Real-Life Celebrity Breakup: Marcy Walker and Billy Warlock

Marcy Walker and Billy Warlock — two of the most popular actors in soaps found their way to each other. But like so many fictional supercouples, this real-life romance was torn asunder.

Marcy Walker and Billy Warlock’s Whirlwind and Secret Courtship

Owing to each party fiercely guarding their private life — in stark contrast to the type of character that the performers seem to so easily embody —  little is known about their early courtship.

What’s undisputed is that it began sometime in 1984, one year after Walker and her All My Children co-star Michael E. Knight ended their romantic relationship. Remembers Knight, “Marcy wanted a relationship, a very secure one. I didn’t want to be that heavily involved right away. Marcy did. That’s why we broke up.”

Hitched…With Multiple Hitches
After months of dating, it’s understood that Warlock was the one who popped the question. He and Walker busied themselves with wedding plans and settled on a date — November 2, 1985.

But like so many a daytime wedding — Walker’s Santa Barbara heroine had her first happy day marred by multiple interruptions and the immolation of the event’s venue — this real-life attempt was not without its obstacles.

The four stretch limousines ordered by the bride to chauffer the 30 guests to the picturesque Carmel, California-situated cliff never arrived. After much handwringing and phone negotiations, she was able to secure replacement vehicles.

Post ceremony, the couple had difficulty cutting and dispersing their cake because the tope tier was false and hard to slice. According to Walker, “We practically had to saw it off!”

Marcy Walker and Billy Warlock Divorce and Duke It Out In the Press

Despite giving the appearance of a happy twosome — numerous articles at the time quoted the pair’s little bon mot’s including, “I Never Get Jealous When She Kisses Someone Else…Well, Almost Never” and “I Go Shopping & Billy Goes to the Gym” —  Walker and Warlock decided to call it quits in July of 1988.

Warlock’s claim at the time was that “she literally called me on the phone from Santa Fe, NM, and said, ‘I don’t want to be married anymore.’ I haven’t seen her since. This business didn’t break us up as far as I’m concerned but it did, indirectly, because Marcy was on location and met some guy and said goodbye to me.

“But, see, I think that could have happened if she went out to the supermarket and met a guy, so I can’t blame it on the business.” But Walker’s tale is a contrary one. In her version, she and Warlock had split long before she even met future husband, cinematographer, Stephen Collins.

Furthermore, Walker laid the blame of her unraveling marriage squarely at Warlock’s feet. “He thought I was somehow higher than him and I could never live it down. I couldn’t jump off the pedestal. He was unhappy about everything and I couldn’t be happy about anything. I think that Billy is fantastic and, in his heart, he’s one of the nicest people that you’ll ever meet.

“…Unfortunately, if you really love someone, you let them know when they’re bad as well as when they’re good. He needed as much positive reinforcement as he could get and never wanted to hear the negative…”

Reflections
The divorce, and the passage of time, seemed to cool Warlock’s ire. In an interview, after discussing the irony of going through a very public — and very real divorce — while he was embroiled in play-acting Frankie Brady’s divorcing of Jennifer Horton on Days of our Lives, he said that “the pain is gone now and Marcy and I are friends.”