Sad Details About Hallmark Star Jen Lilley

For years, Jen Lilley made Hallmark fans smile by starring in romantic movies centered on some of life's greatest joys, including puppies, chocolate, and wine. But, due to her faith, it was difficult for the "Where Your Heart Belongs" star to find a place where she felt like she belonged. She's also faced a few personal struggles unrelated to her work.

Lilley initially balked at the opportunity to portray Theresa Donovan on "Days of Our Lives" because the character's promiscuity, drug use, and other bad-girl behaviors were at odds with her Christian values. But when she prayed on it, she believes God responded by encouraging her to play the character. "I just remember sobbing and sobbing," she told Fox News of her reaction to getting the divine green light to join the secular world of daytime TV.

Lilley later got offers to appear in faith-based programming but said, "I'm so sick of bad Christian entertainment. I've been part of it and I hate it. I find it unpalatable and gross." While Hallmark seemed like a perfect fit for her, she's among the actors who left the network for Great American Family (GAC). Upon confirming the switch, she found herself defending her new home to heartbroken Hallmarkies. "I hope you're not believing the rumors you hear that have an agenda," she wrote in response to an Instagrammer who criticized GAC movies for lacking diversity. Lilley's controversial Hallmark exit isn't the only rocky patch she has maneuvered through in her career.

From 2011 to 2012, Jen Lilley temporarily replaced actor Kirsten Storms as Maxie Jones on "General Hospital." It can be hard for viewers to accept cast shakeups, but it seems that some "General Hospital" fans took their displeasure out on Lilley in a malicious manner. "I hope you will find it in your hearts to stop being so hateful toward me personally," she begged them in a 2012 TwitLonger post.

Lilley later told Soaps.com her experience on the "General Hospital" set was so terrible that she would never return to the show. She recalled, "There was a lot of emphasis on your weight. I would be told, 'Hey, you have to have a sex scene. Don't drink water, you'll bloat.'" On top of this, she was losing weight due to the mental and emotional toll of being in such a toxic work environment. "I was 96 pounds ... I couldn't even eat," she told Showbiz CheatSheet. "Like you are so stressed out that there isn't an amount of food that you could eat." She added that another contributing factor to her stress was the ever-present threat of being replaced.

Lilley had another negative experience when she returned to "Days of Our Lives" in 2023. She was excited to step back into Theresa Donovan's shoes, but during shooting, she was shocked to learn that the character was about to be recast. "I just think the way it was handled was not appropriate," Lilley told Soaps.com of the upsetting situation. 

When Jen Lilley and her husband, Jason Wayne, first moved to Hollywood, they struggled to make ends meet. The pair discussed those lean years on their YouTube series "Coffee Break with Jen and Jay." For them, a fun date activity was taking advantage of the Costco membership Lilley's parents gifted them by pigging out on free samples. 

They had a $50-per-month grocery allotment, which they spent on rice, onions, eggs, and powdered gravy. A rare culinary treat was the chicken breast they divided once every week. "We were like poor poor," said Lilley. When they tried to squeeze chicken sandwiches from the Wendy's value menu into their tight budget, Lilley couldn't enjoy the splurge because she knew they couldn't afford it. "The total was $2.27 with tax, and I remember I was crying while we were eating our sandwiches," she recalled.

The couple's studio apartment also left a lot to be desired. "We lived in this hell hole ... it was definitely devised by Satan," Lilley said. It was the type of place where roaches would scatter from the shower when you turned the water on. But their unwanted roommates were far from the couple's only issue. "We didn't have heat; at one point, our hot water heater went out; there were feral cats everywhere," Lilley recalled. The lack of heat became an issue during the holidays. "We were so cold, and I was just like, 'I can't do Christmas.' ... It was so sad," the "Snowkissed" star said in another episode of the show.

Jen Lilley and Jason Wayne became interested in becoming foster parents after getting involved with the nonprofit Childhelp. Their journey began as mentors for a little girl housed at one of the charity's residential treatment villages. "She was going to go back into foster care, and she was terrified about it," Lilley recalled to Parade. Upon learning this, she and Wayne decided to become licensed foster parents so they could welcome their mentee into their home. "We didn't get this little girl, our Special Friend, which was pretty devastating. We wanted to adopt her," Lilley continued. On the "Informed Pregnancy" podcast, the "Harvest Love" actor revealed that she even got her house all prepared for the girl's arrival.

Lilley and Wayne were asked to take in an infant instead, which they were totally unprepared for. Lilley told Parade that she scrambled to put together an Amazon registry so that anyone who wanted to help could purchase some essentials for baby Kayden. 

Lilley learned that Kayden had some health issues, which she touched on in a 2020 Soap Opera Digest interview. "Kayden was potty-trained at age 2, but then he had some medical complications," she said. "He had to be circumcised and have a lot of surgeries, so that unpotty-trained him pretty fast." On "Informed Pregnancy," she revealed that he also had laryngomalacia, a congenital condition that causes breathing issues. Kayden's labored breathing kept Lilley up at night. "He sounded like Darth Vader," she said. Thankfully, her foster story had a happy ending: She and Wayne adopted Kayden and his half-brother, Jeffrey.

Jen Lilley had some scary experiences with ovarian cysts. When she was 19 years old, one of them ruptured. She feared she was going to die when she began feeling like she was going to pass out. She didn't understand exactly what was happening to her at the time and thought she was suffering from severe heat exhaustion. "I was in so much pain, my body went into shock," she said on the "Informed Pregnancy" podcast. She began hyperventilating and found herself barely able to move when her muscles froze up. "It's almost like a rigor mortis," she said. Luckily, she was able to phone her mom and get help. Lilley was slurring her words badly, but her mother could understand her well enough to realize that she was begging her to call 9-1-1.  

On another occasion, Lilley nearly had to have an ovary removed. "A doctor had to stick his fist up me and rotate manually my left ovary," she recalled. Unsurprisingly, she was in an extreme amount of pain during that ER visit. 

In a vulnerable Instagram post, Lilley shared that she had experienced a different kind of pain in 2018. Amidst waiting to see if she could officially adopt Kayden, she had a miscarriage. "When it happened, I was devastated and felt so alone," she wrote. "I was 12 weeks along, just a week from telling my family, and beyond excited." When Lilley gave birth to her second daughter, Jackie, in 2022, she revealed that she had suffered another miscarriage at some point. "I know the heartache [that] accompanies such loss even years later," she shared.

In a 2020 Instagram post, Jen Lilley begged her followers not to fall prey to the insecurity that can be triggered by celebrities' picture-perfect social media posts. After pointing out that a star's Instagram grid never tells the full story, she shared a silent struggle of her own. "I had an eating disorder for 15 years I never thought I'd escape or heal from," she revealed. There's another tragic layer to her difficult road to becoming healthy: Lilley considered her fixation on her weight sinful behavior instead of a mental health issue.

Lilley told Unplug Productions that her body image issues were influenced by the unrealistic body standards set by celebrities. "I loved food, and so when I discovered that I was able to throw up, I started that pattern," she recalled. On the "Jesus Calling" podcast, Lilley said that she struggled to find support when she reached out to those around her for help. "When I would tell people, they'd be like, 'Well, just stop throwing up.' And it's not that easy," she said. This caused her to feel so much shame for being bulimic that she quit talking about it out of fear of being judged. She even felt like others might consider her a bad Christian. But when she found the courage to open up to her husband about it, she finally found the source of support she needed. "My husband had the best reaction," she shared. "He cried and he was like, 'I'm so sorry. I had no idea. How long has this been going on and how can I help you?'"