News & Community
Sincerely, Divorced Offers a Modern Support System
Bel Air native founders Bethany Pace and Hillary Livingston want to disrupt the narrative of failure and isolation that exists around divorce.

When Bethany Pace and Hillary Livingston were each going through a divorce, like many who have experienced this dissolution of a marriage, they felt failure, shame, and sadness.
But in one way, they were lucky: They had each other. The two friends shared handwritten notes and exchanged books. Pace still wears a bracelet bearing the words “you can do hard things” that Livingston gave her back then.
“Without each other, it would have taken us a lot longer to reach the point where we are now: liking this version of ourselves,” says Pace, pictured left, above.
One night in Bel Air, where they both live, Pace was sitting in her car in a Safeway parking lot, talking on the phone to Livingston, pictured right, who was doing the same outside a Walgreens. An idea to start a support group was hatched, and it’s since become their business: Sincerely, Divorced.
“We’re very passionate about the mission to disrupt the narrative of failure and isolation that exists around divorce, and a key to that has been positive reframing,” says Pace. “Once that construct is eliminated, I think divorce is this process of becoming who we really were meant to be. We got to do that together, which is rare.”
When they held their first online seminar in November 2023, Pace and Livingston were hoping that at least one person would attend—and that’s exactly how many people did. But soon meetups at coffee shops, happy hours, and yoga classes attracted a loyal following, including more than 56,000 people on Instagram.
They’re not licensed counselors—the two met as staff at Towson University—but having survived what Pace calls “the second most stressful life transition after the death of a loved one,” they feel they have plenty to offer the people they work with.
“Demographically, we’re different,” says Pace. She’s 51, has two daughters, aged 20 and 14, and was married for 22 years. Livingston is 35 and her kids are 7 and 2; she was pregnant with her youngest when her six-year marriage unraveled.
“What’s unique is that our group is inclusive of all ages, races, genders, relationship types,” says Pace. “It’s our hearts that connect through this human experience.”
While most participants are women, men are welcome as well. In fact, roughly 35 percent of their social media followers identify as men. Part of their offerings—most of which are free—includes sending these followers hand-written notes of encouragement, and they’ve mailed them as far as Australia, India, and the United Kingdom.
“We’re trying to help people arrive at the juncture where [divorce] is an opportunity, it’s not a failure, it’s not the end of everything,” Livingston says. “You have this unique opportunity to start fresh. Your best days are still ahead of you.”