Bold & Beautiful’s Karla Mosley Champions a Return for Maya — But With a Twist You’d Probably Never Expect
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022
“There are so many stories to be told about Maya.”
Playing Maya Avant on The Bold and the Beautiful earned Karla Mosley, and the show, a place in the history books with the first regular transgender character in American daytime TV. While she is honored to have taken on the challenge of such an iconic character, Mosley admits that she knew “there was a time limit for it” because she’s “a cisgender person.”
To this day, viewers still have no clue what went wrong in Rick and Maya’s marriage!
Credit: John Paschal/JPI
More: Karla’s wild new role is a real killer
Although she exited the role in 2019, Mosley hopes that Maya returns to The Bold and the Beautiful landscape — just not with her playing the character. “I really believe that trans people should be playing trans characters,” she explains. “There are so many stories to be told about Maya, but I [don’t] think they should be told by me.”
The Deadly Cheer Mom star also hopes that if Maya returns her important LGBTQ+ story is crafted by trans writers as well. “To tell authentic stories and to feel free in the stories that we’re telling, it’s important to have the people who actually know telling those stories or writing those stories, because then we can just do more,” she says.
Nicole helped Maya and Rick bring their baby dream to literal life.
Credit: Howard Wise/JPI
Mosley still cherishes her time in the role and praises her former co-stars Jacob Young (ex-Rick), Reign Edwards (ex-Nicole) and Lawrence Saint-Victor (Carter) for making her experience on the soap so special. “Jacob and I trusted each other so much, and the same thing with Lawrence and Reign, who played my sister, we’re also extremely close,” she smiles. “We’re like sisters. So yeah, that crew… We truly became like a family and invested a lot of our heart into making sure that we told the story well.” And Mosley does have hopes of returning to daytime in a full-time role at some point in the future. “I hope Maya returns,” she concludes, “and I hope I return, but not in the same role.”
For more of our chat with Mosley — including her thoughts on what went wrong in Rick and Maya’s relationship — check out the entire interview above. Then visit the photo gallery below in which take a look at the Forrester family over the years.
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Image: John Paschal/JPI
1/19
<p>Eric Forrester (John McCook) and his wife Stephanie always had a thorny relationship, in no small part because of his wandering eye. After leaving her for Beth Logan (Robin Riker), he was brought back home by one crisis after another, whether it was an impostor of an unknown child, or his sons shooting each other. Eventually, Eric’s interests drifted from Beth to her daughter Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang). Since he was divorcing Stephanie, they kept their affair quiet until it was finalized. They married and had Rick. She left him for his son Ridge, who it was soon revealed, wasn’t his biological son, but that of Massimo Marone (Joe Mascolo). Although Eric briefly married Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown), who turned out to be dangerous and wound up in a mental institution, Eric’s relationship with Brooke never really went away. However, he did begin an affair with her sister, Donna (Jennifer Gareis). He eventually married her, in spite of Stephanie trying to subvert them and demean his role in the company. Sex with Donna put him in a coma, actually caused by Stephanie’s sister Pam (Alley Mills) feeding him a poisoned lemon bar. As he recovered, his family continued trying to break them up. The bad optics also wrought havoc with the company’s public image. After he fired Stephanie, everything got worse and sabotage led to Bill Spencer Jr. (Don Diamont) attempting to take over the company. Although blackmail saved Forrester for the family, things soured between Eric and his wife. He gradually reunited with Stephanie, whose lung cancer soon took her life. In his grief, he began a romance with Ridge’s other ex, Taylor Hayes (Hunter Tylo). However, this incensed Brooke, who wanted him to fake being the father of the child she was expecting thanks to Bill. Eric agreeing to keep this secret ruined his relationship with Taylor. Never alone for long, he started seeing Quinn Fuller (Rena Sofer), which horrified his family, who refused to show up for their wedding. All the fighting in the family this caused was only made worse when Ridge kissed his new step-mother. Eric, once again, forgave this.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
2/19
