Photo: Maya Dehlin/Disney
After five seasons of documented relationship problems on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (make it six if you’re counting Dancing with the stars), Jen Affleck divorces her husband, Zac Affleck. Jen filed for separation just a week before the premiere of her new show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange Land, available on Hulu now. Throughout their time on television, Jen and Zac have had their share of on-screen fights, from her appearance on a Chippendales show in season one to debating whether to return to their LDS church in season five. Their relationship was so volatile that Jen’s fellow cast members intervened to get her to break up with Zac, appalled by how he casually threatened her with divorce. Fans felt Zac was holding Jen back from her full potential Dancing with the starscomparing her to Whitney Leavitt, who had the unconditional support of her husband, Conner Leavitt. Zac said during the fourth season that he felt Jen “being a wife took a backseat” to his career as he juggled being a stay-at-home parent in Los Angeles. At the end of each season, the couple managed to stay together and promised to resolve their marital problems. But, with a new show and a new baby on the way (earlier this year, Jen shared that she was pregnant with their fourth child), Jen is seemingly done and is even documenting the final straw in their relationship on SLOMW: OC.
Note: Mild spoilers ahead for the first season of SLOMW: OC.
It is revealed that Jen has been planning her divorce from Zac all summer. She says this to fellow castmate Aspyn Ovard in the first 15 minutes of the first episode. Throughout the following episodes, Jen wonders how to move forward with the divorce and if it’s the right decision for her. “I was thinking a lot about what other people wanted for me, my community, my family, Zac, being Mormon,” she says in an episode three confessional. “There is a lot of judgment behind divorce in the Church.” (Zac does not make an appearance in the series.)
When Jen visits her parents and sister in Utah to tell them she’s getting divorced, they try to talk her out of it. She says she’s been “unhappy throughout her marriage” to Zac and that he hasn’t “changed his behavior when it comes to finances” – Jen has previously alluded to gambling problems with Zac. Jen’s sister tells her to “not focus on money” because getting divorced would simply be trading “problems for other problems.” His mother thinks that if he doesn’t cheat, they should stay together. Jen later told Bobbi Althoff, another OC Castmate, that he received paperwork over unpaid fees on their Arizona rental and that he spent over $100,000 on crypto and sports betting without his knowledge. It wasn’t the first time this happened. In previous seasons, Jen said Zac lost her medical school tuition, but then told the other women she lied; now it seems like she was just covering for him. Zac didn’t tell her because she was already talking about separation from him, but the financial betrayal felt like the final nail in the coffin of their marriage. On the show, she eventually asks him to move out and meets with a divorce lawyer to go over her filing options.
Before the show’s release, Zac posted a statement on TikTok, clarifying that Jen filed for divorce shortly after. DWTS ended in November 2025. He says he will continue to be her biggest fan and says reality shows destroy families. Jen responded by sharing a video of him making fun of her appearance way before Mormon wives broadcast. She’s learned a thing or two over her years on reality TV: always keep the receipts.
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