Soap Opera Star Lauren Koslow on Finding Her Long-Lost Son: ‘I Literally Fell to My Knees’ (EXCLUSIVE)
‘Days of Our Lives’ star gets candid about playing Kate’s drama when it was so close to her own
The return of long-lost children is a staple of the soap opera genre—and few characters have been reunited with as many offspring as Days of Our Lives mama bear vixen, Kate Roberts. In an amazing real-life twist, in 2021, Kate’s portrayer revealed she’d been hiding her own secret all along and had finally reunited with the adult son she’d given birth to at 16.
Here, Koslow, 71, speaks candidly with Woman’s World about how she was separated from Josh, what it was like to play all those Days of Our Lives reunions while carrying her own secret, and why she decided to share her journey with the world.
The actress who got her start on The Young & the Restless in 1984 and was an original The Bold and the Beautiful cast member also talks about becoming a grandma.
Lauren Koslow reflects on playing Kate’s maternal drama while carrying her own secret
Days of Our Lives Kate has six children—but when the character first arrived in Salem, there was only Lucas. Then she was reunited with full-grown Billie and Austin, who she’d believed had died in a car accident, and after that, she found her “Gemini Twins” Cassie and Rex, who had been cooked up by Dr. Rolph and believed they were aliens when they landed in Salem. Finally came Phillip, who was born after Vivian stole and carried Kate’s embryo to term.
Neither the writers nor viewers had any idea how these storylines affected Lauren Koslow—who assumed the role in 1996 and raised three kids with her husband of over 30 years, Nick Schillace, even as she harbored the secret of having been separated from her own son only three days after he was born.
“That’s why, when I actually found him, it was amazing,” Koslow marvels. “And that is the secret, honestly. A lot of actors, some of their best performances come out of things we’ve experienced, and that applies to anyone in the arts, really.
“I remember one of our producers saying, ‘Oh, you do such a good job as a mother. Kate should have more children,’” she continues. “My children [Millikate and Zachariah] were 2 and 5 at the time, and I played it off, but deep down, there was all that pain and it was always there, so it was immediately available to me as an actress. I used it all the time… but it was painful.”
Lauren Koslow shares her reunion story
After a lifetime of wondering about and missing her son, Kolsow had high hopes when she registered herself on the DNA site Ancentry.com several years ago… but waiting for that connection to show up became another heartbreak, so she stopped checking.
“The most amazing thing is that I hadn’t been on Ancestry.com for probably three years and one day I just decided to go on… and I saw this connection,” she recounts. “Had I never gone back on, I would never have known. And I’ll tell you, I’ve acted in moments that are supreme emotion on Days, but I literally fell to my knees.”
Since then, Koslow and her son have been getting to know each other, even taking a little road trip to help Josh retrace his newfound roots.
“These past few years have been the highest of life, and sometimes the lowest, because you are recreating a relationship,” Koslow admits. “Right now, it’s really in a wonderful place. We text each other every single day. We live on opposite coasts, which makes it a little difficult, but it’s a miracle in my life and I’m forever grateful that we were able to reconnect.”
Lauren Koslow explains why she ‘came out’ about finding the son she put up for adoption
The joy Koslow has found in getting to know her son has been matched by the liberation of sharing a part of herself she’d kept hidden for so long.
“At 16, adoption was the choice my parents made and it was a secret I lived with my entire life, so it was important for me to share it first with my family and then with everyone,” Koslow says. “It really is a coming out story, and you feel different afterward. There’s this hole in your heart that gets filled with the fact that you can talk about it.”
Since sharing her first Instagram post about finding Josh in 2021, Koslow has learned that her “soapy” real-life journey is actually far too common.
“I found out how many other people have been through a similar journey because they’ve shared their stories on my posts,” Koslow explains. “Some are still searching for their children.
“That’s why I want to talk about it—because there are other people in this situation keeping quiet about it and it just continues the shame around it,” she adds. “Once you talk about it, that goes. I would love to help other people experience that. That’s my mission.”
Koslow reflects on becoming a grandmother
Even as she’s enjoyed this life-changing reunion, Koslow has also been embracing the new role she landed in January – that of Grandma to Sistine!
“I’m so excited to see my daughter as a mom, and that was the biggest surprise,” she grins. “Of course I want to hold my granddaughter, but I also just want to watch my daughter with her baby! To me, that’s been transformative. It brought me to a whole different place in our relationship, which was very close and is now closer than ever, in a different way.
“I know a lot of the moms are going to understand this, but we’re sharing things now and she sees and understands me so much better,” Koslow continues. “I find it totally magical, and am enjoying it to the nth degree.”
Koslow talks hitting 70 and finding her next long-lost child
Tack on the silly good fun of Days of Our Lives soap within a soap Body & Soul – which has Koslow feeling nostalgic about having been part of launching The Bold and the Beautiful 37 ago – and as you can imagine, this soap opera beauty is loving her 70s.
“It’s kind of amazing,” she says of her life today. “But too much is made of women’s ages – whether you’re 20 or 70. Honestly, the numbers don’t matter. It’s really about how you feel, how you look, and keeping yourself as healthy as you can – and also being accepting of who we are.”
After a lifetime of missing her first born and decades of stories about finding and loving long-lost children, Koslow is finding that acceptance. The Days of Our Lives star also admits she wouldn’t mind finding another long-lost kid – on screen, of course!
“After Josh and I found each other, I thought, ‘Am I ever going to get to play scenes like that again?’” Koslow tells Woman’s World with a laugh. “And of course you can, because the wounds are always there and they are still there… but they’re healing now.”
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