The woman was never divorced and hence has not remarried; this actually concerned her husband, who had had an earlier civil marriage.
I don’t know what the other circumstances were, that is, whether they were at some point married in the Church, or whether this is a situation of two people who are technically unmarried just living together, or what. They’ve “been together” for almost 20 years and have several children.
Very puzzling, but she is apparently not “divorced and remarried.”
It sounds like her parish priest knows the whole story. That is why he denied her communion.
This whole case is very likely much simpler than presented by the media spin machine.
If everything happened as reported then the couple must be currently living without sexual intimacy for the Holy Father (or any Catholic clergyman) to say that they could worthily receive the Holy Communion.
In such case it is advisable for them to go to a different, than their own, parish to avoid giving scandal to those who don’t know the details of their situation.
I know of more than one situation just like that.
The woman is an adulterer as well as the man she’s living with.
The Pope telling her to go to another parish to get around Church law does not surprise me. He ignores Church law himself.