Thu, August 6, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC
6 min read
When Kassi Koro tells people she’s recently divorced, they usually respond with sympathy. They shouldn’t
“It’s something I’m excited about,” the 30-year-old from California tells me. “I have this new chance at[life] and I’m all about embracing and enjoying it.”
In other words, Koro’s been having a “hot divorcée summer,” a TikTok trend that has divorcées of all ages and life stages celebrating the exhilaration of embracing a new chapter. For Koro, that meant putting herself first. She’s working out and traveling. She’s spent long nights out with her friends, even hosting a “divorced dad” themed party to mark her new single status. She bought a purse in a bright color, just because she liked it. And she’s learned a lot about herself and what she wants to value going forward.
“My biggest thing is not putting my needs last ever again,” she says.
The idea of having a “hot divorced summer” began bubbling up in the spring in articles in the Guardian and the Cut, the latter of which featured writerAlyssa Vingan declaring “hot divorcées run Bravo now.” Between pop culture and social media, it’s never been more chic to leave an unhappy marriage. Content creators are extolling the virtues of dumping a bad man to the curb, singer Lily Allen is calling out her ex-husband’s infidelity on stage and Belle Burden’s memoir Strangers, in which the heiress details how she reclaimed her power after her husband’s multiple betrayals, became a runaway bestseller this winter.
“Being divorced is hot,” fashion writer Kelsey Stiegman, who wrote about the phenomenon for her Substack Haute Topic, says. “It’s like the hottest thing you can do. It’s the coolest thing you can do.”
Spend enough time online this summer, and you could start to become envious of divorcées. Take the feed of Elexa Bancroft, a 39-year-old from Atlanta who celebrated her HDS by going to a Lily Allen concert in a replica of the singer’s now-viral “receipts” dress. She said the movement is really about showing how divorce can be empowering and positive for so many women, not something that should be hidden away. For Bancroft, owning her divorce has been a way to find healing and empowerment following the trauma of the relationship.
“For hundreds of years, divorce has been so stigmatized and been something women should be ashamed of,” she says. “Women are sharing their stories to help protect each other, and we’re starting to find connections that these patterns of behavior from men are incredibly recurring. We all need to come together and protect ourselves from men who behave this way.”
Being divorced is hot. It’s like the hottest thing you can do
The trend isn’t just something that was being posted about online; women actually embraced the idea in their real lives. Or, as TikTok creator Alex Yapps put it in a video, they decided they were done protecting their peace and were ready to “be out in these streets.”
“This summer I have made a special effort to dress up for occasions and go out with my girlfriends more often and try to have something fun on the calendar at all times,” Yapps, a 41-year-old divorcée from Philadelphia, says. “Just to be out living my life and enjoying it.”
For Yapps, it’s deeper than having fun. She says society tells women they are devalued once they hit 40, especially if they are single. But she feels the opposite.
“Being a divorced woman in my 40s, I have never felt hotter. I’ve never felt healthier. I’ve never felt better,” she says. “I think a lot of women my age are finding that they’re in their sexual prime and they feel hotter than ever. Life doesn’t end in divorce. We are gonna be out and we are gonna be living and we’re going to be enjoying it.”
This was Amanda Thomas’s first summer after leaving her 20-year marriage. The mom of three from Maryland focused on not just fun, but enrichment, trying out different workshops and mulling learning new skills, like bartending
“It’s like this expansion of who I am,” she says, adding, “I’ve learned that there’s no limits to my growth. There’s no limit to what I can do. There’s no limits to continuing to expand who I am. I’m learning so much more as I go out there and have these experiences.”
I think a lot of women my age are finding that they’re in their sexual prime and they feel hotter than ever
But even if your hot divorced summer wasn’t all bliss, that’s OK. Stiegman, who split from her husband in 2020, wrote anessay noting that many first forays into life post-marriage can be full of “terrible decisions.” Her first HDS was really her first time dating as an adult (she had been with her ex since she was 14), and as she writes, her healing from the end of the marriage wasn’t linear. Part of being a hot divorcée, she says, is realizing you’ve been through trauma and practicing self-care.
“I think it’s really important that people give themselves grace and consider it a learning experience,” she says. “And know that one day, very soon, it will be different and it will be better.”
Though her split is now in her past, Stiegman considers being a “hot divorcée” very much part of her brand. She thinks women need to be open about how choosing to split from your husband is really choosing yourself, a sentiment reiterated by many of the women I spoke to
“Even though it’s really scary and there’s some hard days, I know that at the end of all of it, I’m in a way better place than I would have ever been if I had stayed in that marriage,” says Koro
They also are adamant that hot divorced summer isn’t a season — it’s a lifestyle.
“You should do something nice for yourself every single day, and so this doesn’t have to be seasonal,” says Yapps. “You can keep prioritizing your fun and keep prioritizing your pleasure all year long.”
In other words: Cuffing season, watch your back
“We gotta find some kind of phrase like ‘hot witch bitch fall,'” says Bancroft. “We’re gonna find something to keep this going.”
If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission
