Days Of Our Lives Relationship Timeline: Bo And Hope
Couples and romance are what make soap operas go 'round. A happy couple is known as a boring couple, so a show will throw obstacles at their most popular pairings to get fans tuning in day after day, year after year, and decade after decade. After all, some of the genre's most enduring couples have been together and torn apart for years, and Bo and Hope from "Days of Our Lives" are certainly no exception.
While Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso, the actors who brought Bo and Hope to life, are no longer on the show, their popularity lives on. Reckell left "Days of Our Lives" for good in 2015 after a brief return when Bo died (via Soap Opera Network), and Alfonso departed the show in 2020 when she opted not to return to the set after the soap returned from its COVID-19-induced break (via TV Line). Still, their memory lives on in Salem, the fictional town where the soap takes place.
Bo Brady and Hope Williams fall in love and break up for the very first time
The year was 1983, and Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso made their "Days of Our Lives" debuts as Bo Brady and Hope Williams. Bo was the brother of the town's hero cop, Roman Brady (Wayne Northrop), and had just returned from a stint in the Merchant Marines, and Hope was the overprivileged daughter of Doug Williams (Bill Hayes), who had just returned from boarding school.
Hope hopped on the back of Bo's motorcycle to show her rebellious side and the two fell for one another (via Soap Hub), culminating in Hope's 18th birthday party where they danced to their newfound theme song "Tonight I Celebrate My Love" and later declared their love for one another (via Soap Opera Digest). However, things soon went south for the pair when Hope's over-protective father found them in Bo's apartment and had a heart attack. When Doug survived, Hope wanted to be with Bo, but he broke up with her to protect her when he went undercover to solve the Salem Slasher murders.
Hope Williams holds out for a hero
While Bo Brady solved the latest serial killer case in the fictional "Days of Our Lives" town of Salem, Doug Williams pushed Hope to marry the district attorney, Larry Welch (Andrew Massett). When Bo's mission was over, he begged Hope not to go through with the wedding, but she nearly did — that is, until Bo kidnapped her on the back of a police motorcycle in one of their most memorable scenes with Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero" playing in the background (via Youtube). Back in the church, Bo's friend Howie Hoffsteader (Stanley Brock) dressed in a replica of Hope's gown and walked down the aisle.
Bo and Hope reconciled for a hot minute, but then the bad guys kidnapped her and forced her to marry Larry. That marriage was short-lived so that Bo and Hope could become crime-solving adventurers, which took them to their next big storyline fans will never forget.
Bo and Hope save the world in New Orleans
The fictional International Security Alliance sent Bo Brady to find three powerful prisms that held the key to ruling the world. That search led Bo to New Orleans, and Hope Williams tagged along, even though Bo didn't want her there. The pair took a break from world-saving to play dress-up at the Oak Alley Plantation and don antebellum clothing, including a 19th-century wedding dress. The dress prompted them to recite their vows in a mock wedding and make love for the first time (via Soap Opera Digest).
They found the prisms, of course, because Bo and Hope are the heroes in their own story, and then they returned to Salem ready to start their lives together, with Bo as a private investigator and Hope as a police officer. However, another adventure awaited them in a far-off place. This time, they ended up across the pond in England where their lives changed forever, thanks to their heroic actions.
Bo and Hope marry in a truly royal wedding
There were more dangerous crimes to combat, and Bo Brady and Hope Williams were the perfect "Days of Our Lives" characters to do it. When an international criminal known as The Dragon was killing members of the British royal family, including distant cousins, to work his way up to Queen Elizabeth II, Bo and Hope had to catch him and that's just what they did, earning the gratitude of the queen.
Since Bo and Hope planned to wed when they returned to Salem, the queen decided they should marry in England instead and flew all their friends and family in from the U.S. for a wedding fit for royalty (via Soap Hub). Chaos ensued when Bo was late to the wedding and stole a milk truck to get there, but our heroes soon wed for the first time — but certainly not the last.
Bo and Hope become parents and sail away
Happiness was finally in the stars for Bo and Hope Brady as they returned to Salem, found themselves an apartment, and settled into domestic life. After one miscarriage, Hope finally became pregnant again and gave birth to the couple's son, Shawn-Douglas Brady. Soon after, they decided to begin their lives anew on a sailboat Bo named "The Fancy Face" after his wife, as Fancy Face was her nickname. Bo, Hope, and their baby sailed away from Salem and "Days of Our Lives" in 1987 and weren't heard from for several years (via Youtube).
When they returned, they took to the sea again on another adventure aboard The Cruise of Deception. After a shipwreck, Hope was kidnapped and literally vanished over a vat of acid and was presumed dead (via Glamour). It would be another few years before Hope Brady turned up back in Salem after single dad Bo had moved on. However, she didn't even know who she was.
Hope returns and solves a Days of Our Lives puzzle
Bo Brady was living life as a single father to Shawn-Douglas when a woman named Gina arrived in town and was the spitting image of his late wife, Hope. It took the woman who called herself Gina opening a puzzle box that only she and her grandfather, Tom (Macdonald Carey), knew how to open. When Hope looked inside the box and saw things that belonged to her, all her memories came flooding back and Bo and Hope were reunited.
Eventually, Bo and Hope remarried and had another son. After a baby switch mix-up, they were finally reunited with their real son, Zach, and were happy for a time. That was until Bo's daughter, Chelsea, who came from a romance Bo had with Billie Reed when he thought Hope was dead, accidentally ran Zach down with her car and he died. A few years later, Hope gave birth to the couple's third child, a daughter named Ciara (via Soap Hub). But happiness would elude this "Days of Our Lives" couple once again.
Bo and Hope find happiness, then tragedy strikes
For a few years, Bo and Hope Brady's lives seemed idyllic as they raised Ciara and even revisited New Orleans with her. Then, Bo's crime-fighting side took him away on an international mission and Hope found herself as a single parent not knowing when her husband would return. She eventually fell for a man named Aiden Jennings (Daniel Cosgrove) and sent Bo divorce papers.
In 2015, Hope happily prepared to marry Aiden, not realizing that Bo had been held captive for several years and was trying to get back to her. He made it back the night of her wedding, and after Aiden was allegedly shot dead, Bo and Hope reunited for the last time. The very next day, this epic soap opera romance came to an end when Bo and Hope planted a tree in the park and then he died in her arms from a brain tumor he barely even knew he had (via Soap Hub). And that was the end of a soap opera love story that spanned 30 years.