Jen Hatmaker is recounting one of the most difficult moments in her life.
Five years after ending her marriage to Brandon Hatmaker, she revealed how she learned about his affair, which, as she noted in her forthcoming memoir Awake, went on for a “devastating time span.”
Indeed, as she remembered, it was in the early hours of July 11, 2020, per excerpts from the book per The New York Post, where she heard overhearing him tell a woman over the phone, “I just can’t quit you.”
The 51-year-old recalled spending hours after her husband of 26 years’ 2:30 a.m. phone call following his “trail of betrayal,” writing in the book, out Sept. 23, that his infidelity was “the end of my life as I [knew] it.” When Brandon woke up the next morning, she threw him out of the house and their marriage was over.
The My Big Family Renovation alum—who cofounded the evangelical Austin New Church with her husband back in 2008—was so shocked by the revelations that she couldn’t fully wrap her mind around what she’d uncovered.
“To some degree, I almost disassociated,” she told The New York Post in an interview published Sept. 21. “It was so outside the realm of what I would have ever considered a possibility for our life, our marriage, our story.”
And of that day itself? “It was so shocking and stunning, and I almost could not process it,” Jen explained. “I couldn’t even cry.”
E! News has reached out to Brandon and Jen for comment and has yet to hear back.
However, the best-selling author—who is now dating Tyler Merritt—admitted her marriage “had been in trouble” before she found out that her husband had been cheating on her and that they began marriage counseling in April 2020 after not having sex for two years.
“I thought that we were deeply working to repair,” Jen recounted about that time. “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.”
“There were a lot of unaccounted absences,” she went on, “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.”
And following their separation, Brandon never tried to reconcile with his then-estranged wife.
“He [told] me clearly that ‘trying requires certain feelings to be there,'” Jen told The New York Post, “and they aren’t anymore and they won’t be coming back.”
For his part, Brandon responded to Jen’s decision to discuss the fallout from his affair in her new book with a lengthy statement of his own.
“The lowest moment of my life was my very public affair five years ago,” he wrote on his Substack Sept. 22. “I caused so much pain and I brought so much humiliation into the lives of people that I loved. It was the culmination of a three-year personal spiral 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,” the 53-year-old went on. “Even harder, to watch others who I love – because of my failures – 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.”
The former pastor took the time to also share his perspective on several of Jen’s claims, including denying that he got engaged to current wife Tina within a year of their split, further alleging it was Jen that decided they had no path forward.
“There are no excuses,” Brandon wrote. “Nothing can make this wrong a right. But I do hope it to be helpful if some of you find yourself in my story. Maybe it will save you some heartbreak. The truth is that people in a healthy marriage don’t just wake up one day and decide to have an affair. I didn’t fall out of love overnight. Our relationship was coming to a slow and painful ending. And I privately mourned the death of our marriage years before our divorce.”
Keep reading for more celebrity cheating scandals…
Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson
Months after photos caught Stewart in the act with her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders, the Twilight co-stars called it quits in 2013. Since then, both actors have sunk their teeth into other relationships.
Pattinson and singer FKA Twigs dated for three years until 2017 and a year later, he began seeing Suki Waterhouse. The couple welcomed a baby girl in 2024.
Meanwhile, Stewart went on to date several women—
including Alicia Cargile, St. Vincent and Stella Maxwell—before marrying Dylan Meyer in 2025.
As for Sanders, he and his then-wife, model Liberty Ross, divorced after 10 years and two kids in the aftermath of the scandal.
Jennifer Garner & Ben Affleck
The Elektra actress and the Argo star announced that they were ending their 10-year marriage in June 2015. A month after the news, allegations that Affleck had an affair with their children’s nanny surfaced, prompting the Oscar winner to publicly deny the claims.
Garner later clarified that she and Affleck broke up long before the rumors, telling Vanity Fair in 2016, “We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny. She had nothing to do with our decision to divorce.”
The Alias alum and the Oscar winner divorced in 2018 and continue to co-parent their three kids: Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.