<p>Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery) was the matriarch of the family and did her best to rule it. Unfortunately, she and the family tended to disagree on what was in their best interests, but she hardly let this get in her way. While Eric spent most of his time designing clothes and fighting his libido, she had to strategize to keep the business ahead and stay on top of her children’s messy personal lives. This even included hiring people to seduce them and resorting to violence to get people out of their lives. She forced Morgan DeWitt (Sarah Buxton) to abort Ridge’s child, a manipulation that would drive her over the edge and nearly got Stephanie’s granddaughter, Steffy killed. Perhaps no one felt her wrath more frequently than Brooke, who worked her way through most of the men in Stephanie’s life. She nearly murdered Brooke for taking up with Thorne and had a stroke when he proposed to her. While the two women were known to literally shoot at each other, perhaps the most extreme act was when Stephanie set Brooke up to be raped. In retaliation for this and other wrongs, Storm Logan (William deVry) shot her at a fashion show. Over the years, things softened between Brooke and Stephanie, especially after Ridge was assumed to be dead. This didn’t stop her from faking a heart attack to try and push him to reunite with Taylor when he turned up alive. Such scheming alienated her from the family, but a legal loophole that gave her control of the company turned that around. She worked with Bill Spencer to take revenge on Eric and Donna but went a step too far when she let Donna’s ill mother drown. When Stephen Logan (Patrick Duffy) went after her in revenge, she shot him. In the end, Stephanie reunited with Eric as she fell ill with lung cancer, reconciling with Brooke and the rest of the family.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
3/19
<p>John Forrester (Fred Willard) is Eric’s older brother. A traveling salesman, he was rarely mentioned in spite of two of his daughters playing significant roles at Forrester Creations. Over the years, he has appeared to listen to his brother mourn the loss of Stephanie and to offer support to his daughters, as well as to Pam Douglas when she was feeling down.</p>
Image: CBS
4/19
<p>Ridge Forrester (Ronn Moss, Thorsten Kaye) was raised as the son of Eric and Stephanie Forrester. A talented designer, he would often be thrown into competition with his father in more ways than one. Competition was also felt from his brother, Thorne, as they vied for romance with Caroline Spencer (Joanna Johnson). When Thorne married her, Ridge took up with Brooke Logan, who dominated much of his life. After Caroline died, he went into therapy with Taylor Hayes. He fell for her and lurched between the two women for decades. After taking the fall for Brooke’s son Rick after he killed a man, he still managed to have three children with Taylor before getting his old lover Morgan DeWitt pregnant as well. A fight with Taylor led Morgan to miscarry and she went on the warpath. However, it was Sheila who ‘killed’ Taylor. Ridge suffered a second blow when it was revealed that Massimo Marone was his biological father. This also brought Nick Marone (Jack Wagner) into his life and the two battling for Brooke. When Brooke chose the other man, Ridge nearly died of a broken heart. Surviving, he dated her sister Donna for a while. After Brooke was raped, he reunited with her again, but Taylor, back from the dead, drew him away with pills and panic about protecting their daughter Steffy from Brooke’s son Rick. Although constantly tempted between the two women, Brooke’s tendency to have sex with other men, usually sent him back to Taylor. When the blonde began dating Bill Spencer, Ridge started dating her sister Katie (Heather Tom) but was soon drawn to Caroline Spencer (Linsey Godfrey), the niece of his former lover of the same name, and the wife of Rick, who he was in a bitter rivalry with for the CEO spot at Forrester. They married but she got pregnant by his son Thomas. Although Ridge tried to keep the paternity a secret, it eventually came out. Ridge ended things with her and went after Brooke again, only to be distracted by his new step-mother Quinn before entering a rivalry for Brooke with his brother Thorne once more.</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
5/19
<p>Thorne Forrester (Winsor Harmon) is the biological son of Eric and Stephanie. He tended to be overshadowed by his brother Ridge, even taking his former lovers. After helping Brooke keep Ridge away from Caroline Spencer, he soon married her. As a revenge prank, Ridge slept with her. Drunk and on painkillers, Thorne shot his brother after discovering this. Stephanie covered it up. After his marriage to Caroline fell apart, Thorne pursued Donna Logan and Macy Alexander (Bobbie Eakes) at the same time. He married Macy, but their families’ hatred for each other got in the way. His inability to choose between women only intensified, and he wound up living with Macy and his girlfriend Karen Spencer (Joanna Johnson). Eventually, he chose Macy, but that failed, and he left for Paris. They reunited when she got throat cancer, but their relationship