Influencer Kelley Lorraine Opens Up About Divorce, Co-Parenting (Exclusive)

When influencer Kelley Lorraine started dating the man she’d later marry, she took a leap of faith. 

It was 2017, and Luis Joel, 39 at the time, had three kids from a previous marriage living in Puerto Rico — on the direct path of Hurricane Maria, which would soon bring destruction and devastation to the territory. Lorraine, then 22, suggested to Joel that he attempt to bring them to the continental United States, even using her own money to buy their plane tickets. 

Their blended family was unconventional: the pair had only been dating for a few months, but now Lorraine was helping raise Joel’s 17-, 14- and 12-year-old teenagers. They tied the knot in 2018 and welcomed two new kids of their own, sharing their journey as parents and newlyweds to their social media platforms for the next eight years.

But in July, Lorraine revealed the heartbreaking news to her 3 million TikTok followers that she and Joel were going their separate ways.

“This isn’t an easy post to write, but after a lot of reflection and many difficult conversations, my husband and I have separated and are getting divorced,” she captioned a tearful video she posted to TikTok. “This has been the hardest few months of my life and something I never anticipated.”

“It’s been a lot,” admits Lorraine, now 30, to PEOPLE about the last few weeks. “We’re just taking things day-by-day, navigating things as they come.”

“I got married to Luis when I was 23, so my entire twenties I was married to him and I was raising teenagers,” she continues. “I think that the next few months is going to be a lot of me figuring out who I am on my own.”

In the wake of their split, Joel has moved out to Texas, and Lorraine has stayed in Los Angeles, raising their 4- and 6-year-old daughters as a single mom.

“It’s just a girls house now — we’re going to make it a Barbie Dreamhouse,” laughs Lorraine. “It’s been really fun. It kind of just feels like a big sleepover every night.”

She has also opened her home to Joel’s 19-year-old daughter Ana, who’s pursuing her dreams of becoming an actress. Though Lorraine — who is only 11 years older — is technically an ex-stepmom, she says that as Ana “got older, it transitioned away from a parental relationship to a friendship.”

And Ana, Lorraine adds, “has been a huge help” in raising her two little ones: “She’s always there if I need something,” says the internet personality.

As for other supports, Lorraine says, “I’ve mainly been leaning on my family” — her mom and dad, who both live out of state, as well as one of her best friends from grade school who lives locally.

“It’s a lot of phone calls to family because we’re a little off on our own,” she says.

In addition to her updated living arrangements, fans have also wondered what the split will mean for the future of Lorraine’s social media accounts, which used to primarily feature videos of her and Joel together.

She candidly tells PEOPLE that she still doesn’t have a definitive answer, though she’s planning a trip to visit Joel in Austin, where they’ll likely get back on camera together for some “co-parenting content.”

“I think I would be comfortable making videos with him about co-parenting,” says Lorraine. “I think that me and him are going to be able to stay friends, which I think is going to be a really good thing — especially for the kids.”

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Lorraine is also spending some more time focusing on other aspects of her life. She’s a mom to four dogs: two Australian Shepards, a German Shepard and a golden retriever. And she’s working with Ana on her budding career in acting, helping her memorize lines and film self-tapes.

In their downtime, she and her girls even got to attend the premiere of The Bad Guys 2 — the first time they had been to a fancy Hollywood event all together.

“The girls had a ton of fun,” Lorraine says. “They thought it was the coolest thing ever. They still talk about it.”

She adds: “This was the first time that I got to bring Ana, which was really exciting because she’s pursuing acting. It was cool for her to be able to see that side of everything.”