Sally Hepworth had everything she thought she wanted. Then a podcast asked one simple question.

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Sally Hepworth is the queen of domestic thrillers. You might recognise some of her titles, such as The Good Sister, The Soulmate and The Mother-in-Law, or more recently, Darling Girls.

She's written a bestseller every year since 2015, but sometimes the most surprising stories are the ones happening behind closed doors.

While the world was getting lost in her fictional stories, Sally was forced to rewrite her own when her personal life imploded.

And it was an unlikely source that helped her see the truth about her marriage: Mamamia.

Listen to Sally Hepworth's chat on No Filter. Post continues below.

Sally always wanted to be married.

"My brothers are twins… mum said when we were little, I used to say, 'Where's my other one?' Like there was something missing," she told Kate Langbroek on Mamamia's No Filter.

Despite having everything she thought she wanted, something wasn't right.

Looking back now, Sally wonders if she was holding onto an idyllic life that could never match up to reality.

"When things did get tough… I found that really difficult," she said. "I just didn't understand why it wasn't looking like the picture in my mind."

Her moment of realisation came during a book tour in the US for The Soulmate.

Sally would frequently listen to Australian podcasts for a reminder of home when she came across Mamamia's But Are You Happy?.

"I looked at it on my phone… and I thought, 'No' when it said, 'But are you happy?'

"There were a series of moments and things that happened that led to it, but that was the first time I thought, 'Huh'. Because, objectively, everything was going so well. And my career was wonderful," she recalled.

Sally has written a bestseller every year since 2015. Image: Instagram/sallyhepworth.

It's been a little over two years since Sally and Christian separated, and she's frank about the impact.

"It's the most significant thing that's happened to me in my life," she said.

"Am I over it? And I'm not. I wonder if it'll be one of those things, like the grief of death, that it changes."

Before her own divorce, Sally thought marriage breakdowns were simple.

"I used to want to know what happened. And when I asked that question, I expected the answer to be a sentence or two sentences, and something that attributed blame to one person. There was a victim and a perpetrator," she said.

"What I've discovered since then… you could write a book."

The reality "knocked" her to her "ass".

"You're going through something so difficult, and yet you have to do the best parenting of your life," she said.

Sally and Christian focused on changing as little of their children's lives as possible.

They shared custody of the family dog and tried "bird's nest parenting" — where the children stay in the family home and the parents move in and out — for a year as they sold their house.

"Looking back, that was horrible for me," she said. "It was amazing for the kids. And I would do it again for the kids."

One of the hardest parts was accepting the loss of control.

"I had to accept that I was in charge of what happened in my house, and Christian was in charge of what happened in his house," she said.

The breakthrough came when she stopped trying to control everything.

"I felt so much better when I stopped… they were alive and looked after well by their dad. Suddenly, I unclenched," she said.

"When you're married, you work together as a team… Now I think we're much better at teamwork, but that was a bit of a process too of going we can't control each other anymore."

Watch a snippet of Sally talking about her divorce on No Filter. Post continues below.

After two years of deep reflection, Sally has come to a controversial conclusion.

"Is marriage good for women? I've thought about that a lot," she said.

"I also looked around in the early days at relationships and thought, whose marriage would I want? Looking at my friends, looking at my parents — I did find some. There were some relationships that I thought I wanted. They weren't the majority. I had to seek them out."

"I see a lot of unhappy women in relationships, and presumably unhappy men… I do wonder if this whole idea of marriage—in an ideal world, if you're unhappy, you could move on without this whole... but you look at it and think, 'Oh, I can't.'"

Finding love again (with a little help from Botox).

Sally wasn't looking for love when it found her.

"I came out of that experience thinking I was never going to meet anyone. I wasn't looking for anyone," she said.

Her friends had other ideas, pressuring her to try dating apps. She reluctantly went on one Tinder date that went well enough — but it was an unexpected matchmaker who changed everything.

"I was getting my Botox, and I was telling her about the date," Sally recalled. "Then she said, 'You know what, I've got a friend who's been separated recently, and he's gorgeous, and you should meet him.'"

When her Botox technician offered to give him Sally's number, she agreed. The man, Dan, messaged asking if she wanted dinner when he was next in Melbourne.

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What Sally didn't know was that Dan had flown down from the Gold Coast specifically for their date.

"I found out later that he'd just flown down for the day. Imagine," she said. "He said he'd heard about me from this friend, and he'd cyber-stalked me and thought that I looked nice."

Sally's approach to relationships has completely transformed.

"I do not let one thing go that annoys me," she said. "I just now want to have a chat all the time."

She encourages Dan to do the same, and his response reveals what she now considers the most attractive trait in a partner.

What she values most?

"The most masculine trait that exists is for you to give them feedback, and for them to say, 'Oh, okay, thank you for telling me that,'" she said. "Not being threatened at all or defensive."

Sally's moment of realisation came during a book tour in the US for The Soulmate. Image: Instagram/sallyhepworth.

Rethinking what love really looks like.

Sally's divorce led her to question why romantic love is considered the pinnacle of human connection.

"I have got these women in my life who are my life partners," she said.

"They're the ones who have been with me before any of us met our partners. They are with me after partners."

Even in her new relationship, Sally maintains this perspective.

"Even though there is romantic love again, my life partners are those women," she said.

Her friend group, dubbed "The Golden Girls," became crucial during her divorce.

"As soon as I became divorced, I didn't really know anyone who was divorced, so I sought out people," she said.

"My first night in the apartment after we broke up, they all came and slept over."

The Golden Girls developed practical solutions for single parenting, including something they call "the sh** box"—an actual physical box that sits by the door.

"The kids put their sh** in, like, their stuff that goes to their dad's house," Sally explained.

"The day that they're going to their dad's house, you say to the kids, put your stuff in the sh** box. Where's your shoes? They're in the sh** box."

It's the kind of unglamorous but genius solution that comes from women who understand exactly what you're going through.

Sally's confidence as a writer has transformed dramatically. Image: Instagram/sallyhepworth.

From Google searches to Nicole Kidman.

Sally's confidence as a writer has transformed dramatically.

When Amazon approached her to write a short story recently, she had never written one before.

"I said, 'Yeah, okay, I'll do it.' And then I hung up and immediately Googled how to write a short story, because I thought, 'Yeah, I can do it. Well, of course I can do it,'" she laughed.

Now, her personal upheaval feeds directly into her work. Her upcoming novel, Mad Mabel, reflects her journey with friendship.

"What I wanted to explore was, can one friend save you? Is that enough? And what if you don't have one friend? What happens to you then?"

You might recognise a title or two. Image: Instagram/sallyhepworth.

The timing feels almost cosmic. As Sally's personal life imploded, her professional life exploded.

The Family Next Door premieres on television August 10th. Darling Girls has been optioned with a writer attached to the script. Amy Poehler has optioned The Mother-in-Law, and The Soulmate has been optioned with Asher Keddie attached to produce.

And that short story she Googled how to write? 'Uncharted Waters' has now been optioned by Blossom Films—Nicole Kidman's production company.

Sometimes the universe has impeccable timing.

Feature image: Mrs Smart photography.