What Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli Revealed About Their Divorce Years Later

For over a decade, Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli had a strong marriage. According to People, they met in the mid-1990s on the set of An Unfinished Affair.

They welcomed their first daughter, Luca, in 1997, married in January 2001, and later had two more daughters, Lola and Fiona. But by March 2012, the pair announced they were ending their marriage. Their divorce became final in June 2013.

Court filings reportedly cited irreconcilable differences. However, Jennie and Peter have opened up about the real reason behind their divorce. In 2012, Jennie told People she initially pushed back when Peter asked for a divorce. “I was very resistant,” she said. “I didn’t want it to happen. It took me some time to come to peace with it.”

She said the split left her dealing with years of grief and anger. She also opened up about a period of self-medicating and rehab before deciding to forgive him.

Peter later described their marriage as deeply codependent. During a 2024 conversation with Jennie on I Choose Me With Jennie Garth, he said they were “very codependent on each other” and that he eventually “had to rediscover who I am.”

At the time of their split, the two tried to keep the focus on family. “While we have decided to end our marriage, we both share the same deep love and devotion to our children. We remain dedicated to raising our beautiful daughters together,” they said in a statement to People.

That commitment has held up. Both stars have spoken about working through the challenges of co-parenting. These days, they appear to be in a much better place. "I love her," Peter told E! News in January 2025. "She's the mother of my kids. I consider her a friend. I consider her husband a friend."

Jennie has also said that reopening communication on her podcast helped reset their dynamic and made their bond healthier. "When we had Peter on the podcast, and we really opened up some new channels of communication and, you know, sort of had a kind of restart to what our relationship should be," Jennie said during an episode of her I Choose Me podcast.

As for Jennie’s love life now, she is not dating — she’s married. Garth is with actor Dave Abrams, whom she met on a blind double date in December 2014. According to People, they got engaged within months and married on July 11, 2015. Their relationship hit a rough patch when Dave filed for divorce in 2018, but he later withdrew the petition.

Peter’s relationship status is a little different, but he also appears happily settled down. He is with actor-writer Lily Anne Harrison. “I call her my wife. I treat her like my wife,” Peter told Us Weekly. “So we’ll get to the paper and the party eventually. But every day is a celebration of love with her.”