Stephanie on Days Of Our Lives — Everything You Need To Know

Stephanie Johnson had quite a life on Days Of Our Lives starting with being abducted as an infant! The character was born in 1990 and played by twins for a couple of years. In 2006, Stephanie was aged into a young woman with Shayna Rose playing her. But in 2007, the role was recast with Shelley Hennig, who portrayed Stephanie until 2011. She did pop back into Salem in 2017, but when the character returned in 2022, the role was being played by Abigail Klein. First on Beyond Salem and then on DAYS proper!

The daughter of Steve Johnson and Kayla Brady, Stephanie was kidnapped by her nanny, Sheila, but was later rescued in Australia. Following Steve’s death, Kayla took Stephanie and moved to Los Angeles. In 2006, Stephanie returned to Salem with her mother now an adult, and also a famous race car driver. She had a brief relationship with Max Brady before leaving town again.

After Steve was revealed to be alive, Stephanie came home again and began dating Jeremy Horton. She convinced Max and Chelsea Brady to invest in his business, but it turned out to be a counterfeit clothing smuggling operation. Max lost all his money but developed feelings for Stephanie, though she remained committed to Jeremy. After Jeremy left town to avoid the police, Stephanie tried to avoid her feelings for Max by dating Ford Decker, but the cad ended up drugging her drink and raping her!

Stephanie struggled to deal with her rape and when Ford continued to drug and rape other women on campus, she enlisted her sorority sisters to drug him and teach him a lesson. But in his out-of-it state, Ford tried to rape Chelsea and ended up falling down the stairs to his death. Terrified, Stephanie convinced everyone they should hide the body instead of calling the police. Although the truth later came out, Stephanie was not charged.

During this difficult time, Stephanie grew extremely close to Max and even helped him locate his sister, Melanie, in France. However, once Melanie was in Salem, the two women did not get along at all! When Stephanie turned Melanie in to the cops for a crime she’d confessed to, Max was furious and split up with her. Taking a job as an intern at Titan, Stephanie began working with Philip Kiriakis and sparks flew. Although Melanie tried stealing Philip for herself, he only had eyes for Stephanie. She accepted his marriage proposal, but soon found herself abducted as a pawn in the DiMera/Kiriakis feud. 

Though Stephanie was rescued, she continued to have PTSD from her abduction that strained her relationship with Philip and when he refused to cut ties to his family, she dumped him. Next, she began seeing Nathan Horton, but he clearly still had feelings for his ex, Melanie, so Stephanie was relieved when Melanie married Philip. Learning that Philip was the father of Chloe Lane’s baby, Stephanie tried to cover up the secret to prevent Melanie from divorcing him and going back to Nathan. However, when the secret came out, Nathan was so angry at Stephanie’s lies that he broke up with her anyway.

Stephanie wasn’t seen for a while, though it was later mentioned that she’d left town. In 2017, she returned to Salem to attend the remarriage of her parents, Steve and Kayla, but didn’t stay long. In 2022, Steve and Kayla went to Seattle to visit Tripp, Stephanie, and Joey but their happy reunion was marred when a bomb went off and Stephanie was badly injured. Thankfully, she recovered and returned to Salem sooner than she’d originally planned!

Sonny Kiriakis convinced Stephanie to do PR for Titan, but she was wary of working with Alex Kiriakis, who had immediately become smitten with her and came on way too strong. She insisted they keep their relationship strictly personal and tried to make it work. After taking on too much work by also managing Paulina Price’s campaign for governor, Stephanie agreed to hire Chad DiMera to help out. Things got awkward, though, when they shared a kiss and then nearly had sex! Later, helping Paulina recover blackmail material from Sloan brought Stephanie closer to Alex again. She started warming up to the guy and they also shared a kiss.

Unfortunately, Alex’s jealousy doomed his relationship with Stephanie after he turned off her phone so Chad couldn’t interrupt their night together… and she missed the call from the hospital that her mother was dying! Chad was there to comfort her and their relationship deepened instead. Thankfully, Kayla wasn’t dead, and Stephanie and Chad tracked her down in Greece where she had been held captive.

Stephanie remained friendly with Alex and supported his going to therapy to address his womanizing personality. She and Chad got an apartment and moved in together, but Alex moved nearby and continued to intrude until Stephanie had a serious talk with him. Unfortunately, she soon realized that Chad didn’t feel the same way she did about getting married and having a future together and they began to splinter. Things got more complicated when her ex, Everett Lynch, showed up in Salem and wanted her back! He explained he hadn’t ghosted her, but had been in an accident and stuck in a coma for years. 

Chad told Stephanie he wanted to work on their relationship, but when she found out he’d secretly bought The Spectator in order to fire Everett, she moved out and they split up. After bonding with Jada Hunter over drinks at the pub, Stephanie woke up the next morning in Harris Michaels’ bed! (Though he insisted they hadn’t had sex.) Refocusing her attention on Everett, she told him she wanted to be more than friends again and the pair confessed their feelings. However, things got complicated when Jada recognized Everett as her ex-husband, Bobby Stein, and it was soon revealed that the guy was suffering from DID! Chad warned Stephanie to keep her distance as Everett insisted he still loved her. She helped convince Everett to go to therapy and told Chad the truth about the alternate personality. But then Bobby took over and wouldn’t let Everett back out again!

Posing as Everett, Bobby dumped Stephanie, who compared notes with Jada and agreed that Everett likely wasn’t in control. They also wondered if Bobby had something to do with stabbing Rafe, and both were shocked to discover him near death after overdosing on pills! Everett proclaimed his love to Stephanie before he died, and she refused to believe he’d killed himself. (It was actually Connie, who killed him to cover her own tracks!) She leaned on Alex as she grieved, and they grew closer. Stephanie also took on a new job doing PR for Body and Soul, and helping Alex with his lines for the soap led to them sleeping together!