Ahead of the release of her memoir, progressive Christian influencer Jen Hatmaker shared her story last week on “CBS Mornings.” In her debut appearance on the TV show, the bestselling author and former church leader answered questions about her highly anticipated book “Awake,” which comes out Sept. 23.
Despite the pain of her 2020 divorce, Hatmaker said her memoir is “not just a sad story.” Instead, the mother of five—who became a grandmother last month—told the co-hosts her story isn’t over and she’s “not broken.”
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Jen Hatmaker: ‘Men Who Leave Us’ Don’t Define Us
During her Sept. 17 appearance on “CBS Mornings,” author and podcaster Jen Hatmaker recalled the shock and pain of learning that Brandon Hatmaker, her husband of 26 years, was cheating on her. She described the chaos of trying to sort out what had been happening “outside of my purview.”
Hatmaker’s memoir opens in July 2020, when she awoke at 2:30 a.m. to hear Brandon, a pastor, whisper into his phone, “I just can’t quit you,” to another woman. Despite some warning signs, Hatmaker said in another interview, learning of the affair was “so outside the realm of what I would have ever considered a possibility for our life, our marriage, our story.”
When “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King asked how Hatmaker survived the trauma, the author praised her friends for providing strong support. “You’re still you,” one told her after the divorce. “This did not break you.”
Hatmaker, 51, also realized her life wasn’t over. “I wish this story [of divorce] was original,” the author told King. “I wish it was rare, but it’s not.”
About the large community of women she leads, Hatmaker said:
We’re all kind of right here in the middle of life. And I notice a lot of common themes right now, which is loss, change. Sometimes it’s marriage, like mine. But it’s also sometimes our health. Our bodies are being weird and changing, and our careers look different, and our roles as parents are changing. I think what I want women to know is no matter what you have lost, that is 100% not the end of your story. And for those of us who understand the story of betrayal and the loss of our marriage, I would just say none of us are defined by the men who leave us.
