San Diego couple renews marriage vows after $100K divorce proceedings: ‘Extremely rare’
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Brittany and Wyland Szabo had a rather tumultuous relationship.
The couple, both 32 years old, from San Diego, California, met 13 years ago and married in 2011.
In 2019, the Szabos filed for divorce, spending $ 100,000 on divorce proceedings and legal fees just to halt the process last year, the couple told Fox News. Then, last month, they renewed their vows – although they still owe their divorce today.
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“It’s been a lot of work,” Brittany told Fox News. “I don’t think there’s anything we can’t go through right now.”
Brittany shares her and Wyland’s story, as well as her recovery from alcoholism story, on TikTok to help other people in trouble.
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Brittany told Fox News that the couple met at the age of 19 and lived in a sober apartment building. By that time, Brittany was on drug rehab for alcoholism. They married three years later and had their first child shortly afterwards.
Brittany said they were “completely sober” until about five years ago, shortly after the couple had their second and third children, twins.
Brittany and Wyland Szabo are pictured at their 2011 wedding. (Courtesy Bretagne and Wyland Szabo)
“We started drinking again because we thought we’d taken a couple of years off and drink again like normal people do,” said Brittany. “And it was fine for a while, and then at some point it got worse and worse and then we split up and filed for divorce in 2019.”
“It wasn’t just because of the alcohol,” added Brittany. “There were a lot of other very toxic behaviors … we were very dependent on each other and it just wasn’t a good situation.”
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After their breakup, Brittany said she started drinking heavier and struggling with her mental health. She lost custody of her three children and tried to sober several times, but each time relapsed after a few weeks or months.
At one point she was arrested and spent one night in jail, and when she got out she had an injunction against her, became homeless and was completely cut off from her children.
Eventually she started taking heavier drugs – something she had never done before – “just to numb the pain,” she said. One day in February 2020, she overdosed.
When she woke up in the hospital, she decided to do one of two things: move across the border into Mexico and disappear, or fly to her childhood home in Wisconsin and sober up. She chose the latter.
“Luckily I did it the next day. I got on a plane, ”she said.
“I don’t know how I did all of this,” she added. “That’s why I know that a god is watching over me, because there was no way I had the strength to do it for myself.”
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Brittany said she spent 28 days in Wisconsin sobering up and working on herself, doing drug tests, buying alcohol tests, and seeing a psychiatrist.
“I’ve really tried to do everything I can to make sure I can at least see my children,” she said.
When she returned to California for a trial 28 days later, she was able to regain custody of her children. Today Brittany has been sober for almost 22 months.
Though their relationship was completely over – to the point where they could only speak in court – Wyland and Brittany reconnected about a year ago after they both spent time working on themselves.
First they started talking again about their children, Brittany said. The couple also wanted to be better co-parents.
“We’d hang out as a family a few times after we’d talked,” Brittany said. “I explained what I did with my life last year. He explained what he did with his life. We both took responsibility for our actions.”
“We both finally apologized wholeheartedly,” added Brittany. “We actually understood how we hurt each other and that was huge for us.”
They also started seeing a therapist together to help them as co-parents. When they spent more time together and could really apologize and really forgive each other, they fell in love again.
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Brittany and Wyland said that while it was a difficult trail, neither of them regret the experience.
“… in retrospect, it is now clear that it was necessary for both of us to find ourselves and love each other individually,” Wyland told Fox News.
“It was a necessary process,” he added.
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Brittany and Wyland are also aware that their story is not the norm.
“Our situation, as we know, is extremely, extremely rare,” said Brittany. “We get a lot of hatred because a lot of people think we’re trying to inspire people to come back with their toxic ex and that’s not what we’re trying to do.”
The couple filed for divorce in 2019 but stopped the process and got back together and renewed their vows last month. (Brittany and Wyland Szabo)
“The most important thing is that people need to know that it takes two people to do this,” she added. “You can’t do that if only one of you is on board. Both of you have to be willing to work on themselves and get things going. And that doesn’t usually happen.”
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Although they are fine now, the Szabos are still working hard on their marriage, continuing to go to therapy and encouraging one another. Brittany shares her recovery story on TikTok to help others struggling with addiction.
They said they have also moved into a new house and are working to pay off their $ 100,000 debt from their divorce. So far, they have paid off Brittany’s dues almost in full and will move to Wyland when they finish, Brittany said.
“We are very happy today,” said Brittany. “We have our whole family back and our children are happy.”
“Our life is not perfect,” she added. “We’re still fighting a lot. There is a lot of damage and trauma from the past returning to our everyday lives, but we’re trying to focus on the positives. We feel very blessed that I got this second chance.”
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