Jen Shah and Her Husband ‘Were on the Verge of Divorce’ Before Her Arrest. How They Saved Their 32-Year Marriage (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Jen Shah says she and husband Sharrieff “Coach” Shah fought for their marriage while the former reality star was in prison for her role in a years-long telemarketing scheme

• Jen and Sharrieff, who have been married since 1994 and share two children, “were on the verge of a divorce” before the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City alum reported to prison

• “My family has come closer together through all of this,” Jen tells PEOPLE in a wide-ranging interview in this week’s issue

Jen Shah and her husband, Sharrieff “Coach” Shah, fought for their marriage while the former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star was in prison — after they had already been “on the verge of divorce” before Jen reported to jail.

Jen, 52, was arrested in March 2021, and she later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was subsequently sentenced to prison for her role in a years-long telemarketing scheme that the government said defrauded innocent people across the country, and after serving two years and nine months at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, she was released in December 2025.

Now, Jen — who is serving the remainder of her sentence under home confinement — tells PEOPLE in a wide-ranging interview in this week’s issue that her legal troubles “overlapped with my own personal pain.”

“My husband and I were separated. We were on the verge of a divorce,” she says, referring to Sharrieff, whom she has been married to since 1994.

“I was overwhelmed with immense grief from the death of my grandmother, my father and my aunt, all in a very short period of time. I was spiraling deeper into my previously diagnosed clinical depression,” Jen adds.

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According to Jen, she and Sharrieff, 55, knew their relationship had hit a bump in the road before she reported to prison.

“Nobody’s married for 32 years and it’s all perfect, right?” she says. “So [I say] we were separated and going towards a divorce because I don’t want our relationship [to look] like, ‘Oh, it’s all perfect.’ We put in hard work to get there.”

“The thing about Coach and I is that our anchor is our faith. And a big part of our faith is the sanctity of marriage,” Jen continues.

“I think people believe the hard thing to do is to get a divorce. The hard thing is to stay together. You have to put real work in,” adds the reality television alum.

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When Jen reported to prison in early 2023, she tells PEOPLE Sharrieff was her “rock” — and he “still is.”

“He’s one of a kind. Most people would have run away, most people would have left. … I’m so grateful and so blessed that my husband and my children were there for me,” she says, referring to the two sons she and Shariff share: Shariff Jr. and Omar.

“My family has come closer together through all of this,” Jen continues. “[My] marriage is stronger than it’s ever been, and my children and I, our family unit as a whole, is just closer than we’ve ever been.”

Adds Jen, “Coach has a saying: ‘We’re going to love each other through it. No matter what obstacle we’re facing, no matter what we’re dealing with, I’m just going to love you through it. And we’re going to love each other through it.’ And that’s kind of been our family’s mantra.”

While she was in prison, Jen tells PEOPLE she asked Shariff and their two kids to write her impact letters. “I needed to know how I hurt them. I needed them to be honest with me and tell me everything. I needed to hear that raw feedback, because that’s the only way you grow and heal. You can’t get better if you don’t know what you did,” she explains.

“The boys didn’t want to write the letters,” Jen recalls of Shariff Jr., 32, and Omar, 21. “They were like, ‘Dad, I don’t want to hurt mom’s feelings.’ And I questioned myself, ‘Is this the right thing to do? Is this going to dredge up more pain for them?’ But I talked with my therapist in Bryan, and she said, ‘No, this is necessary. You need to do it.’ And Coach told the boys, ‘You’re doing this for mommy.’ “

When Jen got the letters from her loved ones, she says it was ” one of the biggest turning points in my healing process.” She remembers, “There were a lot of tears, because that was hard. But I needed to hear it. And I think that’s one of the reasons that we have grown closer as a family, because we had those difficult conversations, and I have faced those things head on.”

And now, when it comes to still trying to make amends with her husband and sons, Jen admits, “As a mother and a wife, I do apologize still. My husband had to take care of all the things that I was supposed to take care of, and there are moments where I find myself apologizing, or feeling the guilt for not being there at graduation or not being there for prom.”

For more on Jen Shah, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE — now on newsstands everywhere.

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