Jennie Garth Opens Up About Marriages, Family Life & How Podcast Is Her Safe Space in Trying Times

Jennie Garth is parlaying the success of her iHeartPodcast  “I Choose Me”  into a full on brand complete with the launch of a clothing line, plans for a star-studded live event, and more. The Beverly Hills, 90210 icon looks at turning it into a movement by bringing her self-care and self-love message to the masses. 

“I Choose Me” were the words spoken to by Garth as Kelly Taylor in the midst of a love triangle with Brandon and Dylan. The What I Like About You star took those words to heart as a mantra for female independence. One that she has used her many platforms to share. Garth has been open about many aspects life, whether it’s three times or embracing what comes with aging. 

Here the 52-year-old, who has three daughters she shares with ex-husband Peter Facinelli (Luca, 27, Lola, 22, and Fiona, 18), sits down to talk about family life, and how her podcast provides an emotional outlet for healing and coping with tough times including the loss of Shannen Doherty.

You’ve been so open about your life through the podcast and health struggles. Most recently it was your hip replacement surgeries. I think we as a society look at celebrities differently than we did before. Would you say on the positive side of things, social media and your podcast helps break down that wall a bit. 

I feel like there was a long period of my life I was really private and didn’t want to talk about anything to anybody. Now through social media and the community I’ve built that has changed. Not just on my personal account, but also my podcast account, the community and hearing from them and hearing what they want to talk about and what they want to hear. They really do respond to being authentic to who I am. So it felt right to share personal stories like that. Also, I’ve gotten such huge responses saying, “I just got my hip replaced.” Or they tell me they are scheduled to get their hip replaced. 

So many people are in the same situation and hear that a person such as myself has been through it. I’m there to guide them or comfort them or talk to them about my experience. I think it’s kind of a win-win for everybody. It feels good for me to share my truth and to be authentic. It’s good for other people who are part of the community to know they are not alone. To show they can relate, even to a celebrity. I’m just a normal person. All celebrities are just normal people. Our job has just put us in some weirdly different categories. 

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The podcast has been this safe space for you to really open up. Whether it’s about your relationships, inner thoughts, and even loss. I remember listening last year to your grief episode after Shannen passed away. You were in real time working through that. How do you feel this podcast has helped you get through these tough moments? 

It’s a great platform and opportunity to say what I want to say and say it myself. Instead of things getting lifted or taken out of context. I think the podcast medium for me is so beneficial because it’s an intimate conversation between two, maybe three people. We talk as if we’re sitting in my living room just having the conversation and people get to just listen and be privy to that and hear the realness of that conversation. I think people love that. I know the grief episode I had to do that. I had to work through that. 

I chose to share it because there are so many people who are grieving, not just the loss of Shannen, but anyone in their lives. I think grief is something we don’t know a lot about. Just being able to shed a light on that is great for me. There was an episode with my ex-husband [Peter Facinelli], and we sat down and didn’t really end up knowing what we were going to be talking about. We just opened up the mics, and we just started talking. I just thought, “Okay, we’re going to go there. We’re going to talk about real things.” It really did help our relationship to have some closure. At the same time, it opened up for what’s next in our relationship and communicating in a much different way now. There have been so many benefits, not just for me personally, but for people who have been on the podcast and people who are listening.

 

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Do you find having a younger husband [Dave Abrams, who is 43] helps bring that youthfulness for you?

I feel like he keeps us laughing. The thing about my husband is he is younger, but he is literally like an 80-year-old man trapped in a younger man’s body. 

How is it working with your daughters now that they are grown up?

They’ve always really appreciated my work as an actress. They think it’s thrilling that  their mom does that, but I think now my daughters are all young women. They are starting off into careers of their own. One is going off to college. I feel like they look up to me now more as an inspiration on how to take the wheel and be brave and take chances, even when it’s unknown. When they see me starting these businesses actively too and brands. I think, for them, that is more inspiring than probably anything I’ve ever done as an actress. 

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That side is entertaining and fun and they love it. But this is something that is real. Having my daughters work with me has been the most beautiful gift. They are young women and have their own points of view and objectives. They bring such fresh and exciting things to the table for me and for what we’re working on together. I have my daughter Luca  Bella, who is working with me on the “I Choose Me” live event, and I have my daughter Lola with me on the “Me, By Jennie Garth” brand for QVC. It has been really rewarding. I’m just so happy I have these three women in my life.