‘Beauty From the Ashes’: Actor Paul and Amy Hauser Celebrate Rekindled Marriage
By Movieguide® Contributor
After actor Paul Hauser and his wife, Amy, separated only two months after they married, God brought them together again nearly a year and a half later. Now, they celebrate the “beauty from the ashes” era of their marriage.
The couple split because Paul convinced himself he needed to step away after he got some bad advice. In the interim, he turned to substance abuse, but they eventually reunited and started to “spen[d] way more time around one another,” the BLACK BIRD actor said on I Am Second.
“We rekindled what we knew we had found in 2020, and I fell in love with my son, too. The six months I wasn’t in his life, at the start of his life, I was not loving my son, which is hard just to think, let alone say out loud,” Paul said through tears of regret.
Movieguide® previously reported on their reunification:
“I literally had friends tell me, ‘Amy, it hurts us to see you have so much hope.’ And one thing that I’ve learned is your faith sometimes may make people uncomfortable because they themselves wouldn’t have that faith,” she continued. “It’s up to us to demonstrate that faith. And it’s when we step out into that, that God meets us there.”
Amazingly, Amy was right, and as Paul was sitting in a strip club throwing thousands of dollars away, he realized that he had to turn his life around and return to his wife and child.”
Even though they now have a happy marriage, Paul still struggles to talk about how he hurt his family.
“And that’s tough, man, even the fact that I’m doing well right now even in the sort of like victory lap of it all right now,” he said. “It’s so hard to talk about, but I own it, and I’ll say it to anybody who’s listening [who] might be going through something else that’s similar. It’s like, ‘Dude, just pause. Just stop. Stop dead in your tracks and re-evaluate aggressively’ ‘cause you will miss that time you lose.”
Once Paul returned to his family, he and Amy remarried on May 14, 2022. Now, they celebrate this part of their lives—what Amy calls “beauty from the ashes.”
“Because what the world would have said was dead in our lives, Jesus came back and said, ‘No, it’s not finished, it’s alive,’ and he breathed life back into our marriage,” Amy shared. “And that’s the thing about God is he makes broken things beautiful. He takes the things that felt like shattered pieces of glass, and he’s putting it back together, piece by piece, and it’s just been beautiful to see how he’s restored it.”
Amy and Paul were inspired by Jeff and Cheryl Scruggs, who have run a Biblical marriage ministry for 20 years. Like Paul and Amy, the Scruggs also remarried after divorce and appeared on I Am Second.
“Back when I was at odds with Amy and I was mistreating her by way of neglect, I couldn’t fully surrender to God ‘cause I had never done that before. You can’t speak Chinese if you don’t learn Chinese. Like, I didn’t know how to do it because I hadn’t done it,” Paul shared.
“Just fully surrender to God would have been…to drop everything and not listen to anything but the voice of truth, and that’s hard to do. I mean, to win Amy back should have required a more Herculean effort. I should have been doing backflips through fiery hoops,” he continued.
Amy didn’t ask for “fiery hoops” or “backflips,” but she did ask for communication and honesty.
“When I owned up to things that I had done—wrong things that she knew and things that she didn’t know that I had done wrong—once I did that and leaned into reconciliation, she was on board. She had reservations. She had worries and concerns, as someone should in her position that I put her in, but she was just asking me to be kind and accountable,” Paul said with gratitude.
“Like, I don’t need you to buy me a castle. I’m asking you to be a good man and to love me, honor and cherish me. And I take that very seriously now,” he said.
“Summer 2022, we got pregnant and brought a new Hauser boy into the world,” Paul shared. “April 1st 2023. Yeah, I love that it’s April 1st that that was his birthday. The jokes on you, Satan, the jokes on me because I thought our marriage was over, and it was really just beginning.”
They named their second little boy Jonah after the story of the man who tried his hardest to run from God, but God still came after him. Amy shared that his life is a message that God will always come to “restore the things that were broken.”
Amy said, “We have moments that were taken from us, but there are days and moments where we live, and we look around us, and we just look at each other and smile. And we’re like, ‘Can you believe this is our life and where we were and what God’s done with our family?’”
Paul now says that he actively tries to walk with God. He knows God’s heart a lot better now and that God loves unconditionally.
To counter any substance abuse regression, he has “accountability with a group of guys where we all check in on each other and make sure you know we’re doing okay,” he shared. “Sobriety wise, I just have guys who, like, well, if I’m not in a good place, they’ll come kick down the door and make sure I am. And that was big for me to have those types of guys who can be vulnerable and raw and real in my life. That’s been huge.”
“I have my own personal therapist and my wife and I have marital counselors, a lot of reading materials and podcasts to where I’m we’re on the same page emotionally and spiritually and mentally,” he added.
Overjoyed with God’s faithfulness, Amy recently shared why 2023 “was the best year” of her life:
2023 was the best year of my life. It came with it’s share of the hard stuff but my good goodness, life is about love. One of the greatest lessons I learned in 2023 is that the best moments in my life include meeting eyes with my husband, @paulwhausergram, feeling his love, hearing the laughter of our children and rocking them to sleep, and the love that fills my heart just thinking about my friends and family. Everything else fades away. Love always remains. Thank you, Jesus for a year that was immeasurably more than I could’ve ever dreamed of.
Amy also shared about her and Paul’s I Am Second Interview on Instagram.
She said, “Our story is now live on iamsecond.com or YouTube. We love you and pray you see the beauty for ashes and the hope that can be found in Jesus. #iamsecond // Crazy God Timing: As I post this I’m walking into the office where the divorce papers were served. He’s still redeeming moments every day. Wow, God.”
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
