Bold & Beautiful Exclusive: As Bill Gets a Second Chance at Life, Don Diamont Previews Why He’ll Likely Screw It Up
Tuesday, July 13th, 2021
“Bill will never give up on Katie. How can he?”
While The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Liam didn’t mean to run down Vinny, Bill had every intention of covering up the crime in order to protect his son. And were he able to go back in time, he’d likely do the same thing again… and while that may be inexplicable to some viewers, Don Diamont understands exactly what drives his alter ego.
“Bill has changed a great deal since he was first introduced to the canvas, largely because of his involvement with Katie, but he still struggles with his emotional complexities,” the actor tells Soaps.com. “A lot of that has to do with who he was before we even met him. We’ve seen his edges soften as he’s become a family man, but he has also worked hard not to lose himself.”
More:The big Bold & Beautiful battle ahead!
To that end, the actor continues, “when you have something that has maybe made you incredibly successful in business, but that same something can be a detriment to your personal life, that creates a really fine line that you have to walk to be able to find that balance. When Bill has tried to apply his business ethics to his personal life, it hasn’t gone well. It’s made his familiar relationships very complicated and, at times, damaged.”
Hard to believe they were ever so happy, isn’t it?
Credit: Sean Smith/JPI
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That’s certainly been the case where his on-again/off-again marriage to Katie has been concerned. Yet despite their struggles, Diamont says that Bill knows “without a doubt that she is the single best thing that has ever happened to him. Unfortunately, he has a self-destructive personality and is always getting in his own way. He will tear down the best things that happen to him because, ultimately, he doesn’t consider himself worthy.
“That doesn’t mean he’s going to quit trying,” he quickly adds. “Bill will never give up on Katie. How can he? That would be like giving up on himself!”
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As Bill tries to figure out how to get his life back on track, why not hit the comments section with your thoughts on his future? Should Katie give her favorite ex another shot? Perhaps before weighing in on his future, you’d like to explore his past in the gallery below, which tracks Bill’s highs (and many lows) since arriving in Los Angeles.
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Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>Though Bill Jr. and Sr. were never close, the younger man arrived in Los Angeles determined to do his daddy proud — by ruining Eric Forrester for the sake of his on-again/off-again wife, Stephanie, who apparently had been the late publishing magnate’s true love. #themoreyouknow</p>
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<p>In addition to a raison d’être, Bill Sr. left the chip off his ol’ block a sister in formerly-brunette Karen, who you probably remember a little less vividly than you do… Wait for it… Wait for it…</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>The apple of Bill Sr.’s eye was Karen’s twin sister, virginal Caroline, who got all <em>kindsa</em> messed up in a love triangle with the Forrester brothers, Ridge and Thorne, before saying, “You’re killin’ me, fellas” — <em>and</em> meaning it!</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>Scheme-y as she was, Stephanie turned out to be a <em>terrible</em> partner in crime for Bill. No sooner had he gotten the goods on Eric than she switched teams in order to protect her sometime “better” half. Honey bee, that ain’t how alliances work!</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>The term “skeevy” meaning nothing to womanizing Bill, he hit on Pop’s onetime bay Donna Logan with an abandon that almost screamed, “Dude, read the room. Read. The. Room.”</p>
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<p>Bill fared considerably better with Donna’s kid sister, Katie.</p>
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<p>Does this image need a caption? Bill and Katie made out. A <em>lot</em>. There. Ya happy?</p>
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<p>Sometimes, they even played it shirts-vs.-skins style.</p>
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<p>Well, duh. Of <em>course</em>, some of their canoodling went down in the sauna. If you had a sauna, wouldn’t <em>you</em> canoodle there?</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>Yeah, <em>that</em> wasn’t Katie that Bill was smooching in 2009, that was Eric’s granddaughter, Steffy. WTH was <em>in</em> that candle, anyway?</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>Never mind where his tongue had strayed, Bill still got himself and Katie pronounced kisser and kissee in a lavish ceremony in her old San Fernando Valley ’hood.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>In 2010, Bill took a break from locking lips with Katie just long enough to come to grips with the fact that he was the father of… well, his polar opposite: soulful Spencer Publications intern Liam Cooper.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>When social climber Amber Moore claimed to be pregnant with Liam’s child — for what it’s worth, if anything, she wasn’t — Daddy Dearest suggested that she take a flying leap. As in, he <em>strongly</em> suggested it. Not a great look for Bill.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>Bill also made an impression on “the dressmaker,” perpetual nemesis Ridge Forrester (then Ronn Moss). In turn, Ridge tried to make an impression on Bill’s face.</p>
