Days Of Our Lives

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Jen Lilley is making her presence known on SABC3’s newly returned Days Of Our Lives (1965-current) as bad girl Theresa Donovan. And while we’re going to have her onscreen for a while, Jen quit the soap in May 2016 after three years. “Not playing her pains me. She’s a mess of gorgeous chaos,” says Jen of Theresa.

The 32-year-old says that she felt 1

held back on the soap. “Given the demanding production schedule that a soap opera requires, that just wasn’t possible with the other commitments and opportunities I wanted to pursue,” says Jen, who’s open to returning to her role if offered the chance.

She is also kept busy by her philan2

thropic work. Jen is an advocate for charity group Childhelp that assists abused children and she works with The Thirst Project, who help build water purification schemes around the world.

With 443 episodes as Theresa 3

under her belt, Days Of Our Lives is Jen’s longest acting gig. But before joining the soap, she was on rival show General Hospital (1963-current) for 114 episodes, playing the character of Maxie Jones from 2011 to 2012.

Her acting debut was a little less 4

impressive than her current roles though. “I played a swimsuit model in a 2007 episode of [Miley Cyrus show] Hannah Montana (2006-2011) in 2007. I cringe about that now,” she laughs.

Jen has an usual passion: pumpkin. 5

Her twitter description includes “pumpkin addict” and she posts snaps of everything from pumpkin pie to nonfat pumpkin lattes from Starbucks.

As for the other love of her life, 6

she’s been married to truck driver Jason Wayne since 2007. “He’s my rock, the one who keeps me normal,” she says. NB! See more on p29.