When The Bold and the Beautiful debuted, viewers were introduced to Ridge Forrester (then Ronn Moss), the oldest of Eric and Stephanie’s five children, a designer at his family’s fashion house, Forrester Creations, and, obviously, a scarf enthusiast.
If there was one thing that Ridge enjoyed more than designing dresses, it was helping women slip out of them. So even after he dated virginal Caroline Spencer all the way to the altar, he couldn’t keep from working the ol’ zipper one last time before saying “I do.”
After the Ridge moved on with Brooke Logan — more on her later! — and Caroline rebounded down the aisle with his brother, Thorne (then Clayton Norcross), the cad seduced his drunken sister-in-law and reunited with her even after she’d sobered up.
As quickly as Ridge and Caroline tied the knot, she discovered that she was dying. So she had Taylor Hayes (then Hunter Tylo) — the rare oncologist who just happened to also be a psychiatrist — encourage him to live happily ever after with Brooke.
Instead of Brooke — told you we’d get to her! — Ridge wound up exchanging vows with Taylor. Brooke took this development, let’s say, poorly. But after she extricated herself from her marriage to Eric and her rival “died,” she at last got her man. Briefly.
From that point on, every other year or so, Ridge wed Brooke and/or Taylor, who only ever “died” in air quotes. Along the way, there were pregnancies galore, perhaps owing to the fact that Ridge could never find designer condoms fancy enough to, er, suit him.
Now and then, just to keep things fresh, Ridge added another woman to his dance card. For instance, in 2000, he reconnected with old flame Morgan DeWitt, who managed to trick him into thinking that then-wife Taylor wanted him to knock her up.
For a hot minute — emphasis on the “hot” — Ridge tried to make Brooke jealous by canoodling with her sister, Donna. Also, it had been two days since he’d made out with anybody, and… Well, you do the math. He wouldn’t survive a third day without necking.
In 2007, Ridge went so far as to slip a ring on the finger of Young & Restless’ Ashley Abbott… who, although not known for her great taste in husbands, may have sensed that he wasn’t marriage material when he checked Tinder at their engagement party.
Ridge’s world was knocked off its axis when he learned that he wasn’t actually Eric’s son but the product of Stephanie’s dalliance with shipping tycoon Massimo Marone. Eric wasn’t exactly doing a happy dance about this revelation, either.
Not only did Ridge’s new family tie mean that he wasn’t a Forrester by blood, it also meant that he had a new rival for Brooke and Taylor’s affections: half brother Nick, a salty sailor unafraid to compete in any Who Looks Best Sweaty and Kidnapped? contest.
By and large, Ridge prefers to be the only rooster in the henhouse, as evidenced by his reaction to Brooke’s relationship with Thorne (then Winsor Harmon). Ridge and his favorite blonde were on a break, but he still hated the thought of anyone else playing with his toys.
Ridge also liked it a lot better when he was the shirtless wonder that everybody eyeballed. After son Thomas (then Adam Gregory) developed a crush on Brooke, the onetime Speedo aficionado had no trouble believing that boinkberries had led them to hook up.
Despite the fact that time and again Ridge was drawn back to the spouse that Stephanie dubbed “the slut from the Valley,” he was always her golden boy. Thorne, she’d let work in the basement. And the girls? Eh, they were lucky if Mom remembered their names.
After leaving Brooke for the umpteenth time and Los Angeles for the first, Ridge (now Thorsten Kaye) returned in 2013… and immediately began repeating his pattern of pledging his love to and then yanking it from the ex who considered him her “destiny.”
Nearly out of Logans with whom he could hook up, Ridge became engaged to Brooke and Donna’s younger sibling, Katie, who thought it was sweet that in lieu of a ring, he tied a string around her finger. It was about as sweet as their relationship was lasting.
Ridge is absolutely in favor of love triangles — so long as he’s the object of desire over whom everyone’s fighting. He’s less keen, however, on having competition as stiff as his archenemy — Brooke and Katie’s sometime husband, publishing magnate Bill Spencer.
After Bill dunked Ridge in the Persian Gulf, the dressmaker lost his ability to — gasp — make dresses. That is, he did until he started working closely with Bill and the late Caroline’s niece, Caroline 2.0, whom he stole from stepbrother Rick and, natch, married.
… are often named Ridge. So even after he devastated Eric by sleeping with then-stepmother Brooke, the libidinous lout couldn’t resist having the occasional make-out session with Dad’s latest wife, Quinn Fuller. While engaged to Brooke, we might add!
On the outs with Brooke, Ridge struck up a flirtation with Quinn’s old pal, Sin City transplant Shauna Fulton. And it might have stayed just that — a flirtation — had Quinn not decided to “help” her girlfriend by conspiring to trick Ridge into marrying her.
When Taylor (now Krista Allen) returned to L.A., Ridge couldn’t help but wig out — that old spark was still there. Yet he managed to remain true to Brooke until psycho-at-large Sheila Carter pushed her off the wagon and toward babydaddy Deacon Sharpe’s lips.
For someone who works with his mitts, Ridge is sure careless with them. If he’s not hurling a fist in the direction of Bill’s face, he’s pointing one toward Deacon’s. Maybe General Hospital had the right idea by giving Sonny Corinthos his own boxing ring.
Ridge had broken Taylor’s heart for the zillionth time and reunited with Brooke when Steffy’s parents discovered that son-in-law Finn Finnegan wasn’t as dead as they thought. To celebrate, they did the only logical thing and made out in Monte Carlo.
Tricked by Thomas into believing that Brooke had sicked Child Protective Services on him, Ridge dumped his wife without ever revealing the catalyst for his latest flip-flop, and immediately began playing house with Taylor again.
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