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<p>Despite Bill’s “commitment” to Katie, he did <span style="text-decoration: line-through">little</span> nothing to discourage Steffy’s fondness for close talking.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>No stranger to cheating husbands, Taylor Forrester immediately picked up on a vibe between daughter Steffy and Bill. Or maybe she just noticed how hard they were panting and how few clothes they were wearing. In either case, she exposed their relationship, in the process giving Katie a (literal) heart attack.</p>
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<p>He thought so, anyway. So Bill got Hope Logan’s ne’er-do-well dad Deacon Sharpe sprung from prison in a roundabout attempt to stop the young woman’s marriage to Liam.</p>
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<p>Despite Bill’s efforts to get Liam and Hope (then Kim Matula) to exchange ciaos rather than vows, the young lovers tied the knot in Italy. They should have made it a double knot, but that’s another story altogether…</p>
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<p>After a chance encounter with Deacon revealed to Katie just how nefarious her husband really was, she went into premature labor with son Will and came <em>thisclose</em> to going from the maternity ward to the morgue.</p>
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20/49
<p>Um, Katie helped, Bill. Just sayin’.</p>
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21/49
<p>Nah. Bill didn’t mean it. When postpartum depression prompted Katie to push her husband toward big sister Brooke, they resisted the urge to play tonsil hockey for as long as they could. In other words…</p>
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<p>Yep, that was about how long Bill and Brooke waited before they started picking out monogrammed towels as if Katie had been a nanny that they only vaguely remembered. Or had she been the housekeeper? Chauffeur?</p>
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<p>After Bill’s niece Caroline found out about his — we’ll be generous and say — “association” with Deacon, she pulled an Amber and took a flying leap off his balcony. Coincidence? Hmm.</p>
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<p>Afterwards, there was only one way that anyone would go, ahem, “clubbing” with Bill. Also, Hope was royally ticked about the [bleep] that he’d pulled with her old man.</p>
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25/49
<p>When Katie’s heart literally broke, it brought Bill back to her side. With lovergirl Brooke in tow. So, ya know, mixed bag.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
26/49
<p>When Bill refused Katie’s pleas to go on the wagon — or at least <em>near</em> it — she declared their marriage, however briefly, toast. He, in turn, went right on clinking glasses with Brooke. And by “clinking glasses,” we mean, obviously, having sex. Lots and lots of sex.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>OK, technically, it was Brooke’s birthday bash. Katie still had every right to turn on the waterworks after Taylor revealed what had been going on behind her back between her sister and Bill.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>In 2013, Bill discovered that his long-ago affair with Quinn Fuller (Rena Sofer) had given his family tree a new branch, one from which hung grown son Wyatt (Darin Brooks).</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>So upset was Bill to learn that Brooke intended to remarry former husband Ridge that he tied one on and enjoyed a particularly raucous romp with Quinn.</p>
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<p>After Katie laid claim to Ridge herself, Bill spirited away Brooke to the United Arab Emirates to make her his missus. If only Ridge hadn’t shown up with a photo of the groom in bed with Quinn…</p>
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<p>Determined to shake wedding crasher Ridge, Bill had right-hand man Justin Barber bank their getaway chopper, sending “the dressmaker” plummeting into the Persian Sea.</p>
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<p>When Bill learned that Ridge (now Thorsten Kaye) had two-timed Katie with Caroline, an altogether dignified scuffle ensued.</p>
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<p>… are doomed to repeat it. Just ask Katie, who somehow managed to remarry Bill without including in her vows, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.”</p>
