The Bold And The Beautiful Stars Whose Real Lives Are More Tragic Than Their On-Screen Personas
According to Elana Levine in "Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History," In the start of the 1980s, soap operas became a regular occurrence on small screens across the country – and they have only continued to grow from there. Soap operas have accompanied millions of viewers on their day-to-day lives for decades, bringing stories to the screen that resonate or dramatize their personal stories.
Robyn Drysdale, from University of New South Wales, told the BBC, "There is a lot of discussion going on around human rights, and respect and an increased understanding of quite marginalized populations. That hadn't happened before." That is exactly what happens with soap television. They take the space to talk about topics that have previously been avoided or treated as taboo. This has allowed fans to submerge themselves in well-crafted (and never-ending) fictional worlds.
However, submerging in this world sometimes means audiences forget that the actors they have loved for a long time have lives off-screen. This has happened to the cast of "The Bold and The Beautiful," a soap opera that has been on the air since 1987. Its seasons have seen many actors come and go, and with that, many have been the circumstances that have affected their lives outside the show. From the loss of family members to car accidents and arrests, a lot has happened to the cast of "The Bold and The Beautiful."
Hunter Tylo's daughter was diagnosed with cancer
Hunter Tylo joined the cast of "The Bold and The Beautiful" in 1990 as a regular in the role of Taylor Hayes. Since then, she has been on-and-off the show with a guest role. But throughout her time on the soap opera, her personal life was turned upside down on more than one occasion.
"She was not a wonderful baby. She was crying. She was showing signs of something that was painful," Tylo told CNN in 2003 about her (then) 4-month-old daughter. In 1998, Katya was diagnosed with a form of eye cancer that is called retinoblastoma. "[The doctor] told me that she would be getting surgery within four days to remove an eye, if it was indeed as bad as he thought. He said that the remaining eye, if we can save it, is going to require several months of chemotherapy."
Although the diagnosis was scary, Tylo remained positive and told AP, "We learned that there are many treatments to cure retinoblastoma and thankfully the cure rate is extremely high." After going through her daughter's treatment and later chemotherapy sessions, Tylo started Retinoblastoma International with her husband Michael Tylo that helped pass legislation in California that would help prevent these cases and treat children earlier on. As for Katya, she's now living a cancer-free life.
Hunter Tylo's son passed away
In 2007, Marv Dauer, Hunter Tylo's manager, told Reuters, "She's had one tragedy in her life after another, more than her share," referring to the tragic loss of her son. Less than a decade after her daughter's diagnosis, Tylo had to face the most painful scenario for a mother. Her son Michael drowned in her Las Vegas home pool. He was 19 years old.
According to an interview on "Larry King Live," Tylo's son suffered from complex partial seizures (via People). On the day of his death, Tylo received a call from her oldest son, Chris, that would change her life forever. "And it was the worst thing I have ever heard in my life. I thought the worst thing in life was having a sick child and then having a child that might be blind. But there's really nothing more painful than losing a child."
In 2009, Las Vegas Sun reported Tylo was suing the therapy center and social worker that had worked with her son. However, the attorney, Michael Shannon, said, "Given that Mickey was diagnosed with seizure disorder and was actively being treated for the disorder in the years after his therapy with Downing ended, there is no conceivable connection to the therapy and the accidental drowning."
Ronn Moss was in a car accident
Ronn Moss's character, Ridge Forrester, was introduced to the fans of "The Bold and The Beautiful" in 1987. For 4,334 episodes, he captivated audiences around the country. However, his time on the show came to an end in 2012. When talking about his departure, he told EW that he saw this as an opportunity to be reborn and listen to the signs around him.
Moss also mentioned his exit from the show came shortly after he and his wife, Devin DeVasquez, were in a terrible car accident. DeVasquez shared in a since-deleted Facebook post, "Ronn and I were in a horrible car accident yesterday that involved 8 cars and totaled our brand new truck. An old guy came out of nowhere and hit two cars before hitting us ... It was quite a scene and poor Ronn had a bad bump on his head that was bleeding along with a shoulder injury. I'm pretty sore and bruised. But we are so blessed to be alive and grateful no one else was hurt."
Seven years after his departure, Moss told Who the real reason his character had to leave the show was because he was struggling with his memory after the accident. "It sounds funny, but it was true. I got to the point where I couldn't even remember what I was supposed to say in scenes the next day and I thought, 'I don't know if I can continue to do this.'"
Linsey Godfrey was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hunter Tylo wasn't the only "The Bold and The Beautiful" cast member who had to face the hardships of a cancer diagnosis in her life. Linsey Godfrey was still a teenager when she received the terrible news of her Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis. She told Soaps, "I underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy over the course of six months. I actually shaved my head on my 18th birthday. I rode horses and was at the beach 24/7. My momma said the beach cures and heals everything. Even the soul."
Whether it was the beach, the horses, or the numerous treatments she underwent, in 2019, Godfrey celebrated in a since-deleted tweet that she was in her fourth year in remission. "Sending love and strength to those still battling! You got this! I'm here for you!"
Godfrey's journey is inspiring for many cancer survivors who didn't know what their life would look like after chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery. In her case, she didn't know if after the treatment she would be able to have children. However, in 2015, she told ET, "In June of last year my daughter was born and I was so thrilled I couldn't believe it. She was a miracle baby. She's amazing."
Linsey Godfrey was diagnosed with BPD
Mental health always seems to be a taboo topic that not many open up about. But that wasn't the case for Linsey Godfrey, who in 2019 talked about her borderline personality disorder. Her specific diagnosis is known as borderpolar, which Doctor Mark Zimmerman told People, "refers to individuals with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder."