was foiled when his obsessive girlfriend Ivana Vanderveld (Monika Schnarre) was murdered and he was framed by Anthony Armando (Michael Sabatino). Eventually cleared, he and Macy split up and he went after Taylor, but she couldn’t shake her love for Ridge. Alienated from Forrester, he took over Spectra and started an affair with Brooke, which almost led to Stephanie murdering her. She disowned Thorne after he chose to be with Brooke, whose children sabotaged their relationship. For years, he went back and forth with Macy, accidentally getting Darla Einstein (Schae Harrison) pregnant one night while drunk. After Macy was killed by a chandelier, he had another falling out with his family and returned to running Spectra. The tension only got worse after Taylor accidentally killed Darla and her family tried to cover it up. Although Taylor and Thorne briefly had a relationship, the truth destroyed it and he went back to pursuing his step-mother, Donna, fitfully leaving town and fighting over control of Forrester.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
6/19
<p>Felicia Forrester (Lesli Kay) lived in London for years before returning and becoming obsessed with tennis instructor Jake Maclaine (Todd McKee). After curing him of his problems with intimacy, he wanted an open relationship. After some frustration, she threw her passions into the family business and tried to make Forrester Fashions more cutting edge. When this led to friction with Eric, she accepted a job at Spectra Fashions. She tried to sabotage her own work there but failed. Felicia’s taste for questionable men continued. Getting mixed up with murderer Zach Hamilton (Michael Watson) nearly got her raped and murdered by his enemies. She and Zach fled for Africa. Eventually she wound up returning, suffering from colon cancer. After a fling with Nick Marone, she accepted another job at Spectra and moved to Paris, returning a year later with a baby in tow. She asked Nick and Bridget to raise the child while she died of cancer. However, Stephanie whisked her away for emergency treatment and she miraculously recovered. The father of her son, Dante Damiano (Antonio Sabàto, Jr.), returned and Felicia wound up competing with Bridget for his affections. </p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
7/19
<p>Kristen Forrester (Tracy Melchior) was alienated early from her mother Stephanie. When she returned from New York, she was seduced by Clarke Garrison (Daniel McVicar). It turned out that her mom hired Clarke to do this because she was worried that Kristen’s relationship with Eric was verging on the pathological. Although she and Clarke eloped, he was cheating on her with Margo Lynley (Lauren Koslow) and had a child with her. Eventually, she tired of his unfaithfulness and left town, coming and going for weddings. She met and fell in love with HIV-positive designer Tony Dominguez (Paulo Benedeti). When they honeymooned in Africa, they met Zende at an AIDS orphanage and adopted him.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
8/19
<p>Eric “Rick” Forrester (Kyle Lowder, Jacob Young) is the son of Eric and Brooke Logan but mostly raised by Ridge. Living with Brooke and her frequent change of mates was hard for him, so much so that he wound up shooting one of them, Grant Chambers (Charles Grant), with Ridge taking the blame for him. As a teen, Rick continued to tempt danger, almost being killed drag racing and seducing babysitter, Amber Moore (Adrienne Frantz). He married her after getting her pregnant, but the baby died, and she took her cousin’s as a replacement. Their second child miscarried, and their marriage was fraught with dysfunction, thanks in part to Deacon Shape (Sean Kanan). As Amber spiraled into addiction, they split up. He then careened between women, including Phoebe and Taylor, at least partially out of resentment to Ridge. When he tried to seduce Phoebe’s sister Steffy, Phoebe attacked him, causing an accident that killed her. He dated Steffy anyway, before moving on to try and ruin Jackie Marone’s (Lesley-Anne Down) relationship and then seducing Caroline to advance his career at Forrester. His eyes soon drifted to Maya Avant (Karla Mosley), who he made a spokesmodel. He married Caroline but publicly kept Maya as his mistress. After degrading most of his family and friends, Bill Spencer hit back by breaking the news that Maya was transgender. Rick went on to marry her and her sister served as the surrogate for their child, Elizabeth. The three of them moved to Paris.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
9/19
