Midlife Divorce: The Facts, The Finances, and The Fallout with Jenny Hutt

Divorce rates for people over 50 have doubled since the 1990s, and women are initiating the majority of them. What's really driving this shift? In this episode of unPAUSED, Dr. Mary Claire Haver sits down with family law attorney and broadcaster Jenny Hutt to discuss the facts, finances, and fallout of midlife divorce.

Jenny Hutt is a family law attorney specializing in divorce and mediation in New York, and she spent two decades as a broadcaster on SiriusXM. She's one of Dr. Haver's earliest supporters, and she brings both personal experience and professional insight to this conversation about a controversial topic relating to women's health: the connection between menopause and divorce.

Dr. Haver and Jenny start with the facts: the statistics behind gray divorce, why women are initiating most of them, and what's really happening beyond the oversimplification of "dry vagina" causing divorces. They discuss feeling unsupported, undervalued, and reaching a breaking point after years of caregiving. They also dive into finances: what every woman should know about her money whether she's thinking about divorce or not, the three things to do if you're considering divorce, the difference between mediation and legal representation, how to protect inheritance, and the details around a postnuptial agreement. They also address the financial reality that women's household income drops 41% on average after divorce compared to 23% for men. Finally, they explore the fallout: the stress on the sandwich generation of caring for aging parents while raising children, how trauma strains marriages, rebuilding identity after a long marriage, the shame women feel, and why the other side of divorce can bring unexpected peace and freedom.

Guest links:

Jennifer Hutt

Just Jenny Podcast (Apple Podcasts)

Jennifer Koppleman Hutt (Wisselman Harounian Family Law)

Jenny Hutt (e-mail)

Jenny Hutt (Instagram)

Other Resources

U.S. Divorce Rates Down, Marriage Rates Stagnant From 2012-2022 (U.S. Census Bureau)

Women More Likely Than Men to Initiate Divorces, But Not Non-Marital Breakups (American Sociological Association)

Books
“The Galveston Diet: The Doctor-Developed, Patient-Proven Plan to Burn Fat and Tame Your Hormonal Symptoms,” by Dr. Mary Claire Haver

“The New Perimenopause,”⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver