Replay: When the Life You Built Breaks Open w/Jen Hatmaker

Mar 26, 2026

Jen Hatmaker, bestselling author and podcaster known for blending humor and vulnerability, reflects on the night that split her life and the midlife reinvention that followed. She discusses public ruptures, identity shifts as an Enneagram Three with an Eight edge, letting go of control, and how therapy and embodiment helped her rebuild with honesty and intention.

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ANECDOTE

The Night That Split Her Life

Jen Hatmaker describes July 11, 2020 as her before-and-after date when her 26-year marriage ended and her life “cracked wide open.”
She frames that night waking to a phone call as the dividing moment that forced rebuilding of identity, career, and family roles.

INSIGHT

Losing Control Enabled Calm Release

Jen realized before her book launch she no longer felt grabby about optics and outcomes, signaling growth beyond typical Enneagram Three impulses.
After losing much publicly, she felt relieved to release micromanaging expectations and trust the work itself.

INSIGHT

Rebuilding Publicly Became Her Vocation

Jen links courage to rebuild publicly with a stubborn insistence to find goodness after loss rather than resigning to misery.
Her history of public leadership made her choose visible rebuilding as a meaningful vocation, not just personal recovery.

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What happens when the life you built—carefully, faithfully, and very publicly—splits down the middle in a single night?

This week on Typology, we're revisiting one of the most powerful conversations we've had on the show—a replay of my interview with bestselling author and cultural truth-teller Jen Hatmaker.

Jen, an Enneagram Three with a courageous edge that sometimes looks a lot like an Eight, joined me to talk about her memoir Awake and the "before-and-after date" that changed everything—July 11, 2020— when her 26-year marriage ended and the life she knew cracked wide open.

In this conversation, we explore what it means to wake up in midlife:

to grief and betrayal,
to shedding scripts you never consciously chose,
to loosening your grip on approval,
and to discovering what actually matters in the second half of life.

We also dig into how Threes navigate identity, success, and failure—especially when life refuses to follow the plan. Jen shares how therapy, embodiment work, and radical honesty helped her rebuild—not for optics, but for something sturdier and truer.

If you're in a season of change—or if life has recently pulled the rug out from under you—this episode still hits with the same quiet force. Think of it as a hand on your shoulder and a light for the next few steps.

ABOUT JEN HATMAKER

Jen Hatmaker is a bestselling author, award-winning podcaster, speaker, and fierce advocate for women living in freedom and agency. With 14 books—including four New York Times bestsellers—along with her beloved For the Love podcast, Jen Hatmaker Book Club, and more, she reaches millions with her signature mix of humor, vulnerability, and wisdom. Her newest book, AWAKE: A Memoir, (released on September 23, 2025), chronicles her raw, real-time journey through the shocking end of her 26-year marriage and surprising reinvention. She lives in a creaky old farmhouse, loves 90s country, and drinks Almond Joy creamer like it's a personality trait. Find her at JenHatmaker.com.