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Jill Wagner and her husband David Lemanowicz got married in 2017, but they actually met many years before that when Wagner was only 17. They took a few tries to get it right, and their story is so unique that Hallmark is considering making it into a movie, Wagner has said. Here’s a look at Wagner and Lemanowicz’s love story.
The Started Dating in Earnest about 5 Years After Their First Few Dates
Wagner shared her real-life Hallmark story with Extra TV. She said that she and Lemanowicz had originally dated when they were younger and then reconnected a little later in life.
“He was a hockey player and he came through North Carolina and we had about three dates, and then he was ‘missing in action’ until about five years ago,” she shared. “We have quite the love story and, in fact, Hallmark is making our story… We haven’t filmed it yet.”
They elaborated for Hallmark on a Home & Family episode, sharing that when they first met, she was 17 and he was 20. “I didn’t leave him… he left me,” she said about their first go-round dating. “I was 17, he was 20. I snuck out of my dad’s window at home and went out at night, which I wasn’t supposed to… 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 explained: “20-year-old athlete, 20-year-old hockey player… I’m just saying. Guys have done worse as 20-year-old guys.”
Wagner said they ran into each other many years later in Afghanistan. She was there on a USO Tour and he was deployed with the Air Force. He said there was a “morale event” and that’s when he saw her.
“I hadn’t seen her in 17 years,” he shared.
The picture for the USO event didn’t look like her, but the name was the same, so he researched her online. He then walked up to her when she was signing autographs and confirmed that she truly was the Wagner he had dated all those years earlier.
However, this wasn’t the love connection they were meant to have. Wagner said they were both dating other people when they reunited in Afghanistan. She said that in 2016 on Valentine’s Day, she broke up with the person she was with and was filming Christmas Cookies for Hallmark.
“The day I came back from filming Christmas Cookies, my girlfriends wanted to take me out to dinner,” she said. “We were leaving (in Los Angeles) … and then I hear, ‘Jill!’ and David had just walked in the restaurant I was walking out of and boom!”
She added that he didn’t even live in LA at that time; he lived in a cabin in Washington. He was just in town visiting his daughter, so it was a true coincidence, once again, that they saw each other.
They were married in April 2017 after getting engaged in July 2016.
“He was a hockey player and he came through North Carolina and we had about three dates, and then he was ‘missing in action’ until about five years ago,” she shared. “We have quite the love story and, in fact, Hallmark is making our story… We haven’t filmed it yet.”
They Have a Daughter Named Army Gray
In April 2020, their daughter Army Gray Lemanowicz was born. Wagner told People that they chose a patriotic name because she was conceived on July 4.
“She was conceived on July 4 so we wanted a patriotic name and my husband is in the military so we chose her first name to be Army,” Wagner shared. “We thought that was a good name to honor both. Her middle name is Gray (spelled the American way, with an A) because I have always loved that name. It is strong, intelligent, soft and feminine all in one … which is what I want her to be.”
She said the most she was ever attracted to Lemanowicz was when she saw him holding their newborn daughter.
She told People: “The most I have ever been attracted to him was when I saw him hold her for the first time. This has definitely created a bond with us like no other.”
David Lemanowicz also has an older child: 10-year-old Lija. Army is Wagner’s first child. She said that Lija loves being an older sister.
She said that giving birth during the pandemic while wearing a mask wasn’t easy, but it gave her and her husband more one-on-one time with their new baby before taking Army home.
They Live on a Farm, Which Is Her Dream
Wagner said in an interview with Moments of Mercy that after she was married, she realized that she dreamed of owning a farm. So she moved from Los Angeles to Tennessee, and now they live on a farm with their children and pets. She said she rescues local cows who also live on their farm as pets.
When asked about her favorite activity in her free time, she shared: “When I am on the farm, there’s always something that needs to be done. However, at the end of the day my husband and I love to get on our John Deere tractor and take a bottle of wine up to the top of the hill and watch the sun set.”
Jill Wagner’s many Hallmark movies include Mystery 101, Hearts of Winter, Christmas Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses, Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa, The Angel Tree, and Maggie’s Christmas Miracle.
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