Chandie Yawn-Nelson had been divorced from Joey Lawrence for two and a half years by August 2024, when his marriage to his third wife began collapsing in public. Court documents referenced an affair allegation involving one of Lawrence’s co-stars, which he denied in a statement on Instagram. A few days later, on his own podcast, Lawrence spent part of the episode talking about her instead.
It was not the first time. Lawrence has spoken warmly about Yawn-Nelson in more than one interview since their divorce. She has never responded, in any of them, and has never given an interview of her own about any part of the marriage.
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Quick facts
- Chandie Yawn-Nelson is the second wife of actor Joey Lawrence
- They married on 3 July 2005, at Walt Disney World, Orlando
- They have two daughters, Charleston “Charli” Lawrence (born 2006) and Liberty Grace Lawrence (born 2010)
- Lawrence filed for divorce on 14 July 2020; it was finalised on 16 February 2022
- Yawn-Nelson has never given an interview about the marriage
Meeting at Disney World, then years apart
They met in 1993, when Lawrence was sixteen and on holiday with his family at Walt Disney World. He told PEOPLE the story in 2006: he spotted her outside an ice cream stand and, half joking, pointed at the resort’s wedding chapel.
“Being the cheesy romantic I was, I said, ‘Hey look, there’s the Disney wedding chapel! Maybe we’ll get married there one day,'” he said. “Long story short, we did!”
They lost touch soon after. Exactly how long is unclear. PEOPLE’s account of the marriage puts the gap at more than a decade, while Lawrence, in a separate interview, said it had been four and a half years since they had last spoken when he flew to San Antonio, Texas, to see if anything was still there. During that stretch, he married and divorced the actress Michelle Vella, a marriage that ran from 2002 to 2005. It was only once that marriage ended that he and Yawn-Nelson found each other again.
He described the reunion himself. “We were driving in a car,” he said. “When we were sitting in the car, literally, I didn’t even plan it, so it’s not some magical moment but to us it was. We looked at each other in the car, and she started crying. I said, ‘Let’s just do this,’ and she said, ‘OK.’ We set a date, and a year later we got married.”
Marriage, two daughters, and a bankruptcy that didn’t end it
They married on 3 July 2005, at the same Disney chapel Lawrence had joked about as a teenager. Their first daughter, Charleston, known in the family as Charli, was born the following year. A second daughter, Liberty Grace, followed in 2010. Wire photographers occasionally caught the two of them at events over the following years, including a charity awards ceremony with baby Charli in Yawn-Nelson’s arms, a children’s toy drive, and their daughters’ soccer game in Los Angeles in 2013. None of it came with a quote from her.
In July 2017, twelve years into the marriage, Lawrence and Yawn-Nelson filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Court documents obtained by PEOPLE at the time put the couple’s cash on hand at $60, with $8,000 left in the bank, against total liabilities of $355,517.27.
| What they owed | Amount |
|---|---|
| Credit card debt | $132,000 |
| Vehicles | around $100,000 |
| Back taxes | $88,000 |
| Unpaid rent | $54,000 |
| A personal loan | $32,000 |
Yawn-Nelson was listed as unemployed on the filing. Among the couple’s assets was a men’s 1981 Rolex Datejust, valued at $2,500 and logged on the same page as their wedding rings. The case was settled in 2018.
The marriage lasted another three years past that.
The divorce, and the marriage that came after it
Lawrence filed for divorce on 14 July 2020, eleven days after the couple’s fifteenth wedding anniversary, citing irreconcilable differences. Asked later what had actually happened between them, his answer had nothing to do with the bankruptcy.
“It’s just two people that aren’t right for each other,” he said. “Nothing was done wrong, other than just falling out of love with that person.”
The divorce was finalised on 16 February 2022. A private settlement covered spousal support, child support and the division of assets, and the pair agreed to share joint legal custody of Charleston and Liberty.
Less than three months later, Lawrence married Samantha Cope. That marriage became public property in a way the one before it never had. Cope filed for divorce in August 2024, after two years together, and affair allegations involving Lawrence’s co-star Melina Alves surfaced within days. Both Lawrence and Alves denied a physical relationship. The two later reconciled, and in April 2026 Lawrence and Cope welcomed a second child together, a son named Ford Joseph, his fourth.
What Lawrence actually said about Chandie Yawn-Nelson
On that same August 2024 podcast, with his own marriage collapsing in the headlines, Lawrence turned to the subject of Yawn-Nelson.
“We had a very good marriage and, to this day, we’re very good friends,” he said. “We always put our children first. That’s a testament and I’m proud of that.”
He went further. “I want her to be truly happy and I want to be happy,” he said. “We were able to make each other happy to a certain extent as we grew because we met when we were so young, but not ultimately. But, she’s a great lady and I’m proud of what we did together.”
Yawn-Nelson has never responded to any of it, then or since.