<p>Jessica Forrester (Maitland Ward) is the daughter of John Forrester. She went to visit her uncle Eric in LA as a teen and was swept up in the glamorous life of her cousins. She fell for aspiring designer Dylan Shaw (Dylan Neal), who was then charged with statutory rape and forced to stay away from her. She stood up for him in court and he got off. After they agreed to see other people, she was horrified this meant he was dating her mother. Jessica started dating Sly Donovan (Brent Jasmer), who was eager to get married. When she wasn’t, he planned to get her pregnant against her will, so she faked being pregnant to humiliate him. She went back to Dylan, but this was awkward since he’d become a stripper. When she eventually dumped Sly, he raped her. Before she could go to the police, he attempted to burn her alive, but Dylan saved her, leaving Sly to die in flames.</p>
Image: Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
10/19
<p>Angela Forrester (never appeared) was born to Stephanie and Eric with microcephaly, resulting in stunted body and brain development. Stephanie decided to tell Eric that the child had died during the birth and secretly had her raised by medical staff in a home she bought for the purpose. Years later, she was killed in an accident caused by a negligent doctor. The doctor then hired someone to impersonate her so he could continue getting money from the Forresters.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
11/19
<p>Ivy Forrester (Ashleigh Brewer) is the daughter of Eric’s brother John. She grew up in Australia and her uncle Eric hired her to replace Quinn Fuller as a jewelry designer. If this wasn’t enough to make Quinn hate her, Ivy’s role in trying to unite Hope Logan (Kim Matula) and Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton) was. Ivy wound up falling for Liam herself and he reciprocated. This only made her place at Forrester more tenuous since Rick, the current CEO, held her in contempt and Steffy was going out of her way to seduce Liam back into her life. Ivy’s worries increased when she caught Steffy apparently murdering Aly with a tire iron. Although she and Liam were briefly married to keep her in the country, he dumped her to go back to Steffy. Ivy went on the warpath and hooked up with Wyatt Fuller (Darin Brooks). Her war with Steffy escalated, her cousin nearly electrocuting her. In a bid to save her floundering career, Ivy worked with Quinn to try and break up Liam and Steffy. They failed but collaborated on other schemes to solidify Quinn’s place at Forrester before Ivy left the country.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
12/19
<p>Bridget Forrester (Ashley Jones, Jennifer Finnigan) was Eric’s second child with Brooke, though the paternity was questioned at first since she’d had sex with both he and Ridge around the time of conception. Thanks to Sheila Carter tampering with a paternity test, Ridge was named the father. By adolescence, Bridget had been shot in a drive-by and had her true paternity revealed. She ran away from home as a teen and fell for C.J. Garrison (Mick Cain). Later seduced by Deacon Sharpe, they eloped in Vegas, but their marriage floundered as he had an affair with her mom. After a few more failed relationships, she got engaged to Oscar Marone (Brian Gaskill), but that relationship ended before the wedding could occur. She got engaged to her mom’s ex, Nick Marone, who still had feelings for Brooke. When Bridget got pregnant, they agreed to marry but he left her when the child was stillborn. They reunited after he’d gone through a marriage to Taylor, but he proceeded to have an affair with her aunt, Katie. After splitting up and reuniting with Nick again, she had an affair and got pregnant by Owen Knight (Brandon Beemer), putting the final nail in the coffin of her relationship with Nick. She moved to New York with Owen, their child and Owen’s wife, Jackie Marone.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
13/19
<p>Marcus Forrester (Texas Battle) is the son of Donna Logan and Justin Barber (Aaron D. Spears). He was adopted by Jerry Walton after birth and went to LA to find his mother. By then, Donna was married to Eric. Working at Forrester proved dangerous and he was nearly killed in Pam’s attempts to knock off Eric, who subsequently adopted Marcus. Although he fell for Steffy and even proposed to her, she was always more interested in other men. After a fling with Amber Moore, he got involved with Dayzee Leigh (Kristolyn Lloyd). Although he and Amber had a child, he married Dayzee and they moved to South Africa.</p>
Image: Brian Lowe/JPI
14/19
<p>Phoebe Forrester (Mackenzie Mauzy) is the daughter of Ridge and Taylor. She lost her twin sister Steffy as a toddler and was raised mostly by Brooke after Taylor supposedly died. She had really been kidnapped by a Moroccan prince. When Steffy was returned, she and Phoebe were sent to boarding school in London. When Phoebe came back stateside, she witnessed her drunken mother running down Darla and tried to cover it up, even manipulating a witness with the promise of sex. She started dating Rick, which, even if they weren’t technically related, still irked family members. Catching him in bed with her mom ended it and then catching him coming on to Steffy made it worse. When she confronted him in a moving vehicle, she wound up dead in a car accident as a result.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
