‘Days Of Our Lives’ Susan Seaforth Hayes To Honor Late Husband
For years, Susan Seaforth and Bill Hayes were known for their love story. Not only did their characters fall in love on Days of Our Lives, they themselves lived a real-life marriage. Now, Susan is set to pay tribute to her real and onscreen love on the soap.
A Real-Life Romance Created One Of TV’s First Supercouples
Susan took on the role of Julie Olson in 1968, with the character being briefly played by a few other actresses beforehand. Bill joined the series as Doug Williams in 1970, staying on in the role until his death in 2024.
The two characters would end up becoming one of television’s first supercouples. In real life, the two actors would also fall in love and marry in 1974. The two were together until Bill’s death in 2024 at the age of 98.
Susan is expected to honor her late love on the series. The actress gave a few hints of what to expect in a conversation with Variety. As she admitted, “Being without Bill is quite a change.”
“I really appreciate what the producers have done to honor him — to allow me to give pretty much the same eulogy [on the show for Doug] that I gave [Bill] at our church. I certainly didn’t expect that.”
“He deserved to be lifted up, and I was so, so pleased that [his death] wasn’t just passed over as something that happened off stage. It happens very much on stage too. It was difficult to do, but not as difficult as living through it in life.”
The Tribute Will Honor The Couple’s Early Days, Too
Although the eulogy has already been filmed, the crew is still working on sequence. As Susan revealed, “They’re apparently putting together a lot of historical tapes around [Doug and Julie’s early days together].”
Susan also highlighted how supportive the cast and crew was since losing Bill. As she shared, “The ‘Days’ cast was there for me and there for Billy too. Even Deidre [Hall] was there and visited the last few days of his life. She was in the room with us.”
“So, you know, that kind of support is wonderful. He deserved to be loved by a wide audience, and he was. And now I want to just be as good as he was, as good a person and as good a performer, and in return, do the best I can with the years that are coming in front of the show, for the future.”
Susan also commented on her real-life love story: “We fell in love with each other in front of our viewers, and they knew it before we knew it.” She ultimately thanked Days of Our Lives for “my career, my happy marriage, [and] my mother’s writing career.” This was a nod to her mother, actress and screenwriter Elizabeth Harrower, who worked on the writing teams for soaps her daughter worked on.
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