Former HGTV star Jen Hatmaker is making headlines for her personal life instead of her design choices.
In her September 2025 book titled Awake: A Memoir, Jen recalled the moment she caught her then-husband, Brandon Hatmaker, being unfaithful.
In the early morning hours of July 11, 2020, Jen claimed she woke up to the sound of her husband of 26 years whispering on the phone to another woman.
“It was so shocking and stunning, and I almost could not process it,” Jen said in an interview with the New York Post before the September 23, 2025, release date of her book. “I couldn’t even cry.”
After excerpts of Jen’s book were released to the press, Brandon decided to share his side of the story.
In a Substack post, Brandon called the downfall of his marriage a “culmination of a three-year personal spiral.”
“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,” he wrote in a lengthy statement. “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 reading to learn more about Jen and how she moved forward after a public divorce.
Who Is Jen Hatmaker’s Ex-Husband?
Jen married Brandon, who was studying to be a pastor, when she was 19. Five years before Brandon had an affair, he stepped down from his role in a church in 2015.
“Church leadership can be really hard. I always tried to teach with honesty and integrity and empathy,” he wrote in a September 2025 Substack post. “But after a really tough year leading, some difficult health issues, some horrific family issues and a very traumatic experience where I was involved in an incident where a close friend died (where I felt at fault), I found myself teaching on stage one Sunday morning in 2017, feeling for the first time an absence of hope.”
Today, Jen finds the church environment “triggering” and is unsure about the future of her faith journey.
“I am not saying that I will ever go back to church, but I am also not saying that I will never go back to church,” she said via the New York Post. “Right now, I am finding a meaningful faith outside of those [traditional] spaces.”
Does Jen Hatmaker Have a Boyfriend?
The TV personality is currently dating author and activist Tyler Merritt.
“Jennifer is special. She takes the time to listen to you; your story really does matter to her, and she has an almost superhuman gift of being able to put into words and on the page the feelings that we can’t seem to communicate,” Merritt wrote via Instagram in August 2025 when celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday. “I mean this fullheartedly when I tell you that this world is better for all of us because she is in it. I know that is so very true for me.”
While Jen tries to keep her romance off social media, she also celebrated her boyfriend in a heartfelt summer post.
“Everything with him is better,” Jen wrote via Instagram in July 2025. “I sometimes wonder what people think watching us at any given table or bench or restaurant locked so tight into ENDLESS conversation where half the time we are leaning in as earnest as Baby Jesus and the other half we are laughing so loud it is stupid. This magic never runs out either.”
Does Jen Hatmaker Have Kids?
Jen welcomed three kids with Brandon during their marriage. They also adopted two children from Ethiopia.
“I have walked five children into kindergarten and filmed those same five children walking across a high school graduation stage,” she wrote via Instagram in September 2024. “The oldest one is married with a mortgage. The youngest just earned her diploma.”
What Was Jen Hatmaker’s HGTV Show?
In 2015, Jen and Brandon appeared on HGTV’s Your Big Family Renovation. For two seasons, cameras rolled as the couple and their five growing kids sold their home and moved into a total fixer-upper.
“Brandon and I lived in a room off the garage. Our boys lived in a camper on the back of our property,” Jen recalled to Austin Family about the experience. “And our two daughters lived in just whatever room was not under construction. But it was really fun, and this old house is such a dream.”
What Is Jen Hatmaker’s Job Today?
In addition to being a public speaker, Jen is the host of the “For the Love” podcast. “Welcome to a weekly chat session with some of the best people on earth across every category you can imagine,” the podcast description states online. “We laugh. We cry. We learn. We love. And we talk about everything that is good, right, wrong, hard, fun, confusing, wondrous and thought-provoking.”
She also helped launch a book club community, where members enjoy monthly Zoom meetups with Jen.
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