A mom moved in with her ex-husband, current husband and their two children — to save money on rent and says they all get on “amazingly.”
Megan Meyer, 25, was married to her ex-husband, police officer, Tyler, 25, for almost four years and they had a little girl, three, before the pair split at the end of 2023.
She moved back to her home state, California, US, while the divorce was being finalized, and ended up reconnecting with her high school boyfriend, Michael, 25, a laborer.
Just two months later, she fell pregnant with Michael’s baby, and the three adults decided to move to the East Coast in separate apartments, to help raise and co-parent their children.
But the three eventually decided to move in together to save on rent costs – -and have a shared goal of owning a “family compound” with two houses on it.
Megan says the dynamic with her “brother husbands” is just like any other housemate situation — with herself and Michael in the upstairs bedroom, and Tyler sleeping in the garage.
Megan, a stay-at-home mom, from Hiltonhead, South Carolina, said: “At first, living all together was emotionally hard — now, we’re all just buddies, always joking around and playing video games together.
“It’s become our inside joke for me to call them my ‘brother husbands’ — like ‘sister wives’ — it’s even the name of our group chat.
“My ex and I agreed at the time of our split, that we wanted our daughter to have the most normal, blended family she possibly could.
“We don’t like to call this a broken home — I always hoped my ex and I would live close to each other, for her sake.”
At the end of 2023, Megan and Tyler, who had been married since January 2020, decided to divorce after “growing apart.”
Megan decided to move out of the family home in Tennessee and go back to her home state of California, to surround herself with support from family and friends.
While she was there, she reconnected with an old boyfriend from high school — who she went no-contact with after meeting Tyler.
“We went ‘no-contact’ because we’d dated for four months in high school,” she said.
“It was a very public, dramatic breakup at the time — our pastor found out we’d slept together and neither of our families were happy.
“But when my ex and I split, I reached out to him — originally to ask for job opportunities, and if he knew anyone who was hiring.
“He got me a job as a student supervisor with his mom, we slowly reconnected and started seeing each other.”
It was agreed that Tyler would sleep in the garage bedroom, while Megan and Michael would have a room upstairs.
While the family has settled into a “good dynamic” now — Megan says it was hard at first to deal with emotions surrounding her break up.
“It didn’t feel complicated — but it was emotionally draining, at first,” she said.
“I was nine months pregnant by the time I moved in — and by August, my postpartum emotions were all over the place.
“There were times where I’d feel angry about something that happened with my ex and I — and the feelings would be triggered by something he’d say or do.
“I also felt guilty about how quickly things were moving with my now-husband.”
Even though Megan and Tyler had a rocky start — she says they all get on really well together.
They even have a chore routine fleshed out — Megan looks after the kids and de-clutters the house, while the “two guys” take out the trash and wash the dishes.
Now, the plan is for the family-of-five to live on a family compound — with Megan, Michael, Tyler and his new partner, living in separate houses.