In 2021, Affleck rekindled his ’00s relationship with Jennifer Lopez and the two wed the following year. They split in 2024.
Meanwhile, Garner has been dating businessman John Miller on-and-off since 2018.
Gleb Savchenko & Elena Samodanova
Shortly after announcing their split in November 2020, Samodanova accused her then-estranged husband Savchenko of cheating on her. Fans have speculated that Savchenko and his Dancing With the Stars partner Chrishell Stause were more than just friends, an allegation that both the dancer and the Selling Sunset star denied.
At the time, Savchenko responded to his wife’s claims with a statement, saying, “My relationship with Chrishell was and remains strictly platonic. Our friendship during our season on DWTS was not the reason for our split. Elena and I have had longstanding issues in our marriage. This has been an ongoing situation between Elena and I paired with poor timing.”
Savchenko and Samodanova—who share daughters Olivia and Zlata—finalized their divorce in October 2021.
Adam Levine & Behati Prinsloo
In September 2022, Instagram model Sumner Stroh went public with claims that she had a year-long affair with the Maroon 5 singer and that he was trying to name his soon-to-arrive third child after her. Levine denied having an affair, but admitted to using “poor judgment” adding that he “crossed the line during a regrettable period of my life.”
In the wake of the allegations, Prinsloo stood by her man, with a source close to the couple telling E! News that the Victoria’s Secret Angel is “upset but she does believe him that there was no physical affair.”
The couple stayed together andwent on to welcome a son, whose name has not been revealed.
Jesse James & Sandra Bullock
To the shock of many who witnessed her 2009 Academy Award speech dedicated to the West Coast Choppers founder, Bullock filed for divorce months later after James allegedly participated in an 11-month affair with a tattoo model. At the time, James and Bullock were simultaneously in the process of adopting a child, a boy named Louis.
Since then, the Miss Congeniality star adopted a daughter she named Laila and began a romance with photographer Bryan Randall. He died in 2023 at age 57 after battling ALS.
James married Bonnie Rotten in 2022 and the two welcomed a son the following year. Rotten filed for divorce in 2024, but later requested to have her petition be dismissed.
Nick Young & Iggy Azalea
Even after the couple decided to tough things out amid allegations that the NBA star cheated on the rapper, Azalea eventually called off their engagement in 2016 and admitted to catching Young on security camera footage with other women.
Since then, Young moved on, welcoming three kids with fiancée Keonna Green.
As for Azalea? She, too, became a parent. The “Fancy” hitmaker gave birth to son Onyx with Playboi Carti in 2020.
Jude Law & Sienna Miller
In 2005, Law publicly apologized to Miller after news broke that he had cheated with his children’s caretaker. The pair split the following year, but rekindled their romance in 2009 only to separate again in 2011.
The actor has since gone on to father more children (he has seven total) with different women.
Miller got engaged to Tom Sturridge and welcomed daughter Marlowe with him in 2012. However, the couple split 2015.
The actress went on to welcome another daughter with Oli Green in 2024.
Maria Shriver & Arnold Schwarzenegger
In 2011, fans of the longtime couple were shocked to hear that the actor-turned-California governor confessed to fathering a son, Joseph Baena, with the family housekeeper while still married to Shriver. The journalist filed for divorce months after the scandal broke, and a judge signed off on the final judgement of their separation in 2021.
Despite their split, Schwarzenegger and Shriver have maintained friendly relations and their son Patrick Schwarzenegger has even formed a friendship with Joseph.
Ime Udoka & Nia Long
Seven years into his engagement with the actress, Udoka was suspended from his role as head coach of the Boston Celtics for the 2022-2023 season after ESPN, citing multiple sources, reported that he had an “intimate relationship with a female member of the franchise’s staff.”
In response, Udoka took responsibility for his actions and said in a statement, “I want to apologize to our players, fans, the entire Celtics organization, and my family for letting them down. I am sorry for putting the team in this difficult situation, and I accept the team’s decision.”
The pair split in December 2022.
