Days of our Lives’ Mary Beth Evans Recalls Emily and Gideon’s Love Story

Kayla and Steve have a love that has stood the test of time on Days of our Lives, thanks to the incredible acting of their portrayers — Mary Beth Evans and Stephen Nichols. One storyline that took place years ago had them appearing to go back in time as they relived the love story of star-crossed lovers Emily and Gideon.

Mary Beth Evans Looks Back

“That was my favorite storyline,” Evans tells Soap Hub about the time Steve and Kayla moved into an old mansion. Inside the house was a trunk that contained Civil War mementos and some diaries that belonged to a woman named Emily Matthews.

Kayla read the journals and discovered that Emily was a southern belle who fell in love with Gideon Wyatt, a Union soldier. DAYS told Emily and Gideon’s love story by having Evans and Nichols bring those characters to life onscreen. The head writer of DAYS at this time was Anne Howard Bailey.

“It gave us a vehicle to have them be in love again, have them fall in love again,” Evans says. “That’s what it’s all about. It’s why they break us up – so they can put us back together.”

As the story progressed, DAYS brought more authenticity to the saga by going on a remote shoot. “The best part was that we got to go to the south,” Evans recalls. “It was like being in a movie with costumes and locations. I loved it. We went to Charleston [South Carolina]. It’s something that I’ll never forget.”

At one point, Emily thought that Gideon had been killed during the Civil War. Fortunately, just like Steve, he turned up alive. Would the couple reunite before the war ended? The journals enabled Kayla to find out Gideon and Emily’s fate; the couple later moved into the very mansion that she and Steve were living in at the time.

Which storyline of Steve and Kayla’s is your favorite of all time? Sound off in the comments below! Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.