Jill Wagner lives with her husband, David Lemanowicz, and their children at a farmhouse in Tennessee
Credit: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; Jill Wagner/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Jill Wagner, who was raised in a military family, helped pitch Lioness because of her admiration for the military
- The actress’ husband, David Lemanowicz, also serves in the military as a U.S. Army Reserve Major
- She and Lemanowicz live in a renovated farmhouse in Tennessee with their daughters
Jill Wagner may star in one of the most popular television shows at the moment, but she prefers a life off-the-grid.
The Lioness actress stars in the Paramount+ thriller series as Bobby, the team leader of the Lioness program — which is an undercover group of female operatives within the CIA. The show is personal for Wagner, because she was raised in a military family and brought the idea to Taylor Sheridan, who is also her former acting coach.
Wagner was further inspired by her husband, David Lemanowicz, who is serving as a U.S. Army Major and told her about the real-life Lioness program. She and Lemanowicz initially met when she was just 17 years old, but it wasn’t until years later, after they reconnected in Afghanistan, that they started dating.
The couple married in April 2017 and went on to welcome two daughters: Army Gray and Daisy Roberta. They are also parents to an older daughter, Lija, whom Lemanowicz welcomed during a previous relationship.
Here’s everything to know about Jill Wagner’s family.
Wagner and Lemanowicz reconnected in Afghanistan after meeting as teenagers
Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty
Wagner met her future husband in her home state of North Carolina after sneaking out for a party when she was a teenager; he was 20 years old.
“I snuck out of my dad’s window at home and went out at night, which I wasn’t supposed to,” she recalled in a 2016 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 admitted that it was “not my favorite part of the story,” but he was a “20-year-old athlete” who was not looking for his wife at the time.
Years later, Wagner and Lemanowicz reconnected in Afghanistan while he was serving in the Air Force, and she was meeting troops during a 2015 USO tour.
“I hadn’t seen her in 17 years,” he recalled. “My boss told me to check out the event, and I look at the photo and said, ‘I think I know this girl.’ Low and behold, I go to the chow event where she’s signing autographs, and I ask her if she’s from North Carolina. She says ‘yes.’ I say, ‘Little town outside of Greensboro?’ She says, ‘yes.’ I say, ‘Did you ever go to any North Carolina Monarchs hockey games?’ She says, ‘yes.’ I say, ‘Do you remember dating the goalie?’ ”
At the time of their reunion, they were both in relationships, but they ran into each other for a third time — both single — in Los Angeles in 2016.
“The day I came back from filming Christmas Cookies, my girlfriends wanted to take me out to dinner,” Wagner 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!”
Lemanowicz is a former hockey player and U.S. Army Reserve Major
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Lemanowicz, who hails from Canada, started playing hockey as a young boy and specifically focused on being a goalkeeper. He went on to play in the junior, collegiate and professional minor league hockey levels across Canada and the United States.
From 1991 to 2008, he played with a total of 14 teams — including with the University of Toronto, the Spokane Chiefs, the Chicago Hounds and the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees, per the International Hockey Database. However, from a young age, he knew he wanted to get involved in some sort of government service.
“I think it had something to do with me coming from an immigrant family,” Lemanowicz, whose parents immigrated to Vancouver from Poland, told The Spokesman-Review in 2009. “They grew up in such an oppressive society that it made me think how good we have it in First World countries. I’m lucky and I want to be a part of this polity, the great institutions. I never really thought about, ‘Oh, I want to make a ton of money.’ It’s just the way I was wired and socialized as a boy.”
After he wrapped up his hockey career in 2008, he joined the military and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 2020, he was promoted to a U.S. Army Major.
The couple married in 2017
Shortly after running into each other for a third time, they reconnected for good. Lemanowicz and Wagner married on April 8, 2017, at the Rose Hill Plantation in Nashville, N.C. Wagner frequently honors their anniversary on Instagram.
“3 years today I married the love of my life and my best friend,” she captioned a photo of the two of them in April 2020. “You are the reason I am so happy and now you have given me a baby to call my own . (The best gift of all ) Thank you so much my love . You are my favorite and have always been since I was 17 :-).”
In 2026, she shared a professional picture of them and wrote, “9 years and counting ! You are my best friend in the life and the next . Happy anniversary.”
They welcomed two children together
Credit: Alyssa Rosenheck
Two years after tying the knot, the couple confirmed to PEOPLE that Wagner was pregnant with their first child together. They welcomed daughter Army Gray Lemanowicz on April 17, 2020.
“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 explained of their decision. “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.”
Prior to welcoming Army, Lemanowicz welcomed a daughter named Lija. She was 10 years old at the time of Army’s birth.
“Lija is loving being a big sis and all of the dogs are super curious about little Army Gray,” Wagner shared. “I have a feeling Hank the farm dog is going to be super protective over her.”
A little over one year later, Wagner and Lemanowicz added daughter Daisy Roberta Lemanowicz to the family on Aug. 19, 2021. In an Instagram caption announcing the little one, Wagner wrote a “love letter to my husband” and thanked him for his support.
“To say you are my hero is a vast understatement,” she wrote. “There have been times where I have looked at you and thought ‘I couldn’t love this man more than I already do’. I was wrong. On August 19, 2021 you held my hand as we welcomed our sweet little Daisy Roberta Lemanowicz into this world. Neither one of us knowing the madness the hours following would hold.”
Wagner explained that she suffered “complications after labor,” but he continued to be her “rock” and made her “feel safe.”
The family left L.A. for a 100-year old Tennessee farmhouse
Credit: Alyssa Rosenheck
Although Wagner has continued acting, she and her husband made the decision to leave L.A. for a “Little House on the Prairie” farmhouse in Tennessee.
“L.A. held a very special place in my heart for my 20s and my 30s. But I’m a small town girl at heart. That’s where I feel comfortable,” she explained to PEOPLE in August 2025. “I grew up in a small town, so for the 20 years that I lived in L.A., I was starved of the things I was used to.”
Wagner left L.A. in 2016 after first setting eyes on the 1912 Scott Mansion farmhouse, even though “it looked like a scary haunted house” at first.
She and Lemanowicz, who were engaged at the time, knew they could put in the work to restore the farmhouse and make the 200 acres of land, located on a hill over the Great Smoky Mountains, their future.
“We wanted a family, and I saw my children running around in the front yard,” she recalled. “I knew it could be fixed. And I wanted to be the one to restore this piece of history.”
She added, “We got married, moved cross-country and went through a renovation all within a year. I’m proud we stayed together!”
Wagner and Lemanowicz wanted to ensure the farmhouse stayed true to its origins, so they based the decor and renovations around the history and antiques
“Some friends in L.A. are like, ‘What do you do there?’ I watch my cows, I garden, I go outside with the girls, we hike. I find my connection on the farm, with human beings and with nature,” she said.
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