Jen Affleck filed for divorce from her husband Zac on November 3 — one week before she leads The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange County — and now she is explaining why she did it while pregnant with their fourth child. In interviews during the spinoff’s press tour, Jen said she had known “for a really long time” and had to decide before giving birth. Zac, meanwhile, says he found out from a TMZ reporter.
The two accounts do not line up, and with the spinoff premiering Thursday, November 12, on Hulu, the split is now the story shadowing the show’s biggest week.
“I Knew I Needed to Make the Decision Now”
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight while doing press for Orange County, Jen said the timing was deliberate. “I’ve known for a really long time,” she said, “because I’m about to be postpartum, I knew that I needed to make the decision now, not being postpartum, because when you’re postpartum, it’s the most vulnerable stage. I was worried that if I waited, I would continue the cycle.”
She said rewatching the show made her realise she had “trained myself to forget” and “to survive.” Jen, 27, and Zac, 30, met on the Mormon dating app Mutual in 2018 and married in the summer of 2019. They have three children — Nora, 4, Luca, 3, and Penelope, 15 months — and Jen announced her fourth pregnancy in the summer of 2026.
Jen filed for divorce on November 3 in Utah’s Fourth Judicial District Court in Provo, submitting a proposed parenting plan alongside the petition. Court records reviewed by reporters do not list a reason for the divorce, and no custody terms have been made public.
Zac’s Side: He Learned It From TMZ
Jen also pushed back on the idea that Zac was blindsided. “He’s not blindsided,” she said. “I’ve been telling him for a really long time.”
YOU MAY LIKEMormon Wives: Orange County Premieres in 3 Days — Cast, How to Watch, and the Drama Already BrewingZac tells it differently. In TikTok videos posted after the filing, he said he learned about it from a TMZ reporter, and that Jen had told him after Dancing With the Stars that she wasn’t happy and wanted a divorce. He said he “begged her [to] stay” and apologised in a compilation video. Zac broke his silence days after the filing — and his version of events is almost the mirror image of hers.
Both accounts are on the record. Neither side has produced messages or documents that settle the question of what Zac knew and when, so fans are left weighing two people describing the same marriage in very different terms.
What the Spinoff Will — and Won’t — Show
One thing is settled: Zac did not film the Orange County spinoff at all, according to TMZ production sources. If the couple’s marital troubles are addressed on the show, viewers will hear about them from Jen, not Zac. The spinoff was filmed before the November 3 filing, so anything about the split on screen will be Jen talking to camera — not the breakup itself.
Jen has moved from Utah to Southern California and is in the Orange County cast, so the divorce will shadow the premiere rather than the Utah show. The spinoff premieres Thursday, November 12, with the full season dropping on Hulu — and Jen, pregnant and newly single, will be carrying it.
So tell us: after hearing both sides — Jen saying she told Zac for a long time, Zac saying he learned it from TMZ — whose account do you believe? And should a divorce filed days before a premiere be part of the show at all, or is this one storyline the cameras should leave alone?
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