Bold & Beautiful EP Bradley Bell Responds to Fan Backlash: ‘I Love It’
Monday, November 21st, 2022
When it comes to meddling, these two do it best.
The Bold and the Beautiful viewers have been irritated beyond belief — and for good cause — by the way that Steffy and Thomas have been getting involved in their parents relationship. For months the adult siblings have gone above and beyond (like, way beyond!) the realms in order to get Ridge away from Brooke and reunite their parents once and for all.
Related Story
Well, they succeeded — with a final push from Thomas, thanks to Douglas’ voice app — and Ridge and Taylor made it to the Forrester mansion to say their “I dos” and now executive producer and head writer Bradley Bell has responded to all of the fan backlash…
In the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest, Bell acknowledged that while, “yes,” Steffy and Thomas are older, over the years they have felt that Brooke has used “manipulation and sexuality” to “blindside Ridge,” which has led to his addiction to her — an addiction that Steffy has deemed unhealthy.
Steffy has made it clear that their family has been robbed of many years of happiness — together — due to Brooke, and now that she and Thomas have their own children, well, like she’s always said before, it’s their time now — without Brooke in the mix.
More: Soap star doubles the fun with new role
“They have such a great love and respect for their mother and in their minds she’s a far superior person than Brooke is and deserves happiness,” Bell explained then shared how happy he’s been with the fan response. “You have to kind of whack the beehive once in a while.” He’s glad to have one of daytime’s biggest love triangles back in the mix and “have it be really as controversial as ever.”
And when it comes to the fans, who are some of the most loyal in the industry, Bell stated, “People have strong opinions on one side or the other. I love it.”
We love hearing them as well, so please share your thoughts on Steffy and Thomas’ “Operation Tridge” in the comment section, then relive Ridge and Taylor’s whole love story in the new photo gallery below.
Most Popular
Advertisement
Image: CBS screenshot
1/28
<p>It was tragic circumstances that brought together newlywed playboy Ridge Forrester (then Ronn Moss) and Dr. Taylor Hayes (then Hunter Tylo) in 1990: She was his doomed bride Caroline Spencer’s oncologist. As you can see, though, the widower soon found a way to ease the pain of his loss.</p>
Image: CBS screenshot
2/28
<p>Though Ridge was head over heels in love with Brooke Logan, he made a valiant attempt to stop schtupping her after she married his father, Eric, by redirecting his libido toward Taylor and enticing her down the aisle with some buried treasure and a marriage proposal in St. Thomas.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
3/28
<p>After deflowering fellow psychiatrist James Warwick for fear that he’d die a virgin, Taylor conveniently “perished” in a plane crash. Translation: While Ridge Road Runner’d back to Brooke, his “late” wife made the most of her amnesia by marrying Prince Omar Rashid of Morocco.</p>
Image: CBS screenshot
4/28
<p>Ridge and Brooke were happily fulfilling their “destiny” as a couple when he got an eyeful of her locking lips with Grant Chambers. Rather than discuss the matter — never Ridge’s strong suit, that! — he re-popped the question to former spouse Taylor at a Forrester Creations fashion show.</p>
Image: CBS/Getty Images
5/28
<p>Despite Ridge’s habit of ping-ponging between Taylor and Brooke, he managed to stay put in his Doc’s bed long enough for them to start a family, which came to include son Thomas and daughters Steffy and Phoebe, the rare set of twins that was only occasionally identical.</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
6/28
<p>When designing woman Morgan DeWitt came to L.A., Taylor was quick to befriend Ridge’s old flame — and even quicker to regret it. The schemer conned her former lover into knocking her up to replace the child that Mommie Dearest Stephanie Forrester had strong-armed her into aborting.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
7/28
<p>During Sheila Carter’s early-2000s reign of terror, she took aim at both Brooke and Taylor. The former survived, and the latter? Well, she survived, too, it turned out. She’d just been spirited away by Omar, who was only too happy to let Ridge believe that she was really dead this time.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
8/28
<p>Now and then, Ridge and Taylor invited people besides Brooke into their hot mess of a relationship. For instance, it once looked like Taylor might turn up the heat with fireman Hector Ramirez. She also ripped a page from Brooke’s little black book by getting involved with Ridge’s brothers and father.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
9/28
<p>As for Ridge, he went so far as to get engaged to <em>Young & Restless</em> perfumer Ashley Abbott. (The man has spent half of his life on one knee!) But the less said, the better about his flirtation with Brooke’s daughter Bridget, who he once thought was his daughter <em>and</em> sister! (She was neither.)</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
10/28
<p>Sometimes Brooke made it all too easy for Taylor to paint herself as the more sensible option for Ridge. Whereas Brooke had a baby with one of her daughters’ significant others and “accidentally” had wall sex with another, Taylor would never do that sort of thing. On second thought…</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
