Five Things That Happened On May 31 In Soap History

In 1984, As The World Turns’s Steve Andropoulos (Frank Runyeon) and Betsy Stewart (Meg Ryan) wed. A real-life catastrophe had to be avoided, as an actual Greek Orthodox priest was tapped to perform the ceremony, and when he overheard some foul-mouthed language from the director, “The priest was, of course, horrified and stormed out of the building,” Runyeon recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2012. “All of the producers were running down 72nd Street after this guy, calling, ‘We didn’t mean it. Please forgive us.’ ” Twenty million fans tuned in to see the nups, the second highest-rated in daytime history (eclipsed only by GH’s Luke and Laura).

In 1993, All My Children’s Brooke English (Julia Barr) married Tad Martin (Michael E. Knight), the father of her young son, Jamie Martin, who she had given birth to while Tad was presumed dead. Tad's heart was still with Dixie, to whom he'd formerly been married, but he wanted to give his son a stable home, leading to his decision to settle down with Brooke. Brooke, likewise, was in love with someone else: Edmund Grey. So, it should come as no surprise that the marriage was not a long-lasting one.

In 1996 on General Hospital, Jasper "Jax" Jacks (Ingo Rademacher) and Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil) eloped at the precise moment that her former lover, Sonny Corinthos, watched in horror as pregnant wife Lily Rivera Corinthos was blown up by a car bomb intended for him. Sonny and Brenda had yearned to reunite, but called it off when Sonny found out about Lily's pregnancy. Her death (and that of her unborn child) was a pivotal moment in Sonny's life, and in the red-hot Jax/Brenda/Sonny love triangle.

In 2001, Kimberly McCullough crossed over to All My Children for emotional episodes surrounding her character, Robin Scorpio, reuniting with Anna Devane (Finola Hughes), her mother, who had been presumed dead since 1992.

In 2021 on Young and Restless, a DNA test confirmed to Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor) that he is indeed the biological father of Harrison Locke (Kellen Enriquez), as Kyle's former lover, the very married Tara Locke, had claimed. After becoming pregnant by Kyle, Tara had passed her child off as the biological son of her husband, Ashland Locke. Kyle eventually secured custody of the boy, and Summer Newman adopted him as her own.