A christian influencer has revealed the moment that she realised her husband was having an affair.
Jen Hatmaker had been a prominent christian influencer, including founding a church with her husband at the time.
The pair were married for some 26 years, but the marriage came crashing down when Jen made a shocking discovery.
Discovering that your spouse is cheating on you, especially after so long, is a horrible thing to have to endure, but the manner in which she found out only made it even more shocking.
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There are a lot of ways that you might make that gut-wrenching discovery - a text, someone being absent, or even the cliché of lipstick on the collar.
For Jen, however, it was as they were literally lying in bed next to each other that she overheard her husband on the phone to another woman.
It was 2.30am on July 11, 2020, and Jen was woken to the sound of her husband Brandon whispering.
Before he fell asleep smelling of alcohol, she heard him murmur: 'I just can't quit you'.
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Jen recalled the moment feeling like 'the end of my life as I [knew] it'.
The next four hours saw her going through his computer looking for any trace of the affair (which we do not advise).
And while she does not reveal the full details of what she found in her new book Awake, she said that the affair had been going on for a long time.
Not only that, but her now ex-husband had showered his mistress with expensive gifts to the point that it caused the family financial problems.
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Speaking to the New York Post, she recalled: “To some degree, I almost disassociated. It was so outside the realm of what I would have ever considered a possibility for our life, our marriage, our story.”
She added: “It was so shocking and stunning, and I almost could not process it. I couldn’t even cry.”
After seeing all that she needed to, Jen kicked him out the following morning, and the pair have since separated.
Jen married Brandon, who had been studying to become a pastor, when she was 19.
The pair would go on to start their own evangelical, Austin New Church.
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"I have said over and over, my story is not special," she said.
"Divorce is not special, a male sort-of-middle-aged falling-apart story is not original. Nothing here is that interesting.
"And that, I think, is what makes this story important."
Topics: News, US News, Sex and Relationships
Kit Roberts