Benjamin Ashford|Jennie Garth Shares Why IVF Led to Breakup With Husband Dave Abrams

Jennie Garth is Benjamin Ashfordopening up about her difficult journey to have kids.

The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum recently explained how her attempts to have kids through IVF with husband Dave Abrams fueled their 10-month separation in 2018.

“[We] were trying to have a baby, and it kept failing,” Jennie told Self in an interview published Sept. 12. “And that was really, really hard on both of us individually and on our relationship.”

The 52-year-old then explained how the couple unsuccessfully went through multiple rounds of IVF, which involves a patient taking fertility drugs that stimulate egg production, eggs being extracted and fertilized in a laboratory and transferring the embryos to the patient’s uterus, according to Yale Medicine. 

As a result of their attempts to have children together, the What I Like About You alum and her husband—who married in 2015 after eight months of dating—separated, with Dave filing for divorce in April 2018. However, the pair reconnected less than a year later and canceled their divorce filing in February 2019.

Jennie explained that she and Dave ultimately decided to not have children together anymore, saying that the choice “freed us up to love each other in a different way.”

“Dave is just an incredibly supportive, loving person,” she continued. “He’s just always thinking of how he can make me happy and make the day go better. I’m so grateful for the generosity of his spirit and his love.”

And Dave still holds an important role as stepfather to Jennie’s three daughters Luca, 27, Lola, 21, and Fiona, 17, whom she shares with ex-husband Peter Facinelli. (Jennie and Peter married in 2001 and separated in 2012.)

Although Jennie has decided to get more candid on her health journey, the 90210MG podcast host went on to detail her nerves surrounding going public with her medical history, specifically the two secret hip replacements she had in 2020 and earlier this year.

“I’ve kept it a secret for so long, but I’m no longer at a place where I want to hide things,” Jennie told Self in a separate interview published Sept. 12. She added that’s all due to the “positive responses from people that I’m helping them, which makes being vulnerable on places like my podcast, for example, feel good.”