What do you do if you’re a woman on The Bold and the Beautiful? Well, you pine over a Forrester man for years or decades, a Spencer man for years or decades, or a Forrester/Spencer/Logan-adjacent man for years or decades. And we have to ask ourselves why?
Perhaps Steffy Forrester Finnegan (Jacquline MacInnes Wood) asked herself the same thing because she stopped pining after these absolutely awful men and found herself a keeper. Amazingly, that keeper, John “Finn” Finnegan (Tanner Novlan), is the only male lead on the show we don’t place in the terribad category. But the rest? Why are they so horrible? Let us explain.
What could be so wrong with sweet and lovely Eric Forrester (John McCook) that makes him such a horrible man? Well, just because you are mature and congenial doesn’t mean you are Man of the Year. Never mind that one of Eric’s early acts during his 35 years on the soap was to cheat on his long-time wife with a much younger woman who started her tenure on the show pining after his son — something she is still doing all these kids and grandkids later.
All we need to do is look at the last 18 months to see why Eric is just so bad. He rejected his wife over and over again, making her feel worthless because he couldn’t dare tell her that he was suffering from erectile dysfunction. His pride allowed him to make his wife feel so unwanted that she ended up in the arms of another man. When Eric learned Quinn Fuller (Rena Sofer) was cheating on him with Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor), he eventually told her about his little problem, and she understood and vowed to be loyal and faithful to him, but that is not what Eric wanted.
No, Eric had summoned Carter over and asked him to “service” his wife because he couldn’t do it. He practically forced Carter and Quinn to have another affair despite their protestations. Um, Eric? Ick. Then, he changed his mind and decided he wanted Quinn back all to himself, so Quinn obliged. Sadly for Quinn, months later, she learned her husband was not all hers. Instead, he had spent all this time sleeping with ex-wife Donna Logan (Jennifer Gareis) while pretending he was off playing pickleball. Really, Eric? What did Quinn ever see in you? Well, at least Donna is happy — for now.
Ridge Forrester (originally played by Ronn Moss, now Thorsten Kaye) might not be Eric’s biological son, but Eric raised him, and apparently, Ridge learned from the master. Where does one even start with 35 years of Ridge? We might need a 10-part series to get it all in, but here is the condensed version.
After marrying the fair Caroline Spencer (Joanna Johnson), Ridge found himself a widower at a young age when Caroline died from cancer while they were still newlyweds. But never fear, he had other women waiting in the rear. Namely Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang) and Dr. Taylor Hayes (originally played by Hunter Tylo, now Krista Allen). Brooke thought she finally had her chance with Ridge, and Taylor was Caroline’s doctor and friend, so Ridge bonded with her after Caroline’s death, and they eventually fell in love.
Over the next three decades, Ridge went back and forth between Brooke and Taylor, raising children with them both. Yes, Brooke also had (quite a few) men in between, and Taylor was often presumed dead spending time with a man named Prince Omar (Kabir Bedi), but that didn’t mean Ridge couldn’t settle between one of them.
And he still hasn’t settled. Most recently, the man known as The Dressmaker showed his true Original Waffler colors once again when he mistakenly believed Brooke was the one who called Child Protective Services on his son, Thomas Forrester (Matthew Atkinson), when it was Thomas who did that himself using a voice-altering app to make it seem like Brooke.
Yes, Ridge had a right to be angry if Brooke had really done that, but did he have a right to not mention he wasn’t coming home for dinner while he flew off to Aspen to beg Taylor to be with him since he was ticked at Brooke for the moment? He didn’t even tell Taylor why he had left Brooke and made her believe it was all her, leaving Brooke in tears, wondering what the heck just happened. Sorry, but, ew.
Next, we have Ridge’s son Thomas whose litany of crimes includes scaring his own son with projections of a ghost on his bedroom wall at night, berating his son while trying to convince him not to ever tell Hope Logan Spencer (Annika Noelle) that her baby was alive, and lying to Hope about said baby so she would turn to him for comfort in her grief.
Once the truth about Baby Beth was revealed, Thomas paid the price, losing custody of Douglas Forrester (Henry Joseph Samiri) to Hope and losing the respect of his family. He finally seemed to earn that back but was then found romancing and making out with a mannequin who looked just like Hope, which revealed many of his actions were caused by a brain tumor.
