Susan Seaforth Hayes on Her ‘Days’ Widow Role: ‘I’m Back Doing It Alone—And I Still Can!’ (Exclusive)
The soap icon opens up about playing a widow while navigating her own grief after Bill's passing
As Days of Our Lives’ Julie and the Williams clan brace for their first Thanksgiving without Doug, his on-and-offscreen widow, Susan Seaforth Hayes, talks to Woman’s World about her soap opera tackling a crushing reality that Suzanne Rogers’s Maggie Horton, Deidra Hall’s Marlena and many of us can relate to: Women live longer than men.
From the red carpet of her show’s 60th anniversary party, Hayes considers what’s ahead for Days of Our Lives’ three widows and gets candid about how she’s doing almost two years after losing Bill Hayes—with whom she shares a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award and an epic love story that goes back to her 20s.
What comes next for the ‘Days of Our Lives’ widows?
While Maggie has had a bit more time to adjust to being a widow since John Anniston’s Victor died on Days of Our Lives, Julie can’t help but get emotional as the first anniversary of Doug’s passing looms, and for Marlena, the loss of Drake Hogestyn’s John Black is even fresher.
“I’m the real widow, but Suzanne Rogers, Deidra Hall, and I are playing widows on the show,” Hayes notes. “And how the show handles what we do with the rest of our lives is very important to a large, large percentage of our audience.
“Most women, unfortunately, outlive their husbands,” she continues. “So now what? What’s the next chapter? Is there another chapter?”
‘Days’ icon Susan Hayes reflects on her ‘incredibly fortuitous run’
Having started her own first chapter on Days of Our Lives during the soap’s third year on air, Hayes is thrilled to still be getting into the drama as Julie as the show turns 60.
“I remember being 60, but now I’m 82,” she cracks, her eyes twinkling. “A 60-year run for anything in show business is incredible, unless you’re a circus performer. And I appreciate all the work that everybody does here, because at this point in my life, I have been friends with people from every level of the show—from the security guards to the executive producer, who I kind of think of as the star of my life.”
“Everything wonderful really has come to me because of this long-running job,” continues Hayes. “I met and married the leading man of my life, and got to work with him on the show. It has been an incredibly fortuitous run.”
‘Days’ widow Susan Hayes on her next chapter – ‘I’m surrounded with people I care about’
Hayes, who reflected on her life with Bill Hayes when we last spoke, spent 50 years married to her leading man, and even longer loving and working with him.
Their characters famously exchanged the same vows on-air as they had in real life, and after he passed at 98 years old, she not only returned to the Days of Our Lives stages alone, but also delivered Bill’s eulogy at his character’s memorial.
“It’s not hard,” she says of being on set without her other half. “Because my husband was so loved and because I’m given a great deal of consideration by everyone—particularly around the time that he passed. The delicacy with which the show, fans, press, everyone has handled me has been a warm blanket. It’s been wonderful.”
“Because of Days, I now have this great new chapter of being surrounded with people I care about, and I also have my Hayes family, which is enormous,” she adds. “I have been given so much support.”
Hayes on the ‘renaissance’ of widowhood – ‘I’m back doing it alone—and I still can!’
While the holidays will likely hit Hayes as hard as they do any widow—including the one she plays!—she’s learning to embrace this new stage of life.
“A friend said to me, ‘Now, Susan, you’ll have a renaissance,’” she recounts. “What in the world does that mean? Billy left loving me and aware of me, and I love him with as much passion as when I first set eyes on him!
“I wake up every morning alone, go to bed every night alone—and I notice I’m alone,” she continues. “I’ve had only one occasion when I was watching a comedian on television that we both enjoyed, and I turned to his chair to say, ‘Isn’t that funny?’—and he wasn’t in it. I think that’s the only time I’ve slipped completely.”
Yes, she still misses her man, but Hayes also now understands what her friend meant.
“It just means that I was 33 before I married it, and now I’m back doing it alone—and I still can,” she says with a proud smile. “I’m able to do it, and even do it with verve. I go into the studio thrilled that I have something so significant to do. That’s a gift.”
Susan Hayes’ secret to looking fab in her 80s? The ‘Days’ glam squad!
Another gift? Getting to look fabulous, on screen and off, at 82!
“This is all the work of my designer on the show, who shops for 60 people every week,” she brags of her peacock blue anniversary outfit and the show’s Daytime Emmy-winning costume designer, Richard Bloore. “He’s a one-man band. He does it all alone. He brings in such beautiful clothes and you have a choice of which you like best… but you like them all!
“We get a lot of help from our production staff to look good,” she continues. “We have terrific makeup and hair people to make us look the best we can under any circumstances. And not too much lip gloss, not anymore. That was the ‘80s.”
Reflecting on the era of big hair and big shoulder pads, she reminds us that it was also the time of big budgets.
“Like everything else in America, we have to do twice as much for half the money, now,” Hayes says. “We used to shoot a show a day. Now we do eight and a half shows in five days, out of sequence. You have to know where you are in the story, because there’s not a lot of time to explain. Everybody’s got to really be on their toes. So it’s a very alert company!”
Widow Susan Hayes is grateful for ‘love of the whole television universe’
In the wake of the passing of Bill Hayes and his character Doug Williams, Days of Our Lives icon Susan Seaforth Hayes is thrilled to have a company of actors and an entire soap opera community to help her get through this holiday season, as well as any other tough days that come along.
“It was a privilege to be married to Billy, and a great privilege to receive the love of the whole television universe on his passing,” Hayes tells Woman’s World. “It was a win/win for me every day he was alive, and it still is.”
“The fans still love me and still love the show, which is incredible,” concludes the Days of Our Lives lifer. “Women don’t hate us, men put up with us, and gay men really love us! So what’s not to like about that?”
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Woman's World does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.
