"Lioness" star Jill Wagner is opening up about the faith that shaped her decision to trade Hollywood for a working farm in Tennessee, just as the hit Paramount+ series returns for its third season.
Wagner told Fox News Digital ahead of the "Lioness" season three premiere that she chose Tennessee because she wanted to raise her family in the same kind of country setting where she grew up in North Carolina. She and her husband, David Lemanowicz, restored a neoclassical 1912 farmhouse called Scott Mansion in the small town of Tellico Plains, transforming it from an abandoned property into a home for their two daughters.
But behind the farm's Southern charm is a personal promise Wagner made to God. She has shared that a restored chapel on the property is her favorite part of the farm, recalling, "I promised God, I said, 'If we get this property, I promise I will restore this.'" She now uses the space as a place of prayer and quiet, and hopes it becomes somewhere her children can turn to throughout their lives.
Wagner has said her faith didn't take root until later in life. She has described going through a season of feeling "alone, sad, distant," before turning to God and beginning what she calls a real relationship with Him in her mid-to-late 30s. She said that once she began bringing her struggles to God in prayer, she felt an overwhelming sense of peace, comparing it to a "big bear hug."
That transformation, she says, changed the course of her life - just a month after that turning point, the man who would become her husband came back into her life after years apart.
Now balancing a demanding role in one of streaming's biggest action dramas with life on a 200-acre farm, Wagner says her priorities remain rooted in faith and family. "Lioness" season three finds her once again alongside co-star Laysla De Oliveira, with new episodes rolling out on Paramount+.
