Days of Our Lives Brings Another Beloved Horton Home to Say Goodbye to Doug
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI (2)
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The latest casting announcement from Days of Our Lives was, we have to admit, all but inevitable. The show announced that they were filming both the 15,000th episode and Doug’s funeral this week, and adding that there’d be even more returns — and surely, in addition to Stephen Schnetzer’s Steve Olson and Gloria Loring’s Liz Chandler we’d get more Hortons back
We’ve now gotten word that Jennifer is headed home as well, played by the woman who originated the role as an adult (well, teenager, but you get the point) back in 1985, Melissa Reeves. The actress spoke with TVInsider exclusively about her return, sharing that she’d be back to celebrate Thanksgiving and join in the memorial to the late, great Bill Hayes (Doug) when the show pays tribute to him. Jennifer, viewers may remember, hasn’t been seen since Xander and Gwen pretty much chased her and Jack out of town, blackmailing The Spectator away from them.
At the time, though, Jennifer was played by Cady McClain. Reeves had last played Laura and Bill’s beloved daughter back in 2021. So naturally, the actress told TVInsider, after the joy of being asked back, she was concerned about taking the role from McClain, who’d won an Emmy for playing Jennifer back in 2021. Before accepting the invitation, she wanted to make sure it was OK with her predecessor. “But it worked out,” she noted.
The return is far from a surprise because while McClain did an incredible job with the role, Reeves had played it from the time she was 18, off and on for decades. And in that time she’d grown incredibly close to Hayes.
“Of course I cried because he’s such an incredible man,” she said of Doug’s beloved portrayer, “but what an incredible legacy he has left behind as a man, as a father, as a grandfather, as a husband.”
As of now, there’s no word on if Matthew Ashford will be bringing Jack back home as well, but it’s hard to imagine the couple splitting up for such an important time with family. And when asked by TVInsider whether she’d be up for coming back for a more permanent stay, it’s something that Reeves has thought about.
“I think throughout your life,” she shared, “that’s always what you’re striving to have, this closeness and this community together and I always feel that when I’m there. I told Matt [Ashford, Jack], ‘I would even come back full time but the problem is, I don’t have a place to stay anymore.’ I always had family in Los Angeles but all the Reeveses have moved to Tennessee!”
