Notorious Affairs: DAYS

The Cheater: Julie Banning The Other Man: Doug Williams When Doug Williams got out of prison in 1970, he headed to Salem in search of his old cellmate, Bill Horton, and Susan Martin; Bill had told him that Susan had inherited a substantial sum from her late husband. Doug tried to woo the wealthy widow, but she wasn’t interested. Instead, she offered to pay Doug to seduce Scott Banning’s wife, Julie, so she could have Scott for herself. Doug took the job and by year’s end, Julie and Doug became lovers. Doug fell for Julie for real and they carried on behind her spouse’s back, their affair known only to a guilt-ridden Susan, as Julie was reluctant to end her marriage given her fraught relationship with her young son, David. Just as Julie resolved to divorce Scott and marry Doug, her suspicious mother, Addie, hired a private investigator to dig into Doug’s past. The detective uncovered not only that Doug had been in jail, but that he was carrying on with Julie. Addie confronted Doug ... and in time, fell for him herself! One night, Doug and Julie had a huge fight. When Addie showed up at his place and asked him to marry her, he accepted and they tied the knot in 1972. Julie was devastated to find out that her lover had eloped with her mother. The union produced a daughter, Hope, in 1974, and ended when Addie was struck by a car that same year trying to save Hope. Two years later, Doug and Julie finally wed (for the first of three times).

The Cheater: Marlena Evans Brady The Other Man: John Black When Isabella died from pancreatic cancer in 1992, Marlena began consoling her widowed ex, John, reigniting their emotional intimacy, and they were further drawn together when John saved Marlena from psycho kidnapper Stella Lombard. Recognizing that their rekindled feelings were straining Marlena’s marriage to Roman, John decided to leave town in 1993, and she trailed him onto his private jet to say good-bye — and they wound up giving in to temptation and making love. They vowed not to let it happen again, but their passion got the best of them at a party celebrating Titan Publishing and they had sex in the conference room. Roman’s daughter Sami caught them in the act but kept quiet to spare her father pain. Marlena later learned she was pregnant and Sami doctored a paternity test to make it appear as though the baby girl John later helped deliver, Belle, was Roman’s biological daughter and not John’s. But the truth came out after Stefano caught wind of Belle’s true lineage (thanks to Sami’s dishy diary entries), and he forced Marlena to reveal her extramarital antics to Roman (and everyone else at the church) during Belle’s christening. Roman was heartbroken, especially when he later found out that John was Belle’s bio dad. The double whammy resulted in Roman and Marlena’s divorce, and she ultimately tied the knot with John (for the first of several times) in 1999.

The Cheater: Lexie Carver The Other Man: Brandon Walker Lexie and Abe’s marriage was in shambles in 2002 after he discovered that she had knowingly kept Bo and Hope’s son away from them, drawing Lexie closer to her hunky hospital colleague, Brandon — who, unbeknownst to her, was secretly Abe’s biological son and was angling for revenge against him. Lexie and Brandon had a one-night stand at his place, which she begged Brandon to keep quiet about, and when Lexie learned she was pregnant and shared the news with an overjoyed Abe, she failed to mention that she wasn’t completely sure that the baby was his. On an action-packed day in 2003, Lexie went into labor, prompting Brandon to blurt out to bride-to-be Sami that Abe is his father — a confession Abe and Lexie overheard. Abe allowed Brandon to stay for little Theo’s birth, after which Sami — fearing that she was about to be busted for tampering with the paternity test Lexie had taken to demonstrate that Abe was the daddy — dragged Brandon off to elope, but once the vows were swapped, Lucas, Kate and Nicole burst in to enlighten Brandon about his new wife’s trickery. Thinking the baby was his, Brandon returned to the hospital, where Lexie had just come clean with Abe (who was understanding) about having slept with Brandon, but Lexie revealed that she’d been wise to Sami’s games and had set her up — the baby really was Abe’s. In the end, Abe and Lexie stayed married — and Brandon and Sami did not.

The Cheater: JJ Deveraux The Other Woman: Eve Donovan In 2014, JJ was down in the dumps after a fight with gal pal Paige and found himself commiserating with her mother, Eve, who had just gotten some bad medical news and was trying to drink her pain away. Soon, the duo was ripping each other’s clothes off and heading to Eve’s bedroom. Eve demanded that JJ break up with Paige; otherwise, she would tell Paige about their tryst. JJ reluctantly complied, fibbing to Paige that he’d cheated on her with a woman named Roxanne. Filled with self-hatred over the split, JJ wound up in bed with Eve again (and again), and in 2015, his mother, Jennifer, was horrified when she caught her son in the throes of passion with her worst enemy. Jennifer strong-armed Eve into agreeing to stop standing in the way of JJ and Paige’s happiness. Paige agreed to try again with JJ, but wound up overhearing an explosive argument between Eve and JJ that exposed their past sexual relationship. The humilated young woman then announced the tryst at her own birthday party. Paige disowned her mother and dumped JJ. Before she could fully reconcile with either, she was murdered.