Hank Baskett & Kendra Wilkinson
The former Playboy playmate has said her husband’s “naïve and gullible” nature led to an alleged cheating scandal in 2014. Though the pair initially tried to move on from it, Wilkinson—who shares son Hank and daughter Alijah with Baskett—filed for divorce in 2018. Their separation was legally finalized a year later.
Elin Nordegren & Tiger Woods
Following years as the golf world’s biggest star, Woods’ personal life came to a screeching halt in 2009 when he confessed to cheating on his wife and mother of his two children with multiple women. He later sought treatment for sex addiction, his marriage to the Swedish model dissolved.
Woods went on to date pro skier Lindsey Vonn for three years before their split in 2015. He was linked to Erica Herman before striking up a relationship with Vanessa Trump.
As for Nordegren, she welcomed a son with NFL star Jordan Cameron in 2019.
Fergie & Josh Duhamel
Only nine months into their marriage, the actor faced allegations he had cheated on the Black Eyed Peas singer. Duhamel called the reported one-night stands “absolutely ridiculous” and Fergie admitted to Oprah Winfrey in a 2013 interview that the setback only made their relationship stronger. The Hollywood couple, parents to son Axl, ultimately split in 2017 after 8 years of marriage.
Duhamel went on to date actress Eiza González before tying the knot with Audra Mari in 2022.
Brandi Glanville & Eddie Cibrian
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star split from her husband of nine years and the father of their two children in 2009, after he had an affair with singer Leann Rimes on the set of the Lifetime movie Northern Lights.
Though Glanville spent years feuding with her ex and his now-wife, the drama between them has since seemingly subsided. As Glanville explained in 2021, “I think we both grew up a lot because obviously, it was a decade of fighting.”
Ned Fulmer & Ariel Fulmer
Ned, an original member of The Try Guys, parted ways from the popular YouTube comedy group in September 2022 amid rumors that he had cheated on his wife Ariel with someone from his workplace. In a statement released shortly after his departure, the content creator admitted to having a “consensual workplace relationship” and issued an apology “for any pain that my action may have caused to the guys and the fans but most of all to Ariel.”
Ariel, who shares two young sons with Ned, shared in a statement of her own, “Nothing is more important to me and Ned than our family and all we request right now is that you respect our privacy for the sake of our kids.”
As of 2025, the couple are still together.
Tori Spelling & Dean McDermott
Fans of True Tori know the couple’s roller coaster romance was brought to a head when her husband cheated on her in 2013 while working in Canada. Though the couple, who share five children together, initially moved past the scandal, they split in 2023.
Christie Brinkley & Peter Cook
Amid divorce proceedings and a custody battle over their children, Cook admitted to having an affair with his 18-year-old assistant. His divorce with Brinkley was finalized in 2008 after a contentious two-year legal battle.
Brinkley went on to date John Mellencamp, but split with the singer in 2016 after one year together.
As for Cook, he found himself in another cheating scandal in 2014 when his second wife, Suzanne Shaw, accused him of being a serial cheater and issued an apology to Brinkley for not heeding her advice. Cook and Shaw divorced, and the architect married Alba Jancou in 2023.
Bill Clinton & Hilary Clinton
A year-long “improper physical relationship” between the former U.S. President and White House intern Monica Lewinsky nearly cost him his presidency. Hillary remained by her husband’s side throughout the media firestorm that ensued and ran for U.S. President herself in 2016.
David Letterman & Regina Lasko
In 2009, the Late Show host revealed someone was threatening to blackmail him with information that would’ve revealed his many extramarital relations with female employees on his show. Letterman confirmed the allegations, and issued an apology to his longtime partner and staff. Letterman and Lasko have remained together, and have one son.
Ramona Singer & Mario Singer
After 20 years of marriage, the Real Housewives of New York cast member said goodbye after she caught her husband cheating on her. The reality TV star then turned lemons into pinot grigio, launching her own line of wine and getting involved with AOA Restaurant in the Big Apple.
