By Movieguide® Contributor
Jill Wagner has starred in plenty of Christmas romances, but her own real-life love story with husband David Lemanowicz rivals them all.
“We were living in our own movie,” she told Crosswalk Headlines of their relationship.
In the Great American Family special, CHRISTMAS AT THE FARM WITH JILL WAGNER AND FAMILY, David added, “God brought us together. He chose the right time.”
Wagner and Lemanowicz first met when they were just 17 years old, going on just a few dates before he moved to Canada, leaving a teenage Wagner “devastated.”
“I snuck out of my dad’s window at home and went out at night, which I wasn’t supposed to,” she shared on a HALLMARK HOME & FAMILY episode. “I snuck out and met him. Fell completely head over heels. We went out three times, and then I never heard from him again.”
Lemanowicz added, “It’s not my favorite part of the story.”
Almost two decades later, the pair met again — this time in Afghanistan.
“I went to Afghanistan on a USO tour. He just happens to be on one of the 12 bases that we went to,” she explained. “But I was dating somebody, he was dating somebody. So it was just like a quick, ‘Wow, great to see you in this weird place in the world.’”
Three years after that, they met again in Los Angeles.
“We kind of knew at that point,” Wagner laughed. “We were like, ‘Okay, there’s a reason this keeps happening.ʼ”
She continued, “And then three months after that, we were engaged and then quickly married, and moved from L.A. that same year and renovated this house, and then got pregnant. Everything happened so quickly, but it was the most incredible time. I still look back at that time and think, did that actually happen?”
Related: Jill Wagner Reveals If Her Love Story Will Ever Become a Movie: ‘Multiple Renditions’
“It was a rom-com, and I’m gonna make that movie one day. I just have to find the right person to make it with. But it was truly incredible,” Wagner concluded.
The actress talked to New Orleans Living about the potential movie version of their love story, explaining, “We have an interesting love story. I wrote the treatment and I’ll be a producer and act, but it’s going to be weird to cast my husband. It’s something my family is going to die over.”
Today, the couple and their children live on a farm in Tellico Plains.
“For 20 years, when I lived in Los Angeles, it never quite felt like home. But this land, this farm, feels like home,” Wagner told Crosswalk Headlines. “Now that I have children, I want that for them. I think it’s really important that they grow up around people that they know and that help them and that they can help.”
Her favorite part of the property? A restored chapel.
“I promised God, I said, ‘If we get this property, I promise I will restore this.ʼ And we just got through restoring it this year,” she shared. “You go in there when you need quiet and you pray. And I think it’s very important for David and I to be able to teach our kids that that is a place that they can go in 24/7. I hope it’s going to become a really important staple in their life.”
READ MORE: JILL WAGNER SHARES QUIET FARM-LIFE MOMENT: ‘WHAT GOD HAS CREATED’
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