Days of Our Lives’s Melissa Reeves ‘Honored,’ ‘Humbled,’ and ‘Blessed’ by Her 40th Anniversary Episode
On October 9, 1985, the character of Jennifer Horton returned to Days of Our Lives with Melissa Reeves taking over the role, and on October 9, 2025, the soap aired a special episode celebrating the 40th anniversary of the actress’s debut. “I was reading my script and thinking, ‘Oh, this is great. There are so many flashbacks. That means fewer lines to learn,” she told TV Insider of the tribute show. “And I’m flipping through the pages very quickly, scanning to see what I’m going to be doing, and then at the very last page, it says, ‘Final chyron screen. Happy Anniversary, Melissa Reeves. 40 years.’ I immediately texted Janet [Spellman Drucker, then-co-executive producer] and was like, ‘Janet, I am crying. I had no idea that anyone was going to do this, and I’m just honored. I’m humbled, I’m blessed, and I’m grateful that I can watch my life in one show. I can’t even explain to you just how special that is.’ ”
Sands Through the Hourglass
After her role of Jade Perkins on NBC’s new soap Santa Barbara was phased out, Reeves auditioned for a role on DAYS, and her life changed forever. From the beginning, the actress bonded with her TV grandmother, Frances Reid, who played the beloved matriarch Alice Horton. “What I remember most in the beginning was just sitting with her in her dressing room and her teaching me everything about show business, about professionalism, being on time, knowing your lines, and when they call you, you jump and you get to stage,” she recalled. “It was just such a great lesson in Hollywood. I would really listen to what everybody told me because I was still so green in this business.”
When the soap paired Jennifer with Jack (Matthew Ashford), the couple’s popularity skyrocketed, and Reeves found herself swept up in a whirlwind of celebrity. “When you’re in the middle of it, you don’t even realize it because you’re working so much,” she mused. “There was no social media, so you only knew, ‘Okay, the ratings are good. That’s good.’ We did magazine covers and went on public appearances, which was great because [we] would see that people loved our show, but without social media, we didn’t really know. But now, looking back, I can actually enjoy it and think, ‘Wow, we were really part of this crazy phenomenon.’ ”
Although Jennifer’s appearances in Salem have become less frequent in recent years, she remains a presence in one of the soap’s core families. “I always thought it would be so nice to carry on Frances’s legacy of the Horton family, to be this matriarch who leads and watches over people and offers advice,” Reeves says. “And Susan Hayes [Julie] is so sweet about it. She’s always rallying for Matt and me, and every time I come into town, she always invites me over and cooks a meal. And she’s just so precious. I mean, these are people who have been in my life for 40 years.”
And Jennifer’s story isn’t over yet. “As an actor, you live contract to contract because you never think a job could possibly last this long,” Reeve shares. “My dream was always to be a wife and a mom and now grandma, and this incredible career in television was like the icing on the cake. I couldn’t have really prayed for anything better.”
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Soap Opera Digest does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.