Jennie Garth is reflecting on her ex-husband Peter Facinelli stepping in to give her, husband Dave Abrams and their daughters a place to stay amid in the ongoing Los Angeles fires this week.
Garth and Abrams spoke with each other during a the Jan. 10 episode of her I Choose Me podcast, as the looked back at all that went down during what they called a difficult “start to 2025.”
“We thought this was gonna be a great year. We were going in strong and so excited for what was to come, and then this just came out of nowhere,” Garth, 52, said on the podcast.
As previously reported, Garth shared an emotional Instagram video on Jan. 9, recounting her experience in the fires and thanking Facinelli — whom she was married to from 2001 to 2013 — for letting them stay over.
She was joined by Abrams, her dogs and the daughters she shares with Facinelli — Luca, 27, Lola, 22, and Fiona, 18.
As Abrams recalled in Garth’s podcast, the couple was preparing for “extreme winds” after hearing about them on the news on Monday, before things took a turn the following day. After seeing a chair fly outside on Tuesday, Abrams looked up and spotted a fire — which ended up being the Eaton Canyon blaze about five miles from their home.
The couple revealed that they felt “more secure” knowing that Garth’s three daughters were with them under the same roof. Still, after recounting wind gusts of around 80 miles per hour, the pair said that they later started smelling smoke and “all made the decision to call Peter” and go to his home.
“I made a decision to stay back and stay the night here because we do have a sick dog. She’s 14. We didn’t wanna move her,” Abrams said. “So you and the girls, you all drove separate, and you went to Peter’s.”
While the family was staying with Facinelli, Abrams set alarms for every two hours to check on them as he stayed home. Around 6:30 a.m. the following morning, he got a message from a friend and prepared for a “full-blown evacuation” of the house.
“That morning was a blur, just trying to get everything situated and get everything out and get to you while also, you know, it’s surreal thinking that you’re not gonna see your place ever again,” he said.
On Wednesday, Abrams was “back at Peter’s” with his family, an experience they recalled as being positive. “I’d all gotten settled in. We all had a family dinner together, which was really nice,” he said. “I mean, we had all never done that before … we ordered Chinese food. It was enjoyable. And then for that brief moment, we were not thinking about [it].”
Garth said the family “hunkered down, watched the news together and ate together” during their stay at Facinelli’s, as Abrams revealed they were “grateful to be in his place” as they stayed at guest house in the back. Eventually, they returned to their home to collect more items — with Garth “ripping pictures off the walls” at one point.
“When we had Peter on the podcast and we really opened up some new channels of communication and, you know, sort of had a kind of restart to what our relationship should be,” Garth said.
“I think that was amazing, and that probably was the opening, the door opening for us to be comfortable enough to even ask him, ‘Can we come and stay at your house?’ And without hesitation, he was like, ‘Absolutely.’ And we went there and all our family was together. The girls — Luca, Lola and Fiona — were there.”
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Ultimately, the family’s home survived, although Garth said she feels “terrible” for those who’ve lost homes, jobs and more in the fires. She also explained her decision to postpone a live podcast event, and said on her latest episode that the family is “just so grateful for everything.”
“We’re grateful to have a home and, be together as a family,” she said. “I think that, for everybody listening, it’s important that you are prepared in any kind of disaster situation. Have your to-go bag packed with things that you might need.”
Click here to learn more about how to help the victims of the L.A. fires.
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