If you’re a fan of Jane Seymour, then you’re surely excited to watch her new Hallmark holiday series, “Twelve Dates ‘Til Christmas” — that is, if you haven’t already checked it out!
Adapted from a 2020 novel by Jenni Bayliss and led by Mae Whitman, viewers get to see Seymour as Evelyn, “a widow who finds a spark with Mac (Nathaniel Parker), a divorcee recovering from a motorcycle injury and in need of expanding his world,” according to People.
If you think the role suits Seymour, then you might be interested to know that she agrees. That’s because she sees her own relationship reflected in her onscreen romance.
Getty“I felt that when I read this. I went, ‘Okay, I know who Evelyn is.’ That dynamic about two older people finding one another is very much my story,” she told People when they visited her on-set in Ireland. “And the nervousness of — what is it? How do you deal with this? What do you do at this time in your life? It’s something I know.”
While Seymour has been married four times, she is currently in a relationship with boyfriend John Zambetti, who she met in 2023 thanks to a setup by their sons.
An Ex-Wife Causes Issues Onscreen
CanvaWhile the romance between Evelyn and Mac blooms in the holiday series, his ex-wife appears and stirs things up.
As for Seymour’s thoughts on the situation, she told People, “I thought she was kind of spunky, independent, older. She’s got on with it, she’s making a life, and he’s got his ex-wife and life creeping up on him and destroying everything.”
“I think the Hallmark audience, a lot of them are my age, and they’re vicariously living through this,” Seymour said. “They’re going, ‘Oh my goodness, that could actually happen.'”
“They know in real life, it actually has happened to me, and then they’re even more kind of interested. ‘Oh, I wonder what that would be like,'” she says while referring to finding love later in life.
Jane Relates to Evelyn
While Evelyn is a widow, and Seymour is not, the star explained to People, “I can relate to it differently. I’ve never lost anyone who died on me, but my partner, his wife died, so I can relate to it because I know what I see him go through.”
Beyond that, Seymour also relates to Evelyn “being selfish enough to say, this is my time in my life, and I can do it myself.”
“And then she’s completely thrown for a loop when she actually has feelings for [Mac] and she doesn’t really quite know how to handle it. And so she has to dare — because her heart’s been broken by losing her husband,” the star said. “Does she really want to have another broken heart? She might lose him. I mean, I understand that one a lot.”
