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

unPAUSED with Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Mary Claire Media, LLC

Medicine, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 ⁠"The New Menopause"⁠ by Dr. Mary Claire Haver For full show notes, please click here. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The lawyer in your office had said, well, I think it's dry vagina that's causing these divorces,
0:05.9	which obviously is an oversimplification of larger issue. I mean, issues of are these women
0:11.7	feeling supported by their partners when they're going through this change, when they're battling
0:17.5	the dry vagina or any of these symptoms of perimenopause and menopause? And I do think there's truth to that that they're battling the dry vagina or any of these symptoms of perimenopause and menopause.
0:22.0	And I do think there's truth to that, that there can be a moment where a woman over 50 says,
0:28.2	what am I doing this for when I don't feel supported and I don't feel loved and I don't feel
0:33.5	cared for enough and I don't feel valued and I don't feel cherished and I feel like I've been
0:37.6	doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing for everybody else. Why, why doesn't he care about me?
0:51.4	The views and opinions expressed on unpaused are those of the talent and guests alone and are provided for informational and entertainment purposes only.
1:00.1	No part of this podcast or any related materials are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
1:08.7	When I first started putting myself out there, before my books, before this podcast,
1:14.2	one of the very first interviews I ever did was with Jennifer Hut on her serious XM radio
1:19.3	call-in show, Just Jenny. I was so nervous. I had to call it the exact right minute because it was
1:25.1	live and I was pacing back and forth in my
1:27.7	bathroom, trying not to forget my own name. But Jenny made me feel calm and seen. She listened
1:33.7	as I told her what I believe doctors weren't telling women about menopause. She gave me a voice
1:38.8	when I was just starting out, and I'll never forget that. Over the years, I've been a guest
1:43.1	on her show, and I've watched
1:44.6	her evolve, always staying curious and honest about life, from grieving the loss of a parent
1:49.9	to transforming herself through healthy eating and exercise, and she's not afraid to tackle the messy
1:55.1	stuff. Now she's returning to her roots as a lawyer, specializing in family law and divorce
2:00.3	mediation. And I wanted to
	...

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