Hatfield was born in Wiscasset, Maine, the daughter of Philip M. Hatfield, a radiologist, and Julie Hatfield, a former Boston Globe features, society, travel writer, and fashion critic who currently works as a freelance travel writer. Hatfield grew up in the Boston suburb of Duxbury. Although well known for the early 1990s hit, "My Sister", Hatfield has two brothers, but no sisters. Hatfield's father claimed his family were descendants of the West Virginia Hatfields of the Hatfield-McCoy feud following the Civil War.

In 2014 The Juliana Hatfield Three was reformed after two decades of hiatus, and Hatfield, drummer Todd Philips, and bassist Dean Fisher began practicing new material for an album. The album marked the band's first release in twenty two years, since their LP Become What You Are in 1993. Stated Hatfield about the new album, "We haven't totally reinvented the wheel or anything," and that the tracks exhibit the "stuff I am sort of known for, I guess. But I am a lot more confident now than I was then with the first album. And I had more fun recording this one." The twelve tracks for Whatever, My Love were recorded at Nuthouse Recording in Hoboken, New Jersey, with Beaujour and Hatfield co-producing the project.  The lead single from the album, "If I Could," was released in December 2014, and was premiered in publications such as Rolling Stone. That month the album was made available for pre-order on American Laundromat Records, with an announced release date for Whatever, My Love on February 17, 2015. The band announced they would tour the United States in support of the album throughout February, hitting cities on both coasts and the midwest, as well as venues such as the Bowery Ballroom in New York city and The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles in late March.  In late December 2014, Stereogum named the album "one of their most anticipated albums of 2015," and on January 4, 2015, Consequence of Sound named it "one of the 50 most anticipated albums of 2015." On January 9, 2015, Hatfield was featured at Nylon.com, who wrote that the upcoming album came off as "unforced, and with its sly lyrics and mega-hooky coffeehouse-grunge aesthetic." The album's second single "Ordinary Guy" premiered on Consequence of Sound on January 14, 2015.

Did it win any awards?
Consequence of Sound named it "one of the 50 most anticipated albums of 2015.