In 2021, Godfrey spoke with Soaps in Depth about how difficult life had been for her, watching several changes with the people around her and with self-medicating in order to treat her depression. It wasn't until she had a nervous breakdown paired with anxiety, alcohol abuse, and self-harm that she was able to get the help she needed and receive the diagnosis that would help her feel better in her life.
"I had been struggling for so long, and I knew I wasn't okay. Even though it was a big, awful pill to swallow, I was relieved to finally have an answer and not just, 'You're a sh**** person,'" she shared with People. In the same interview, she opened up about how afraid she was to lose her job, but how rewarding it was to speak her truth and see others resonate with her story. "Mental illness doesn't discriminate. It doesn't care who you are, or what family you were born into, or what your experiences were. The more we talk about it, the less alone everybody would feel."
If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
Linsey Godfrey was abused by a family member
Although tragedy seems to follow Linsey Godfrey quite closely, she has never shied away from speaking about delicate topics and how they have affected her life. The same way she talked about her cancer and her mental health, she talked about the abuse she experienced in the hands of her stepfather.
In 2017, after the conversation surrounding Harvey Weinstein began, sexual assault survivors started sharing their stories and talking about the importance of speaking up. Godfrey was among them, sharing her personal experience through Instagram (which has since been deleted). "It's something I've never really said out loud before. I am a sexual abuse survivor. My step father, who I called 'dad,' molested me from the age of seven until fourteen years old. It started small, groping and rubbing over my clothes on my breasts, between my legs and butt. Even now as I write this, I find it hard to say he rubbed my vagina over my clothes."
Throughout the post, she shared details of the abuse and the different times in which he forced himself on her. "I never spoke about it, scared people would judge me for being the victim. No more. Today, I share my story in hopes other women will share theirs too. Please, I implore you: don't be silent. Speak out against your attacker, even if it's as simple as responding to this post."
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
Winsor Harmon was hit by a car
For over a whopping 1,400 episodes, Winsor Harmon has brought Thorne Forrester to life on "The Bold and The Beautiful." His last episode in a recurring capacity was in 2016. Two years after that, in April 2018, Harmon posted a photo of his helmet to share with his fans that he had been hit by a car while he was on his bike. The actor spoke of the importance of his health and the fear he felt after the accident, noting he was doing rehab on his neck, shoulder, and back. The actor was training for a race in Los Angeles, California, when the accident happened, but had to put an end to it in order to focus on his rehabilitation.
According to the CDC, biking accidents that involve cars make up 2% of the people who die in crashes. Among those, the individuals who are at higher risk are those between the ages of 55 and 69, particularly male cyclists. Harmon was just barely below that group as he was 54 when the accident occurred.
Winsor Harmon was arrested
Throughout his career, Winsor Harmon has been in the headlines for his multiple public arrests. His first arrest was reported in February 2018 by Radar. The police arrested the former "The Bold and The Beautiful" star after he was allegedly found urinating in a park in San Fernando Valley, California, but the actor has made no comments regarding this incident.
Just three months later, TMZ reported the actor was arrested a second time once again for allegedly being drunk in public. People around the area called the police because there was a man sleeping in his car in the same area where Harmon had been found in the park. When the cops arrived and inspected the SUV, they found the actor inside surrounded by cans of beer.
The police that arrived on the scene described Harmon as "disoriented and inebriated." He was arrested and taken into custody. Once more, no comments were made by the actor regarding the arrest. However, no charges have resulted from either arrest, and Harmon was given a citation after the second one.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Annika Noelle had a miscarriage
Pregnancies are often publicly discussed and celebrated, but rare are the times in which the conversation focuses on the hardships some women face while being pregnant or miscarriages. Annika Noelle, who joined the cast of "The Bold and The Beautiful" in 2018 for 822 episodes, wrote an essay for Glamour in which she discussed losing her babies. "What started as a therapeutic piece for myself soon evolved into more. While I normally try to keep my personal life private, I decided to share my story with the hope that it might help at least one woman feel a little less alone. We are brave, we are resilient, we are strength embodied," she wrote on Instagram in October 2021.
In the essay, Noelle describes the cruel reality of showing up for an ultrasound appointment to find out there no longer was a heartbeat. She touches upon the speed in which her life continued to move as she filmed a soap opera and how exposed she felt in the public eye.
For Noelle, fiction and reality intertwined in the most horrific way. After portraying her character's loss of a baby at eight months, Noelle lost her baby daughter at 10 weeks and her son at eight weeks. "I hope we can continue to give ourselves permission to share these experiences so that, one by one, our voices can grow from a murmur into a resounding chorus. In doing so, we can feel a little less alone and a whole lot more brave. Because we need each other."
Katherine Lang was in a horseback riding accident
The year was 1987 when Katherine Lang first captivated the audience with her performance as Brooke Logan. As of this writing, over 6,000 episodes later, Lang continues to showcase her talent on "The Bold and The Beautiful," even though Brooke's last name has changed more than once.
On May 8, 2022, Lang shared through her Instagram the painful news that she had been injured while horseback riding with some of her friends. Although she had been riding, the injury happened when she tripped on a rock. "My ankle and foot dislocated off to the left at a 90 degree angle to my leg. I pushed it back into place. It was so gross but I had to do it. Thankfully this happened by a road and a nice stranger called 911. And thankfully I was with my friends who helped with my horse and my spirits ... I will still go to work later this week and try to heal quick."
The fall resulted in three broken bones in her ankle and a surgery to insert rods, pins, and screws. Luckily, the recovery was accompanied by some words of encouragement from her co-stars. Jennifer Gareis was among them and wrote, "Sis! Rest up! ... Sending [love]!" Meanwhile, Krista Allen said, "I'm just a text away and close to the studio, if you need anything. But might I say ...Even with a broken ankle and swollen foot .. your pedicure looks fabulous dahhhling!"