Episode Details

If you’re standing at the edge of a divorce right now, convinced the life waiting on the other side looks bleak and empty — this is the episode that turns the lights back on. Olivia Howell welcomes back author Betsy Cornwell, a New York Times bestselling novelist, memoirist, and divorced single mom who left an abusive marriage and rebuilt her entire life on the wild western coast of Ireland. Betsy has written six novels and the luminous new memoir Ring of Salt, which traces her journey from fleeing home with her infant son to crowdfunding and restoring a derelict knitting factory in Connemara into a sanctuary for herself and other single parents. But the line that stops you cold comes early in the conversation: “Divorce can be a portal to joy.” For a woman raised to believe divorce was a mortal sin, that sentence took years of unlearning — and now she offers it to anyone in the thick of the decision as both a lifeline and a promise that there is magic on the other side you simply cannot imagine from where you’re standing.

The heart of this episode is a story of radical reinvention. After leaving her marriage, Betsy was briefly homeless, navigating a housing crisis as a low-income, self-employed immigrant single mother who had all but given up the dream of owning a home. It was a survivors’ support group that lit the way — and out of that fragile hope, she crowdfunded a historic knitting factory and turned it into both a home for her and her son and a fully funded arts-and-rest residency for fellow single parents. Her advice for anyone navigating divorce is refreshingly concrete: find your people. Seek out others walking the same road, and reach out to a domestic abuse center even — especially — if you’ve never been physically hurt but sense that something in your relationship is off. You will be listened to, believed, and supported. Whether you’re newly separated, deep in the loneliness of starting over, or quietly wondering if you’re allowed to want more, this conversation is living proof that life after divorce can hold more joy than the life you’re leaving behind. Find your coven. Face the sun together.

🔗 Check out Fresh Starts Registry:

The first & only divorce registry + support platform ➡ https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freshstartsregistry/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshStartsRegistry

🎙 Podcast IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcehappenspod/

📬 Magazine: https://divorceguidemagazine.com/