Should Days of Our Lives’s Marlena Find Love Again After John’s Death? Vote Now!
One of Days of Our Lives’s — and all of daytime’s — most iconic supercouples was John and Marlena. The chemistry between portrayers Drake Hogestyn and Deidre Hall earned legions of loyal fans, and the epic love story between the characters endured for decades. Sadly, their romance came to a tragic end when John passed away. The character’s death in June 2025 was written to reflect Hogestyn’s passing in September 2024. Only a few months have passed since Marlena became a widow, but fans are already buzzing about the possibility of the character being moved into a new romance after Hall addressed the topic in a recent interview.
My Heart Will Go On
“I think Marlena will love again,” Hall told Woman’s World. However, the actress wouldn’t speculate about who the man in her life might be. “That’s up to casting, and our writers,” she said. “They’re so good at this. They’re also smart enough to know that it’s a big ask, to find somebody for Marlena. John and Marlena are iconic. Legendary! So there has to be magic. There has to be undeniable chemistry.”
Hall first joined the cast of DAYS back in 1976, and Marlena was romantically involved with characters like Don Craig (Jed Allan) and Roman Brady (then-Wayne Northrop) before Hogestyn was introduced to the canvas as the mysterious John Black in 1986.
When Marlena first met John, she was still grieving the apparent death of her husband, Roman. She fell for John, then known as The Pawn, as she helped the amnesiac discover his true identity, and she was overjoyed when she got proof that he was actually Roman! They joyfully renewed their vows in 1986, but their happiness was shattered the following year when Marlena was presumed dead in plane crash orchestrated by the evil Orpheus. It was John’s turn to be on the receiving end of a “back from the dead” miracle when Marlena resurfaced in 1991 — but soon, so did the real Roman, which is when Hogestyn’s version of Roman became John again. Marlena got back together with the OG Roman and John married Isabella, who passed away in 1992 from pancreatic cancer after giving birth to their son, Brady. But Marlena fell into an affair with John and gave birth to his daughter, Belle, in 1993. She and Roman divorced. After years of turmoil — much of it caused by Stefano DiMera (Joseph Mascolo) — and a memorable arc in which Marlena was possessed by the devil, but freed from Satan’s clutches after John successfully performed an exorcism — John and Marlena finally made it to the altar in 1999.
Their obstacles hardly stopped there; over the course of many years, there were divorces and remarriages, comas, shootings, interlopers, brainwashing, lookalikes, disappearances and all manner of other travails for John and Marlena to endure, but their love always won out in the end. Sadly, John’s death has brought their love story to an end.
Soaps are based around love and romance, and it’s common in daytime for widows and widowers to move on to new relationships, some of which prove to be very popular with fans. But can viewers accept another man — whether it’s someone like Roman (Josh Taylor), with whom she shares a past, or someone entering the canvas for the very first time — sweeping Marlena off her feet? Is that something fans want to see? Let us know where you stand in our online poll and share your thoughts in the comments below.
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.