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<p>Eric might have been trying to stop his son from smacking Bill for revealing in his publications that Rick’s girlfriend Maya Avant was transgender. But we have a hunch that Eric was just helping Rick with his form and follow-through. Bill had it comin’.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
35/49
<p>When Katie threw in the towel with Bill once and for all (again), he finally managed to make Brooke his… Wait. No, he <em>didn’t</em> finally manage to make Brooke his wife. As a matter of fact, he himself called it off after Ridge showed up and all but pulled a Helena Cassadine on the otherwise happy couple.</p>
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<p>Bill didn’t actually put a ring on it until after Brooke’s 104th reunion with Ridge went belly up. Or was it her 105th? We lose count.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
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<p>Say what you will about Brooke and Bill, the two of them get each other: She even found a way to combine all of his favorite things in one skimpy outfit. And not for nothin’, but neither of them minded the way that stallion figurine watched while they, ahem, enjoyed one another’s company.</p>
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38/49
<p>Eager to erect his own skyscraper, Bill came perilously close to blowing up Liam as well as Sally Spectra when he tore down the fashionista’s building with them still inside. “And,” added Shirley Spectra, “I hadn’t cleaned out the office fridge yet. I still had a Snapple in there — <em>raspberry</em>, you animal!”</p>
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<p>Upon learning that Sally had planted what she thought was a dying kiss on Liam, Steffy was comforted by Bill, who offered wise words and a shoulder to cry on. Ha! If only. What she got from her father-in-law was smack talk about her husband and a night of ill-advised nookie.</p>
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<p>After disowning Wyatt over his engagement to Katie, threatening to take Will away from his ex-wife and completely upending Liam and Steffy’s marriage, Bill was shot. But not by any of those people, by Steffy’s mother Taylor, who apparently got homicidal tendencies around the same time that she did blonde highlights.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
41/49
<p>Yeah, yeah, Bill took a two-story fall during a scuffle with Ridge and Thorne. Spoiler alert: He lived. What intrigues us about this image is the fact that one of his shoes seems to have come off as he plummeted downward. And the same thing happened to Caroline way back when. Does footwear always get dislodged mid-air? Have there been studies done? If not, there should be.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>Now we wish we had a better photo of Amber from when Bill overenthusiastically showed her his view in 2011. Clearly, she still had both of her shoes on when she went over the ledge. <em>But</em> — did she still have them when she <em>landed</em>? <em>[Thinks.]</em> We digress. Moving on…</p>
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<p>In 2019, Katie — poor, dear, gullible Katie — was once more contemplating a rematch with Bill. But could she trust him? (No.) To find out — even though the answer would still be no — she had blonde bombshell Shauna Fulton pour him a lapful of wine. Of note: While Bill didn’t shtup the seductress, he was really no more trustworthy than he had been before. Oh Katie. Poor, dear, gullible Katie.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>We totally did, though. See? As soon as Brooke was back with Ridge, and Bill was back with Katie, this is what Brooke and Bill did. As predictable as the changing of the seasons.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
45/49
<p>When Bill’s lip lock with Brooke was exposed — at a party celebrating her reunion with Ridge, no less — punch was served not one but two ways.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>In the winter of 2021, Bill decided that he really, really wanted Katie back. He meant it this time. Like, more than all of the other times. Combined. Sensibly, she had concerns. Why, she was looking at one of them in this very image. Maybe she’d be reassured if she just got Shauna to spill some more wine on Bill’s zipper. That’s the ticket.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>Bill learned the answer to that age-old question in 2022 when he was rejected by both Brooke and Katie in a matter of minutes, then was revealed to have been hooking up for who <em>knows</em> how long with homicidal maniac Sheila Carter. Could somebody please inform him that there <em>are</em> such things as dating apps?</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>Oooh! Turned out, Bill didn’t want Sheila, he wanted her behind bars. So he’d teamed up with Ridge, of all people, embarked on an affair with the madwoman and even proposed, all to entice out of her a confession to the murder of Lance Day — <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-bold-and-the-beautiful/news/665878/who-was-lance-day-bold-beautiful-sheila-murder-victim/" target="_blank">remember him</a>? — and get her sent to prison for life.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
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