15/19
<p>Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) was supposedly killed by a shark as a toddler but actually kidnapped by the deranged Morgan DeWitt. After being recovered and getting back the mother who was presumed dead, Steffy went to boarding school. She began working for the family, turning down a proposal from Marcus and bonding with Rick in the grief over Phoebe’s demise. Although they were briefly engaged, they broke it off for causing too much family friction. She started making moves on Owen Knight and Bill Spencer Jr., the latter in part to take revenge on the Logans. The fight extended to publicly humiliating Hope and blackmailing Brooke for cheating on Ridge. Steffy continued to lust for Bill but his wife and her mom kept getting in the way. She worked with him to split up Liam and Hope and she even married Liam in a gondola. That didn’t last and Liam soon married Hope, which also didn’t last because Steffy was pregnant. She married Liam again but after she miscarried, he went back to Hope. Steffy’s energies were sunk into Forrester. After killing an unhinged Aly in self-defense, she proceeded to demoralize Ivy and electrocute her. She then worked with Ridge to try and destroy Quinn and keep her out of Eric’s life. That failed. After shooting Sheila Carter to keep her away from Eric, she turned to tampering with Thomas’ love life to keep him away from Sally Spectra (Courtney Hope) and finally started sleeping with Bill. Liam found out and split with her again. She went back between father and son for a while. However, she had a daughter, Kelly, with Liam and then adopted another, Phoebe, who turned out to be the daughter Hope had lost, presumed dead.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
16/19
<p>Thomas Forrester (Pierson Fodé, Matthew Atkinson) is the son of Ridge and Taylor, although she initially tried to pass him off as Thorne’s to allow Ridge to be with Brooke. The blonde was in on this deception, and when Ridge learned of it, he dumped her and reunited with Taylor. They had twins soon after, and Thomas had a chaotic childhood. Although Brooke raised him for part of his childhood, their bond was tested when he grew up and they were stranded on an island together. After eating poison berries, they imagined having sex together. Once they were rescued, Stephanie tried to use this hallucination to break her son and Brooke up, but Thomas eventually made the truth clear. He dated his adoptive step-sister Hope, who dumped him when she learned it was at Steffy’s behest. Thomas then entered a rivalry with Rick, both for Caroline and for the presidency of Forrester. After spending a few years in Paris, he returned, and was quickly embroiled in Caroline’s life even as she prepared to marry is father. Although it came out that Thomas had impregnated her, Ridge insisted on passing the child off as his. Thomas finally got custody of his son, Douglas, after Caroline’s death. He then pursued Hope, keeping his knowledge that her baby was still alive a secret, and killing Emma Barber (Nia Sioux) to keep the truth from her. Although he attempted to manipulate Hope into marriage, this backfired.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
17/19
<p>Alexandria “Aly” Forrester (Ashlyn Pearce) was Thorne’s daughter with Darla. The product of a drunken hook-up, Darla planned to abort Aly but Thorne talked her out of it and they later married. Aly had a rough childhood, losing her mother when Taylor plowed her down in her car. This was only made worse when Thorne romance Taylor, who nearly ran Aly over when she ran away from home. When she grew up, she developed a crush on Liam and Quinn tried to use her to get him away from Hope. It soon became evident that Aly was mentally unstable and was having hallucinations of her dead mother, who encouraged her to avenge her death. Her involvement with Oliver Jones (Zack Conroy) managed to briefly calm her down, but she was increasingly flustered by the sexual atmosphere of Forrester Creations and the family fighting. Revisiting the spot where her mom died, she tried to kill Steffy, only to be killed in self-defense.</p>
Image: Chris D/JPI
18/19
<p>Zende Forrester Dominguez (Rome Flynn) was adopted in Africa by Kristen and Tony Dominguez. He moved to Miami with his parents and then to LA to work at Forrester. He worked as a photographer and was quickly torn between two women, Sasha (Felisha Cooper) and Nicole Avant (Reign Edwards), one of them carrying out a surrogate pregnancy for Maya and the other faking being pregnant with his child. After many proposals, Nicole finally agreed to marry him. Becoming more ambitious, he also wanted to move into the world of design and got a break at Forrester after Thomas was fired. With Maya’s help, he got a position at the Forrester office in Paris and moved there with Nicole.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
19/19
