In their first joint interview since their divorce, Fastlane actor Peter Facinelli discussed his marriage to Jennie Garth, describing it as feeling “arranged.”
“We met and got together very quickly, and I thought, ‘Let’s move in together and see how it goes,’ and it just went,” Facinelli recounted during a June 2024 episode of Garth’s podcast, I Choose Me With Jennie Garth.
Facinelli continued, “After five years, I thought, ‘We should get married.’ So, we got married and had another kid. It was like an arranged marriage in a way, and things seemed fine. We had our differences, but we were really young.”
Facinelli admitted that he lacked a true sense of self and was “trying to be all these things for other people.”
“When that fell apart, it took time for me to reconnect with myself,” he explained.
Reiterating the “arranged” nature of their marriage, he added, “I loved you, and we had a beautiful family on the outside, but I hadn’t developed who I was. How could you love me? I didn’t know myself.”
The 13 Minutes actor revealed to Garth that he felt he didn’t have the “space” to find himself during their marriage.
“Given all of that, we did last a long time. I think it was because of the children,” Garth acknowledged.
Facinelli admitted, “If we didn’t have children, I wouldn’t have stayed. I needed the freedom to figure out who I am.”
During the same podcast, he expressed feeling torn about asking for a divorce, saying it “broke” his heart “to break up a family.”
“It’s one of those decisions where you never know if you’re making the right choice,” he reflected.
Facinelli’s thoughts echoed his comments on the Allison Interviews podcast, where he observed changes in their relationship before the split.
“Sometimes someone might say something hurtful. The other person might allow it, and then it becomes a habit,” he noted. “Bad behaviors can become routine, as you give the other person permission to speak to you in a certain way.”
Facinelli explained, “If someone talks to you in a certain way or does something, they feel they have permission because you didn’t say, ‘That hurt my feelings.’ You didn’t speak up. It becomes habitual, grows, and leads to resentment.”
