How long were Peter Facinelli and Jenna Garth married? Family life explored as Twilight star opens up on his divorce

Peter Facinelli and Jennie Garth have recently spoken up about their separation. The duo was married for 12 years, from 2001 to 2013. Their divorce was finalized in 2013, but they had already split due to irreconcilable differences in 2012.

They appeared together on the I Choose Me podcast on June 4, 2024, saying that the decision was not easy for them. The Twilight star recalled the split by saying it was the correct decision for their family, which includes their three daughters.

"On one hand, they missed out on that idyllic family my parents are still married kind of thing. But on the other hand, they gained so much more emotional depth and so much more strength, I think, and so many other things from experiencing the way it happened with us," Jennie shared.

Peter Facinelli added that the split helped him know his real identity, which he felt he "hadn't developed" since he was only 23 years old at the time. He said he needed an answer to who he was and couldn't do the same when he was married.

"I didn't know who I was and so I needed to figure that out. I didn't feel like I had the space to do that within the marriage. I felt like time was going by and I didn't want to wake up and be 60 years old and feel like, 'Well, did I live this life for all these other people and not know who I was?'"

At the time of the split, Jennie said she did everything she could to save the marriage.

"I was very resistant. I didn't want it to happen," she had said.

Notably, Peter got engaged to Jaimie Alexander in 2015, but they split in 2016. Later that year, he met Lily Anne Harrison, and in January 2020, the duo got engaged. He shares a son named Jack Cooper with Harrison.

---

Peter Facinelli and Jennie Garth are parents of three children

The former couple first met while working together on the 1996 film An Unfinished Affair. They exchanged vows in 2001. Four years before their marriage, they had a daughter named Luca Bella and welcomed another child, Lola Ray, in 2002. The duo's third daughter, Fiona, was born in 2006.

As mentioned, Peter and Jennie's divorce was finalized in 2013 after they split in 2012. They agreed to share equal custody of their children.

Despite their split, the actors have frequently addressed their relationship on different occasions. While appearing on the podcast titled Allison Interviews in 2022, Peter Facinelli revealed how things changed after the split and said:

"So, bad things can become habitual, the way you start to treat each other, giving the other person permission or an allowance to talk to you in a certain way. If that person talks to you in a certain way or does something, then all of a sudden, they feel they have permission to do that because you didn't say, 'That hurt my feelings.'"

In their latest conversation on the I Choose Me podcast, Peter Facinelli and Jennie Garth discussed the little problems that emerged while co-parenting. They said that they wish to spend more time with the children. Peter added that there is an "immense, tremendous responsibility" that comes after a breakup.

Jennie appeared in an interview with People magazine in 2020, in which she said that she and Facinelli are "great parents together." She even addressed the split at the time, saying that they ensured that the children understood.

"We make it very clear to them they don't have to choose sides. They can go wherever they want and be with whom they want."

---

Following her separation from Peter Facinelli, Jennie married actor David Abrams in 2015. While they were supposed to divorce in 2018, the pair sorted out their problems and reconciled the following year.