Days of Our Lives to Celebrate Steve and Kayla in Flashback-Filled Episode
Days of Our Lives is set to pay special tribute to one of soap operas’ most enduring love stories, the romance of Steve and Kayla, with a flashback-filled episode that will stream on Peacock on Friday, May 22. The inspiration for the special show? The 40th anniversary of the debut episode of Mary Beth Evans as Kayla Brady.
Forever Your Girl
The Daytime Emmy-winning actress assumed the role of Kayla, who had originally been played by Catherine Mary Stewart, on May 23, 1986, just shy of a year after her longtime leading man, Stephen Nichols, made his own debut as Steve Johnson. DAYS soon paired the duo, who became one of the most popular soap couples of the 1980s, replete with a splashy 1988 wedding shot on location aboard a yacht.
In a new interview with TV Insider, Evans reflected on the four decades she and Nichols have brought their characters’ epic romance to life. “I think about the connection that Stephen and I had from the beginning and what a beautiful love story was written,” she said. “They don’t make supercouples like that anymore. Back then, if they saw the spark, and that it worked, they really ran with it. I was lucky to be paired with him.”
The actress noted that antihero Steve and good girl Kayla were a classic “opposite attract” combination. “He was a bad boy, but he had a big heart and that’s why the coupling worked,” she mused. “Kayla saw the good in him when other people didn’t, and what woman wouldn’t want to have a guy look at her like that and see her truly and honestly?”
Over the course of their 40-year love story, Steve and Kayla have weathered every obstacle the DAYS writers could dream up for them, from time-honored soap classics like presumed death, amnesia, a wrongful murder conviction, surprise offspring and a back-from-the-dead spouse to the less common but equally outlandish (we’re looking at you, the Steve-has-Stefano’s-essence-implanted-into-him storyline!).
These days, Steve and Kayla are enjoying a period of relative domestic calm. “It’s nice to be able to play a happy marriage,” Evans said. “I try to show that they’re still in a loving, sexy relationship.”
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