Jen posted. It’s “Jen and Dave”-focused as predicted above. And it mentions his “family” as a whole, but not Rachel (who’s an ex, so that’s not odd or inappropriate to omit her — but if Jen and Rachel were still close, it would have made sense to say something to the effect of “holding my dear friend Rachel in deepest thoughts and care as she figures out how to love their beautiful children through grieving their father’s death. Divorce is complicated on many levels, but there are shared memories and experiences and responsibilities and human-children that always connect people — even in loss — or maybe especially in loss.”

Anonymous wrote:i believe it was posted somewhere that someone found or discovered him in his home. i doubt he was "resting at home." quite sure the death was a surprise.

not sure what "you know what" is, but most death announcements do not reveal the cause of death, especially if it was caused by "you know what," whether that is drugs, alcohol, suicide, steroids or choking in a sandwich.

So true, and Dave had been in rehab last year related to alcohol. I'm not suggesting anything nefarious, just noting he apparently had heart issues along with this. Still, he was so young and it's very sad and I feel for his family, especially the kids.

The two couples were buddy buddy once upon a time. Traveled together and endorsed each other. Similar platforms of “semi-faith based” marriage and family life with working moms at the center. Divorces happened roughly about the same time and seemingly for similar reasons, except Rachel was rumored to be the Hollis cheater. Dave and Jen would later allude on social media to their shared experiences and how they loved talking to each other about all the details and opinions they couldn’t share publicly. Not sure if Brandon kept in touch with Rachel or Dave at all, but Rachel and Jen seemed to be done with public acknowledgment of each other. That likely makes it tricky for Jen now in figuring out how to respond to Dave’s death.

Can someone please explain the Hollis story to me in a nutshell? I’m only vaguely familiar with them

Why exactly did Jen and Rachel go south? Because up until the respective Hollis and Hatmaker divorces, they were pretty BFF-ish.

What will be interesting is Jen’s involvement (or not) with any potential funeral held for Dave. It wouldn’t be shocking if Rachel didn’t want Jen to come at all, but it also wouldn’t be shocking if Rachel wanted Jen to provide a eulogy. PR pros and cons with both.

Anonymous wrote:https://youtu.be/p8JQNY2U8bM

Not much new/interesting here other than I didn’t know Rachel Hollis had dedicated “Girl Wash Your Face” to Jen! That might be more cringe in retrospect than Jen dedicating her cookbook to Tyler.

Attention won’t be “off herself” .. ever. It will just be about “her and Dave” rather than “her and Tyler” ..

Maybe Jen didn’t know he died until last night even though it had been a couple days. Doubtful that Rachel would have called her. Now instead of trying to spin her weird Valentines relationship-non-relationship thing with Tyler, she can just point her social media focus to Dave and off herself.

Not to mention Rachel can now say almost anything she wants about Dave and their past and he can’t refute claims. Jen doesn’t have anywhere close to that freedom when it comes to her ex, their experiences, and having kids old enough to all have their own clear memories. It’s a hard and sad thing, but Rachel will get past the funeral then just see it as “great new material” 😬 Surely Jen’s post about him is coming shortly.

I'm still shocked that Jen hasn't yet said anything about Dave Hollis and his passing.

Anonymous wrote:She always portrayed her friendship with Dave like they’re super tight and they both indicated they would get together to talk sh*t about their exes, so it probably would have given Rachel Hollis much pleasure to not keep Jen in the loop and let her find out “like everyone else”…

it probably also gives rachel hollis much pleasure that jen got stuck with the public/social-media platform of “just having an inattentive long distance boyfriend and a cheating ex husband who is happily remarried to a hot wife — kids are grown and gone” while rachel now has the goldmine platform of “death of her children’s father, her former business partner and best friend” and all the stories she will be able to monetize and the books/podcasts/posts she will get richer on as she publicly navigates their new family dynamic. think that’s harsh? it’s not…her publicist is already all over it, no doubt. sad the world we live in. jen and rachel are so alike.

We are all human, both brave and fragile in our own ways. We all only have one life to live and tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. Holding each other accountable to do better, be it through occasional laughter and snark, or legitimate sources of truth and encouragement, doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Even on tough or uncomfortable days. Some of your comments on here directed at Jen along the way have actually made me check myself in a good way, as I also dabble in the online influencer world (not full time). Others of course just made me roll my eyes. 🙄

As for Jen, probably most of us arrived at this page originally in complete dismay at how Jen-past became Jen-present. I recently watched a lifetime movie about Gwen Shamblin who was a weight loss pastor lady in Tennessee, and her mental and physical transformation from beginning to end of her “ministry” made me think of Jen Hatmaker 100%. Look it up; it has the dirty dancing/Ferris buellar actress in it, Jennifer gray. The only difference between Gwen and Jen is that Jen still has time to change her course …

i believe it was posted somewhere that someone found or discovered him in his home. i doubt he was "resting at home." quite sure the death was a surprise.

not sure what "you know what" is, but most death announcements do not reveal the cause of death, especially if it was caused by "you know what," whether that is drugs, alcohol, suicide, steroids or choking in a sandwich.