In 2020, HGTV star Jen Hatmaker and ex-husband Brandon Hatmaker made headlines for their split, which came alongside accusations that he had been having an affair. Now, five years later, Jen has dove into the cheating allegations in her memoir, Awake, while Brandon has broken his silence on the scandal, admitting that he had been unfaithful to Jen in the “lowest moment” in his life.
In Awake — out September 23 — Jen recalled waking up at 2 a.m. in July 2020 to hear Brandon whispering on the phone with someone else.
“I just can’t quit you,” she heard him say before he fell asleep, according to The New York Post.
Jen described the moment as “the end of my life as I [knew] it.”
“To some degree, I almost disassociated,” she told the outlet. “It was so outside the realm of what I would have ever considered a possibility for our life, our marriage, our story.”
After going through Brandon’s computer and finding a “trail of betrayal,” Jen kicked Brandon out of their home, and their marriage ended after 26 years.
Brandon responded to Jen’s book in a September 22 post on his Substack, writing, “The lowest moment of my life was my very public affair five years ago. I caused so much pain, so much humiliation, and I brought so much confusion into the lives of many 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.”
Jen and Brandon tied the knot when she was 19 years old. They welcomed five kids together and later appeared on HGTV’s My Big Family Renovation.
Keep scrolling to learn more about Brandon and the cheating scandal:
Who Is Brandon Hatmaker?
Brandon was studying to be a pastor when he married Jen, and the former couple went on to found their own evangelical Austin New Church in Oklahoma in 2008. Brandon is also the founder of and CEO of The Legacy Collective, “a giving community focused on partnering, pioneering, and funding sustainable solutions to systemic social issues around the world,” according to Google Books. Additionally, he is the author of 2009’s Barefoot Church Primer, 2011’s Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture and 2016’s A Mile Wide: Trading a Shallow Religion for a Deeper Faith.
Jen Hatmaker Accused Brandon Hatmaker of Cheating
In Awake, Jen revealed that, after hearing Brandon’s mysterious phone call, she discovered that his affair had been going on for a “devastating time span.” Brandon even allegedly bought his girlfriend “expensive and lavish gifts” that put their family into “financial chaos.”
“It was so shocking and stunning, and I almost could not process it,” Jen told The Post. “I couldn’t even cry.”
She added, “There were a lot of unaccounted absences, 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.”
Brandon Hatmaker Addressed Jen Hatmaker’s Cheating Claims
Brandon shared how difficult it was to relive his past mistakes in his Substack post.
“While that was the lowest moment of my life, a very close second, is having to relive it today. Even harder, to watch others who I love, 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,” he wrote.
He continued, “With the release of Jen’s new book, it has stirred the pot quite a bit. Many of you are new to our story and hear the promotion, read the articles, and watch the interviews. I’ve noticed a handful of statements that have been thrown out there that tell only a piece of the story. Without context, there have been many things said that leave it up to the reader or listener to decide how to fill in the blanks.”
Branded added that he “didn’t just wake up one day and decide to have an affair. I didn’t fall out of love overnight. Our love was coming to a slow and painful ending. And I privately mourned the death of our marriage years before our divorce.”
“Let me be clear about something, I understand what it means to sit in the consequences of my actions. In no way do my circumstances excuse my actions,” he continued. “The purpose of this article is not to make excuses or rationalize anything, The purpose is to simply add context to a handful of areas where the vast majority, and nearly every new follower, is missing.”
Brandon also denied the insinuations that he didn’t fight for their marriage, detailing his solo visits to counseling for three years prior to his affair, and that Jen was the primary parental figure to their children, saying that he “will always parent where appropriate.”
Is Brandon Hatmaker Still a Pastor?
Brandon revealed via Substack that he “stepped down from church staff” in 2015.
“While I struggle today to find my place in it — I still love and have hope for church. In fact, if I have any shred of dignity that remains, it was that I had stepped down from church leadership literally years prior to my affair,” he explained. “Church leadership can be really hard. I always tried to teach with honesty, and integrity, and empathy. But after a really tough year leading, some difficult health issues, some horrific family issues, and a very traumatic experience where I was involved in an incident where a close friend died (where I felt at fault), I found myself teaching on stage one Sunday morning in 2017, feeling for the first time an absence of hope.”
Is Brandon Hatmaker Married?
After his marriage to Jen ended, Brandon moved on with a woman named Tina.
“From that moment [after our divorce] my focus was my kids and my future. Not long after that I met Tina. She may have saved my life. Not figuratively, but literally. That’s another story I hope to share one day. … It’s been assumed by some that Tina, my wife, was my affair partner. She was not,” he wrote in his Substack post.
Brandon praised Tina via Instagram in April 2025.
“Life’s pretty amazing right now, and I can’t help but feel grateful. I honestly couldn’t ask for a better partner — for today, for the wins ahead, and all the moments in between,” he captioned a photo of himself and his wife, tagging Tina’s account, which is set to private.