Jennie Garth Reveals Trauma from Divorce, Miscarriages and Body Issues: How She Got Sober and Finally Found Peace (Exclusive)

Gillian TellingWed, April 8, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

3

Jennie Garth Reveals Trauma from Divorce, Miscarriages and Body Issues: How She Got Sober and Finally Found Peace (Exclusive) -

Jennie Garth is sharing stories about her second act with the I Choose Me movement in a new memoir, and PEOPLE cover story

The 90210 star reveals depression and a stint at rehab after her divorce from ex Peter Facinelli

She also says the fame from 90210 was so stressful, it caused her to retreat into herself and live an isolating existence

In May of 1995, Jennie Garth’s Beverly Hills 90210 character Kelly Taylor was facing a conundrum: both Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) and Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley), the hottest guys at West Beverly Hills High, were demanding she decide between them.

“I choose me,” her character told them, walking away from both.

“At that age, I didn’t really get it,” Garth, 54, tells PEOPLE of the feminist sentiment with a laugh.

But now Garth, who in the decades after the show ended endured a painful divorce, miscarriages and mental health struggles, finally gets it.

After she turned 50, she says, “The phrase just came back to me and it started to really resonate." Garth, who has since found sobriety, confidence and a new sense of purpose is leaning into the “I Choose Me” movement with a podcast and her new memoir, I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose, and Embracing Reinvention, out April 14 from Park Row, an imprint of Harper Collins.

“Even though it took a while, I’m finally at a place comfortable choosing myself,” she says.

Jennie Garth on the cover of PEOPLECredit: Denise Crew

If it seems unlikely that someone like Garth would spend most of her life struggling with self-worth and imposter syndrome, she explains that — unlike Kelly Taylor — she didn’t grow up anywhere near Beverly Hills and certainly had no inkling that she’d one day become one the most famous teens on the planet when she was cast on 90210.

“It was like being in The Beatles,” she says. “There was no preparation for it. It was scary and unknown for all of us, and it was like sink or swim, just survive and figure it out as you go. It was major on-the-job training.”

She struggled with intense anxiety from the constant exposure, and did everything she could to protect her privacy.

The cast of Beverly Hills, 90210Credit: Getty

“I really did a good job, to the point where I walked around not making eye contact with people, not wanting anybody to know anything about my life,” she says. “That led me into a very isolated existence.”

Advertisement

She also didn’t feel worthy of the hype. “I’m my own worst critic,” she says. In the book, she writes of the pressure to be skinny and beautiful, leading her to restrict calories and get breast implants. “I was so hard on myself,” she says.

“I spent a good amount of years being hurt, sad, just tormented by it, and it eked out into all aspects of my life,” Garth says of life after divorce.

Garth was even harder on herself after her marriage to actor Peter Facinelli fell apart in 2012, after 17 years and three daughters together. At her lowest, she writes of drinking and taking pills one night, to the point of needing her stomach pumped, and she spent time at Canyon Ranch rehab center afterward, to learn how to stop self-medicating in harmful ways. It didn't erase the sting of rejection, however.

“I noticed my light really dimming. I wasn’t putting off good vibes. I could see it in the mirror. I could look at the negative impact that that kind of grief and anger was having on me. And there was a weird switch where one day I just said, ‘I don’t want to carry this anymore. It’s impacting my relationships and how I feel about myself. I’ve got to let it go. I’ve got to forgive him.’"

Jennie Garth and ex-husband Peter Facinelli with their daughters in 2010Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Now the two are friendly coparents, and Garth is living a harmonious and sober life in Southern California with her new husband, actor Dave Abrams — although the two also went through a rough patch and separated for almost a year after the pressures of IVF and subsequent miscarriages left them both depleted.

Jennie Garth for PEOPLECredit: Denise Crew

Garth, who found out Abrams was filing for divorce from TMZ in 2018 (they reconciled in 2019), says the time apart taught her a lot about communication and trusting your partner’s word. “I really wanted to give Dave a baby because he was young and all of his friends were having kids and I just thought that’s what he needed,” she says.

“It all comes down to people-pleasing,” she says. “Once you really get to the core of what you want for your life? That’s when everything seems to get easier."

— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Jennie Garth's new book 'I Choose Me'Credit: HarperCollins

Take PEOPLE with you! Subscribe to PEOPLE magazine to get the latest details on celebrity news, exclusive royal updates, how-it-happened true crime stories and more — right to your mailbox.

Jennie Garth's new memoir I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose, and Embracing Reinvention, will hit shelves on April 14 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”