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Jen Hatmaker and Brandon Hatmaker surprised HGTV viewers with news of their divorce — and their split has only gotten messier amid cheating claims and their separate departures from church.
Many of Us were introduced to the reality stars when their show, My Big Family Renovation, premiered in 2014. Before the short-lived series, Jen and Brandon got married and expanded their family with five kids.
Following 26 years of marriage, Jen announced in 2020 that their marriage had come to an end. Jen has since elaborated on how infidelity led to the decision.
“It was so shocking and stunning, and I almost could not process it,” Jen told The New York Post in September 2025 while discussing her memoir, Awake. “I couldn’t even cry. I did not know if I was ever going to be happy again.”
Jen said learning about Brandon’s infidelity made her reconsider their relationship – and her faith. (She and Brandon founded Austin New Church before their high-profile breakup.)
“Inside of that culture, the men are the leaders,” she explained. “They are the pastors. They are the leaders of the family, of the marriage. They are the spiritual authorities. And the women are essentially the support staff.”
Brandon, for his part, broke his silence about Jen’s claims.
“We are all bigger than our lowest moment. For those of us living in the consequences of our actions, that can be a hard sell. While I know this truth in my head, I still struggle today to really believe it — for myself — in my heart,” he wrote in a lengthy statement via Substack. “The lowest moment of my life was my very public affair five years ago. I caused so much pain, so much humiliation, and I brought so much confusion into the lives of many people that I loved.”
Brandon called the downfall of his marriage a “culmination of a three-year personal spiral,” writing, “In which I had lost my anchor, felt no hope, and was the loneliest I’ve ever been in my life. While that was the lowest moment of my life, a very close second, is having to relive it today. Even harder, to watch others who I love, having to do the same. I’ve owned my mistakes, I’ve made amends, I continue to do the work, I’ve worked hard to restore relationships, and I’ve started over.”
Keep scrolling to relive Jen and Brandon’s relationship timeline:
1993
After several years of dating, Jen and Brandon got married.
2000s
The then-couple expanded their family five times, with two of their kids being adopted from Ethiopia.
2008
Jen and Brandon founded Austin New Church in 2008. In the years since their divorce, both Jen and Brandon revealed they had stepped away from church and religion.
2014
HGTV aired two seasons of My Big Family Home Renovation, which focused on Jen and Brandon showing potential homes to large and growing families. After the family decided on their home, Jen and Brandon worked with their contractors on fixing and revitalizing the properties.
2017
Brandon and Jen documented highlights from their marriage over the years, with the former pastor writing via Instagram, “Jumping on a plane with this beauty today. Happy Mothers day. After 23 years and 5 kids, I couldn’t dream up a better life.”
Another post from Brandon read, “Her convictions. Her strength. Her love. Her character. Never met a person more beautiful both inside and out.”
2020
Jen confirmed their divorce after nearly three decades of marriage. In her statement, Jen called the decision “completely unexpected” for her.
“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,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “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.”
Jen said her family was “in a moment with no handbook and without a single clue how to navigate this privately, much less publicly. … 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.”
2025
In her new book, Awake, Jen recalled waking up at 2 a.m. in July 2020 to hear her then-husband whispering on the phone with someone else. Jen ultimately realized Brandon was being unfaithful and she ended their relationship.
“To some degree, I almost disassociated,” she told The New York Post. “It was so outside the realm of what I would have ever considered a possibility for our life, our marriage, our story.”
Jen later went through her husband’s computer that same night and discovered a “trail of betrayal.” Her book claimed the affairs went on for a “devastating time span,” with Brandon allegedly buying his girlfriends “expensive and lavish gifts” that put their family into “financial chaos.”
“It was so shocking and stunning, and I almost could not process it. I couldn’t even cry. I did not know if I was ever going to be happy again,” she told the outlet. “I thought that we were deeply working to repair [with marriage counseling],” she told The Post. “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.
She continued: “There were a lot of unaccounted absences, and the phone was never ever, ever, ever out of his hand or sight. All the warning signs were there, but I did not want to face those.”
Jen accused Brandon of making “no reconciliation effort” with her before getting engaged to another woman. “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 in her memoir.
Following her divorce, Jen has been in a long-distance relationship with author and activist Tyler Merritt.
2025
After initially remaining tight-lipped about their split, Brandon broke his silence in response to Jen’s memoir.
“With the release of Jen’s new book, it has stirred the pot quite a bit. Many of you are new to our story and hear the promotion, read the articles, and watch the interviews,” he wrote in a statement. “I’ve noticed a handful of statements that have been thrown out there that tell only a piece of the story. Without context, there have been many things said that leave it up to the reader or listener to decide how to fill in the blanks.”
Brandon said he chose “not to stand up” for himself “out of fear of it coming across as making excuses.”
“There are no excuses. But I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to have an affair. I didn’t fall out of love overnight. Our love was coming to a slow and painful ending. And I privately mourned the death of our marriage years before our divorce,” he continued. “Let me be clear about something, I understand what it means to sit in the consequences of my actions. In no way do my circumstances excuse my actions. The purpose of this article is not to make excuses or rationalize anything, The purpose is to simply add context to a handful of areas where the vast majority, and nearly every new follower, is missing.”
He wrote: “It’s about a few items that don’t change what I did, but warrant some important distinctions — especially in areas that may cause someone to look more critically towards the church, make assumptions about someone I love, or fuel any personal angst or confusion they might be wrestling with personally.”
Elsewhere in the statement, Brandon clarified that he wasn’t trying to shut down Jen’s version of elements.
“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 or unnecessarily exaggerates areas that are truly important to me,” Brandon, who is now dating someone named Tina, added. “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.”
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