Life imitated art in the most beautiful way when, in 1970, Julie Olson and Doug Williams’ characters met on “Days of Our Lives,” and their real-life counterparts, Susan Seaforth and Bill Hayes fell in love and lived happily ever after. afterwards, in a marriage that lasted 50 years, until his death earlier this year. Now, “Days” and Seaforth Hayes will pay tribute to the man who once sang to Julie and Susan that they were “the most beautiful girl in the world.”

“Being without Bill is quite a change,” says Seaforth Hayes. Variety. “I really appreciate what the producers did to honor him – to allow me to give pretty much the same eulogy (on the show for Doug) that I did (Bill) in our church. I certainly didn’t expect this. He deserved to be elevated, and I was so, so happy that (his death) wasn’t just brushed over as something that happened offstage. This also happens a lot on stage. It was hard to do, but not as hard as going through it in life.

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The 12-tissue storyline unfolds over the next week, as Julie cares for her ailing husband while the series keeps the date of Doug’s death and Julie’s heartbreaking eulogy close to the vest. Although the scenes have already been recorded, Seaforth teases the touching goodbye by saying, “They’re apparently putting together a lot of historical tapes (Doug and Julie’s early days together).”

She adds: “The cast of ‘Days’ was there for me and for Billy too. Even Deidre (Hall) was there and visited him in the last days of his life. She was in the room with us,” she said, stopping as emotions began to bubble to the surface. “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 be as good as him, as good a person and as good a performer, and in return, do the best I can with the years ahead of the show, for the future. I don’t want to be separated and leave and have a private life. I prefer to work and do one of the few things I can do. I don’t know how to change things, but I know how to embody Julie’s character.

Seaforth Hayes took over the role of Julie in 1968, three years after the series began. Hayes joined the show a few years later, and it was instant romantic magic. They became one of Daytime TV’s first supercouples, on and off screen, marrying in real life in 1974 and on “Days” in 1976, when they appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

“We fell in love with each other in front of our viewers, and they knew it before we knew it,” smiles Seaforth Hayes. “And our editor Bill Bell, he knew it before we knew it. He abandoned the entire story he had planned and wrote a never-ending story for us. So I owe, I owe to “Days of Our Lives” my career, my happy marriage, my mother’s writing career. It’s all tangled up. And then the fact that I got a Lifetime Achievement Emmy because we were survivors and we were still crazy about each other. I don’t know. I have an Emmy for piano for Billy and for me, and it’s a wonderful thing.

On Nov. 2, fans gathered with the cast of “Days of Our Lives” at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the start of the show’s 60th anniversary.^th season. You read that right. “Imagine having a show that lasts 60 years. It’s not like show business…it’s like General Motors,” she jokes.

“In a world where so much is falling apart, it’s nice to know there’s a place where you can turn on the set and find yourself in a fantasy town with people you love, interesting people, and bad guys. ” Seaforth Hayes said. “They threaten the people you love and the reasons to watch and the reasons to fall in love with the characters. It’s an escape, but we have a responsibility to make it a happy escape.

At the event, Seaforth Hayes led a moment of silence and musical tribute in honor of Bill Hayes and Drake Hogestyn (John), who we also sadly lost this year. “We had a lot of music on the show, and for Tom and Alice’s birthday, Doug sang ‘I’ll Be Loving You Always’ to Tom and Alice, and the whole family sat at a long table, and we sang some of the bars from that one And so that was kind of the main love song for everyone… And then I wondered how much this audience that has loved Drake for so long deserved. thank him so we sang it for them and the fans were invited to join us.

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