obviously. But the story does not end there.

The TMZ moment, the baby question, and the near-breakup

In a new People cover story published Wednesday, April 8, Garth, 54, talks through the rough stretch she and Abrams, 44, went through a few years into their marriage. She admits she got stuck on the idea of having a baby with him because he was younger and a lot of his friends were starting families. So they tried. They did IVF. Multiple rounds. It did not take. There were miscarriages. And the fallout from all of that nearly ended the marriage.

At one point, Abrams planned to file for divorce - that is the part she learned about from the TMZ item. The two separated for almost a year. Then they worked their way back. They reconciled in 2019 and have stayed together since.

• 2015 - Garth and Abrams get married
• After multiple failed IVF attempts and miscarriages, they separate for nearly a year
• During the split, Garth learns via TMZ that Abrams plans to file for divorce
• 2019 - They reconcile and remain together

What changed the second time around

Garth says time apart forced her to relearn the basics: actually communicating and trusting what your partner says. She also calls out her own people-pleasing tendencies as a huge factor. Once she stopped chasing what she thought other people wanted and focused on what she actually wanted for her life, things got lighter. Now, she says, they are in a good place - the kind of stable, grown-up chapter that only arrives after you have crawled through the messy part.

The Facinelli chapter - and why she finally let it go

The memoir, titled I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose, and Embracing Reinvention, also goes back to her split from ex-husband Peter Facinelli. Garth and Facinelli were married from January 2001 to June 2013, with the breakup landing in 2012. They share three daughters - Luca, 28, Lola, 23, and Fiona, 19 - and are amicable coparents now, but it was not instantly Zen. Garth writes that the collapse of that marriage hit her hard enough that after one night of drinking and taking pills to numb the heartbreak, she checked herself into rehab. She says she could see the toll in the mirror before she ever found peace with it.

There was a point, she says, when she realized holding onto anger was wrecking more than the past - it was bleeding into everything right now. And that is when she flipped the switch.

I don't want to carry this anymore. It's impacting my relationships and how I feel about myself. I've got to let it go. I've got to forgive him.

The book and the point

I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose, and Embracing Reinvention is out April 14. It is very much a here is what actually happened account - the career highs, the marriages, the failed IVF, the TMZ gut-punch - and how she figured out what she wants now, not what she thought would make everyone else happy.