When you’re newly separated, finding refuge in your career or meaningful personal projects is a gift. Divorce is crippling — without a doubt — but it’s also an opportunity to pursue all the goals and dreams you put on the back burner during your marriage. It’s a chance to reinvent, to plot a life of your own making.

To inspire you, we’ve rounded up a list of eight famous women whose divorce was a catalyst for bigger, better things.

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