DAYS Stars Bill and Susan Seaforth Hayes Share Soap Opera Secrets

Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes know a little something about love. The couple’s been married off-screen since 1974 and on-screen, their Days of our Lives characters, Doug and Julie, first got hitched in 1976. Now, the two are sharing a new project in which they provide advice about love and romance.

Bill and Susan Seaforth Hayes Soap Opera Secrets

Their grandson, David Samuel, had made a documentary about his grandfather’s life World by the Tail – The Bill Hayes Story. He then got to the idea for another project – Secrets of Soap Opera Lovers. “He asked, ‘What are your secrets to staying in love?'” Seaforth Hayes recalls. Samuel suggested the pair start writing them down and so the Hayeses did just that.

“David came up with this concept and videotaped it in our home and did a very professional job,” Seaforth Hayes adds. “He used the same crew that produced Bill’s movie.” The Hayeses set out to create the content one secret at a time. “We’d have a gem of an idea and then talk about it,” Hayes says.

Bill and Susan Seaforth Hayes’ Secret No. 1

“Kiss your lover every day and I’m talking serious sugar,” Hayes says. “I want an ‘I love you’ kiss first thing every morning and an ‘I love you’ kiss every night.”

“People ask us why we’re so happy well, that’s the first secret,” Seaforth Hayes says, “He kisses me in the morning and I feel wonderful…and at night, he comes around the bed he kisses me. I know no matter what the day has dumped on us, we’re together, we’re happy and it’s beautiful.”

The Hayeses illustrate and deliver the message of their secrets using classic footage featuring Doug and Julie from DAYS. They went to their garage to pull out old VHS tapes, DVDs, and reels of their work for research. The first secret includes a Doug and Julie bedroom scene from 1980!

Doug And Julie’s Romantic Ups And Downs

As veteran DAYS fans recall, Doug and Julie have been through nearly everything including Doug’s marriage to Julie’s mother Addie (Patricia Barry) and later, Julie being horribly scarred in a fire, prompting her to divorce Doug (following their marriage) so that he could move on with his life. Julie got plastic surgery, restoring her beauty, and returned to Salem, hoping to reunite with Doug – only to discover he was engaged to Lee Dumonde (Brenda Benet).

Doug split from Lee and he and Julie re-married despite Lee’s efforts to stop the wedding. Doug suffered a heart attack when his younger daughter Hope (Kristian Alfonso) fell for rebel Bo Brady (Peter Reckell). Doug and Julie shared a beautiful reunion in 1993. Over the years, Doug and Julie have come and gone from the canvas, but much to viewers’ delight, they’re now calling Salem their full-time home.

Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Salem, check out all the latest that’s been posted on DAYS spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.