Flash forward more than a year, and we really believed Thomas was turning over a new leaf, but then he made that CPS call, tried to convince Douglas to keep it a secret, and fell down the same rabbit hole of obsession with Hope again. Some things never change.
For years, Carter was just laying low, making himself indispensable to the Forrester clan as a Forrester Creations lawyer who became their personal lawyer and wedding officiator. It seemed that Carter was just watching and learning because when he came out of his shell, he revealed his true colors.
Carter needs to be in love. It just seems to be a part of him. In under two years, he has waffled between Zoe Buckingham (Kiara Barnes) and her sister, Paris Buckingham (Diamond White), nearly marrying them both. However, he spent his time with Paris pining for Quinn and dumped Paris right then and there at the altar when Quinn spoke now and didn’t hold her peace.
For a few months, it seemed that Carter and Quinn would live happily ever after, but then Quinn suddenly left town with no explanation, leaving Carter in the lurch. But not for long, as Katie Logan (Heather Tom) was waiting in the wings, and Carter was practically saying, “Quinn, who?” in about two days.
Yes, Dollar Bill Spencer (Don Diamont) is the man who was married to sweet Katie only to sleep with her big sister, Brooke, while Katie was suffering from post-partum depression. He is also the man who slept with his son’s wife, Steffy Forrester, but we guess we have to be fair and mention they’d had a relationship prior to Steffy marrying Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton). Bill’s inability to stay faithful is legendary, and it has left him so lonely that he just pulled one of his most cringe-worthy moves yet.
After learning that Ridge had left Brooke for the umpteenth time, he ran straight to Brooke and professed his undying love — more than once. He even staked a claim on Brooke and told Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) she would be his now and that he needed to stay away. Bill has spent weeks doing his best to convince Brooke that she is the true love of his life, but what did he do when Brooke finally convinced him it wasn’t going to happen?
He literally turned right around and used the same words on Katie. Like literally. Brooke left the room, and Katie entered the room, so Bill broke out his undying love speech on Brooke’s younger sister and his ex-wife. Thankfully, Katie didn’t fall for any of it and knew exactly what Bill was up to. Sorry, Bill, not today.
At one time, the two sons Bill didn’t even know he had until they were adults, couldn’t make up their minds between Steffy and Hope. Yes, both of them wanted and/or married Steffy and Hope at one point or another until Wyatt Spencer (Darin Brooks) grew tired of that game, had a fling with Katie, and then fell for Sally Spectra (Courtney Hope).
Things seemed to be going swimmingly between Wyatt and Sally for a while until his high school sweetheart, Flo Fulton (Katrina Bowden), turned up in town. Wyatt dumped Sally for Flo, learned Flo sold Hope’s baby to Steffy, dumped Flo, returned to Sally, and then changed his mind again. Wyatt’s waffling drove Sally to fake a fatal illness and then leave town altogether to get away from these people and start a new life in Genoa City.
Then, we have Liam. Oh, Liam, how many lessons did you take from Original Waffler Ridge to earn Waffler Junior status? Steffy or Hope? Hope or Steffy? Two willing women, way too little time. But, he managed to have a daughter with each and seems to treat them like Sister Wives. Amazingly, Steffy has grown sick of it, but nothing lasts forever, right? We fear we will be stuck in that vortex once again, but first, it seems that Liam may very well end up sleeping with Brooke, which brings us to….
That’s right. Brooke has no problem sleeping with her daughters’ men. She’s done it so many times before. That’s exactly how Hope came to be. Brooke slept with daughter Bridget Forrester’s (then played by Jennifer Finnegan) husband, Deacon, who has been pining for Brooke for decades.
However, sleeping with his wife’s mother is not the only thing on the list of Deacon’s crimes. In fact, he did so many illegal things he ended up behind bars for years and even entered into a War of the Roses marriage with Quinn in which they both tried to kill the other. Upon his release last year, he vowed to turn over a new leaf and forge a relationship with a now-grown Hope.
Things seemed to be going well for him, but he also got involved with Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) and is now keeping the murderous presumed-dead woman as a concubine in his one-room apartment. Of course, that didn’t stop him from proposing to Brooke the moment he heard Ridge dumped her again. When Brooke turned him down flat, he ran right back to crazy Sheila, proving he is just as horrible as any other man around him on this Terrible Man Soap.
The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.
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