“Tell Me Lies”' Jackson White Reveals the Funny Thing About Mom Katey Sagal's Return in Season 3 (Exclusive)
- - “Tell Me Lies”' Jackson White Reveals the Funny Thing About Mom Katey Sagal's Return in Season 3 (Exclusive)
Julia MooreJanuary 13, 2026 at 4:53 PM
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Tell Me Lies star Jackson White's mom, Katey Sagal, returns as his on-screen mother in season 3
Sagal starred in season 1 as mom to Stephen DeMarco (White) and made a brief appearance in the new episodes that dropped Jan. 13 on Hulu
White tells PEOPLE it was "great" to have his mom back on the show
Katey Sagal makes a blink-and-you-miss-it return in Tell Me Lies season 3.
Sagal played mom to her real-life son, Jackson White, in the first season of the hit Hulu series, but did not appear in the second season. In season 3, which kicked off on Wednesday, Jan. 13, she briefly returned to reprise her role — but just on a phone call.
Stephen (White) calls his mom to ask about his sister, Sadie, who is losing her scholarship at college, and to ask if he can visit them at home, a request his mom declines.
Sagal's return was so brief that White, 29, tells PEOPLE he didn't even get to work with her. "We didn't work together," White says of Sagal, 71. "I didn't get to act with her this year. They put her in the ADR booth."
Josh Stringer/Hulu via AP Jackson White and Katey Sagal in 'Tell Me Lies' season 1
Instead, he says an assistant director named Steve was on the other end of the phone when he recorded the scene. "He was like, 'No, son, I don't think it's a good idea that you come home.' That was my mom — Steve," the actor recalls.
Though it was brief, White says "it was great to hear her voice."
When season 1 premiered, White told PEOPLE that his mom had told him not to follow in her footsteps in the acting world. "Do something else," he remembered her telling him.
"I wasn't allowed to act until I was 18. I had to grow up first," White said, though he "didn't listen" to her advice about pursuing a different career path.
Rich Fury/Getty
Jackson White and Katey Sagal at the premiere of HBO's "Mrs. Fletcher" on Oct. 21, 2019
Getting to work with her son might have changed Sagal's mind. "It was really fun for us," the Sons of Anarchy star said of appearing on Tell Me Lies season 1 during a 2025 episode of Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler's MeSsy podcast. "We had never — we have sung together before on stage, but we'd never worked as actors together, and we have a super close relationship."
"He's a psycho on the show, like with no conscience. So then his mother gets to be even worse, so that you end up having sort of sympathy for his character, 'cause you realize where he came from," she said of her son's home life.
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Sagal added, "We are not like psycho mom and son. And it was really fun to put on different clothes to be these different people."
Sagal also said on the podcast that her son, who she shared with her late ex Jack White, "hates that whole ‘nepo baby’ thing."
"He didn't lean into any of that," she said. "You know, he has a different last name than me, and a lot of people don't know that he's my kid, and he takes a lot of pride in that."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
