A look inside the failed marriage of Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli
During their first joint interview after the divorce, the Fast lane actor reflected on his marriage to Garth, which he said felt “arranged.”
“We got together very quickly, very furiously, very quickly, and I remember thinking, ‘Let’s move in together and see how it goes,’ and it just happened,” Facinelli said of their romance on a June 2024 episode of Garth. I choose me with Jennie Garth.
He continued, “Five years went by and I thought, ‘Well, we should get married.’ Then we got married and had another child. It was almost like an arranged marriage in a way, and everything seemed fine. We had disagreements here and there, but I think we were still very young.”
According to Facinelli, he had no idea who he was, so he “just tried to be all these things to other people.”
“When that fell apart, it took me time to reach out,” he admitted.
He reiterated his statement that they were like an “arranged” marriage, adding, “I loved you, and we had a beautiful family on the outside, but I hadn’t developed who I was.” So how could you love me? I didn’t know me.’
The 13 minutes actor told his ex-husband that he felt like he lacked the “space” to discover himself during the marriage.
‘If you take all that into account, we really lasted a long time. I think because of the kids,” Garth acknowledged.
“I think if we hadn’t had kids, I wouldn’t have stayed,” Facinelli admitted. “Because of the freedom to say, ‘Okay, I have to figure out who I am.'”
During the same podcast appearance, he shared that he felt conflicted about asking Garth for a divorce, saying it “broke his heart” to break up a family.
“It was one of those decisions where you never know if you’re making the right decision,” he reflected.
His feelings reflected what he shared on the website Allison Interviews podcast about noticing how their relationship slowly changed before they broke up.
“Someone might say something that’s quite hurtful. The other person might allow it, and then they get into the habit of it,” he said. “So bad things can become a habit, the way you start treating each other, giving the other person permission or compensation to talk to you in a certain way.”
Facinelli explained, “If that person talks to you a certain way or does something, then all of a sudden they feel like they have permission to do that because you didn’t say, ‘That hurt my feelings.’ You didn’t say anything. Suddenly it becomes a habit, and it grows, and then you get resentment.”
