Christina Haack Shares Divorce Wisdom with HGTV’s Jen and Brandon Hatmaker
Christina Haack, who has weathered three public divorces, recently offered heartfelt advice to fellow HGTV personalities Jen and Brandon Hatmaker as they navigate their own highly publicized split. Speaking exclusively with Us Weekly while promoting her new champagne brand Clé Cachée, Haack emphasized the importance of maintaining privacy during relationship turmoil. “My publicist and best friend taught me that you have to ignore it,” she revealed, explaining that engaging with public speculation only prolongs the pain. Her guidance was simple but powerful: “If you buy into it, no matter how much you’re hurting, no matter how much you want your story out there, it’ll never end.” Instead, she recommends relying on a close-knit support system and avoiding Google searches and comment sections—hard-earned wisdom from someone who understands the challenges of having personal heartbreak become headline news. Haack expressed genuine empathy for the Hatmakers, acknowledging how difficult it is “to go through that publicly.”
The Hatmakers’ relationship initially captured public attention when their HGTV series “My Big Family Renovation” premiered in 2014. Though the show ran for just two seasons, viewers formed a connection with Jen, Brandon, and their five children—three biological and two adopted. The couple, who had founded Austin New Church together in 2008, shocked fans when they announced their separation in 2020 after 26 years of marriage. The full story remained largely private until recently, when Jen released her memoir “Awake,” which contained allegations that dramatically shifted public understanding of their divorce. In the book, Jen describes a devastating moment in July 2020 when she discovered Brandon was having an affair after overhearing a late-night phone call with another woman. “To some degree, I almost disassociated,” she told The New York Post, describing the revelation as “so outside the realm of what I would have ever considered a possibility for our life, our marriage, our story.” According to her account, further investigation revealed multiple affairs over a “devastating time span,” with warning signs she had previously overlooked, including unexplained absences and Brandon’s protective behavior with his phone.
Brandon has since responded to these allegations, offering his perspective on the dissolution of their marriage. In a lengthy statement published on Substack, he acknowledged his infidelity without excusing it: “There are no excuses. But I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to have an affair. I didn’t fall out of love overnight.” He described their relationship as “coming to a slow and painful ending,” saying he had “privately mourned the death of our marriage years before our divorce.” Brandon portrayed himself as having been emotionally adrift during this period, stating he “lost his anchor, felt no hope and was the loneliest he’d ever been” when the infidelity occurred. While accepting responsibility for his actions, he emphasized his efforts toward personal growth: “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.” In a subsequent post, Brandon indicated his desire to move forward, writing, “It’s time to close that chapter,” and declining to further address the details of their past relationship.
Despite the recent public rehashing of their breakup, both Jen and Brandon have established new relationships in the years since their separation. Brandon is now married to Tina Hatmaker, while Jen has been dating Tyler Merritt since 2021. Their journey mirrors aspects of Haack’s own experience with public divorces, which began with her split from Tarek El Moussa in 2016 after seven years of marriage. The former couple, who share daughter Taylor (15) and son Brayden (10), maintain a professional relationship as costars on HGTV’s “The Flip Off,” alongside Tarek’s current wife, Heather Rae El Moussa. Haack’s second marriage to Ant Anstead lasted from December 2018 to September 2020, producing son Hudson, now 6. Her third marriage to Joshua Hall ended in July 2024 after three years together, with their divorce finalized in May. Haack has since found new romance with Christopher LaRocca and appears to be embracing a more positive chapter in her life.
This fresh start includes the launch of Haack’s champagne brand, Clé Cachée, which reflects her personal philosophy of manifesting positivity and celebrating life’s potential. The brand name, which translates to “hidden key” in French, symbolizes discovering one’s hidden potential from within. Haack took a hands-on approach to creating her champagne, traveling to France to personally select the region, grapes, and taste profile. She proudly describes the result as the “perfect” bottle—a Blanc de Blancs from the prestigious Grand Cru region with naturally sweet characteristics and a very low sugar content “less than five grams for the whole bottle. So basically, one Starburst.” The premium champagne, priced at $100 per bottle, reportedly offers a unique benefit according to Haack: unlike most champagnes, it leaves you with “no hangover.”
Haack’s journey from reality TV star to champagne entrepreneur exemplifies her resilience and ability to transform personal challenges into new opportunities. By sharing her hard-won wisdom about navigating public divorces with the Hatmakers, she demonstrates how those who have experienced similar struggles can support one another. As both Haack and the Hatmakers move forward with new relationships and endeavors, their stories highlight the complexities of maintaining and ending relationships in the public eye, while also showing that healing and new beginnings are possible even after painful endings. For fans interested in learning more about Haack’s champagne venture, information is available on the official Clé Cachée website, where they can explore this latest chapter in her evolving story of personal and professional reinvention.
