Peter Facinelli still has love and respect for his ex-wife, Jennie Garth.
“She’s the mother of my kids and I love both Dave [Abrams] and Jennie. Our relationship has gotten to a really great place,” Facinelli, 51, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Wednesday, February 19, premiere of The Unbreakable Boy in New York City. “I think it’s important to have that friendship.”
He added, “I wish we got to that place sooner because when you’re coparenting with someone you’re not with, it can get frustrating and it can be hard and sometimes your ideologies might not line up. Being able to figure out how you navigate that together, it can be tricky.”
Facinelli and Garth, 52, were married from 2001 to 2012, during which they welcomed daughters Luca, now 27, Lola, now 21, and Fiona, now 18.
According to the Twilight star, he and Garth have recently “gotten to a really wonderful place” in their coparenting relationship.
“Communication is key, and now I look to her as a solid friend. That’s really nice to have,” Facinelli told Us, noting he didn’t hesitate to invite Garth and Abrams to stay with him amid evacuations during the Los Angeles wildfires last month. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, it didn’t even cross my mind not to help her.”
Facinelli and Garth were especially able to turn the corner in their post-divorce dynamic after he appeared on two episodes of her “I Choose Me” podcast in 2024.
“We had a lot of residue that we were holding onto. It just kind of felt like it was released, and it was really beautiful,” Facinelli said on Wednesday. “It was a healing episode for both of us. After that episode, we both felt this release, and we were able to come together — and that was really wonderful.”
Since his divorce from Garth, Facinelli has moved on with actress Lily Anne Harrison, and the engaged couple welcomed son Jack in September 2022.
“Every kid is different, so it’s not like, ‘Oh, I know exactly what I’m doing now.’ But I’ve found that this time around I’m really trying to hold onto every moment because I know how fast it goes,” Facinelli told Us. “Every moment that I have with him, even the hard ones, I appreciate that much more.”
Facinelli’s fatherhood journey — especially with 2-year-old Jack — inspired his role as Preacher Rick in The Unbreakable Boy. The film, also starring Zachary Levi, Jacob Laval, Meghann Fahy and Patricia Heaton, is about a young boy who has a rare brittle-bone disease and autism and hits theaters Friday, February 21.
With reporting by Andrew Nodell
