New York Times best-selling Christian author Jen Hatmaker and her husband of 27 years, Brandon Hatmaker, filed for divorce on August 21, 2020. She posted this response on Facebook:
I first thank you for the kindness you have shown these last two months. We are in a moment with no handbook and without a single clue how to navigate this privately, much less publicly. I don’t know how to hide grief, so I haven’t, and I am grateful for your absolute decency these last few weeks. I don’t know how to say this, and I still cannot believe I am even saying it, but Brandon and I are getting divorced. Although the details are ours alone, this was completely unexpected, and I remain stunned as we speak. I am shocked, grief-stricken, and broken-hearted.
Although this community is impossibly dear, beloved to me, in case you are an interloper who revels in the pain of another, I beg you to spare us your cruelty. We have suffered so greatly. (Hateful comments that harm our family will be deleted.) The kids and I are getting away to retreat for awhile, and I ask for your kindness…and for some room to breathe. Please respect the privacy of our children and our extended family. Our loss is not for public devouring. We are real people managing this in our real life in real time, and we are doing the absolute best we know how to do.
If you pray, pray for us. Hold us so dear to your hearts. We have felt your prayers these last few weeks. We have experienced your mercy. Thank you for being good to us. Know that we are deeply surrounded by love and have not been alone a single second in two months. Please help protect us and keep us safe as we try to heal and rebuild.
Yours,
Jen
I first thank you for the kindness you have shown these last two months. We are in a moment with no handbook and without…
Posted by Jen Hatmaker on Monday, September 7, 2020
Jen and Brandon became very popular when they hosted the HGTV show, ‘My Big Family Renovation’ that documented the Hatmaker family renovating their 1908 farm house. You could say it was ‘Fixer Upper‘ before there was ‘Fixer Upper‘.
They have 5 children, 2 of them are adopted and Jen appeared on TODAY early this year speaking out against racial inequality. She said her Ethiopian daughter asked her why ‘white people thought they were better than black people,’ and it cause Jen to break down and start speaking out.