11/28
<p>It became a lot harder for Taylor to slut-shame Brooke after it was revealed that she herself had embarked on a steamy affair with her rival’s son… who just happened to be Phoebe’s former boyfriend! The girl was so freaked that she wound up in a car wreck that claimed her life. (Unless… Omar?)</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
12/28
<p>If Phoebe’s death hadn’t killed Ridge’s renewed relationship with Brooke, his drug-addled tryst with Taylor certainly would have, especially since back then, the blonde was more prone to act on impulse. In a huff over her husband’s betrayal, she gave him the heave-ho. Emphasis on the “ho.”</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
13/28
<p>Despite appearances to the contrary, rather than sleep or even catnap on his decision to remarry Taylor as fast as humanly possible, Ridge went full-steam-ahead with wedding plans. How could he not? He had been single for whole <em>minutes</em>.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
14/28
<p>As predictable as the sunrise, Brooke came to regret showing the door to her favorite flip-flopper. Steffy and Thomas nearly kept their sometime stepmonster from interrupting their parents’ remarriage ceremony, but Brooke still showed up — on horseback, no less.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
15/28
<p>Time and time again, Ridge and Taylor climbed aboard the marry-go-round. They had to know the way that the ride would end. Yet he couldn’t seem to pass a Kay’s without adding a new ring to his collection and slipping it on the finger of one or the other of his on-again/off-again wives.</p>
Image: Brian Lowe/JPI
16/28
<p>Yup, if it was a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or really any day that ended in “day,” chances were good that Taylor’s hand was sporting a new rock as a sign of Ridge’s fidelity and commitm… No. We can’t. We just can’t type that with a straight face.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
17/28
<p>See the looks that Ridge is getting here from Thomas (then Drew Tyler Bell), Steffy and Taylor? That’s generally the level of subtlety they use when encouraging him to “come home” to the Forresters. (Even though technically, he’s a Marone. But that’s another story!)</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
18/28
<p>Don’t be fooled by this shot. It may appear that being the rope in Taylor and Brooke’s tug of war is giving Ridge the mother of all migraines, but let’s be real: Dude loves it. More likely he’s covering his face to keep his wives from seeing the smile that says, “OMG! They’re <em>still</em> at it!”</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
19/28
<p>Here, Taylor demonstrates the only amount of distance that she can safely leave between herself and Ridge if she wants to have any hope of keeping Brooke from displacing her from his arms. In other words, no distance at all.</p>
Image: Brian Lowe/JPI
20/28
<p>Even when Taylor has covered Ridge’s ears to keep him from hearing, never mind heeding, the call of his and Brooke’s much-ballyhooed destiny, he’s still been drawn back to his ex. Perhaps it’s just the challenge of trying to put wrinkles in sheets made from BeLieF. Or perhaps it’s just that his motto has always been…</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
21/28
<p>When people talk about Ridge and Taylor’s wedding album these days, they aren’t referring to pictures from any one particular ceremony, they’re describing a scrapbook of <em>all</em> of their umpteen nuptials. Volume 2 should be out any time now.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
22/28
<p>By 2014, it felt like there was something different about Ridge and Taylor. In part, it was the fact that by then he was being played by Thorsten Kaye. In (another?) part, it was the fact that he was involved with Brooke’s kid sister, Katie, and Taylor had hooked up with Eric.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
23/28
<p>Who are we kidding? It didn’t matter how many other people Ridge and Taylor slept with or got hitched to. His hold on her remained as powerful as ever. So it was hardly a stunner when she declared a few years later that she still loved him. And in response, he declared… Oh. Oh dear. He said, basically, “That’s nice.” Ouch.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
24/28
<p>When Taylor returned to L.A. in 2021 with Krista Allen taking over the role, Steffy and Thomas (now Matthew Atkinson) got their hopes <em>way</em> up that Mommy and Daddy would reunite. And although Pop was once again married to Brooke, the kids insisted at least three times an episode that Taylor was his endgame.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
25/28
<p>Events — and loco-en-la-cabeza Sheila — seemed to conspire to remind Ridge that Taylor was as snuggly as a drowsy kitten. After the madwoman attempted to murder Steffy and seemingly <em>did</em> kill her own son, Steffy’s husband Finn Finnegan, the bond between the exes was strengthened. By which we mean…</p>
Image: Sean Smith/CBS 2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved
26/28
<p>When it was revealed that Finn was only “dead” in the way that Taylor often had been, she and Ridge were so happy that they puckered up and shared a smooch. This only encouraged Steffy and Thomas to nag them about reuniting six times an episode instead of merely three.</p>
Image: CBS screenshot
27/28
<p>After Thomas made it <span style="text-decoration: line-through">look</span> sound like Brooke had called Child Protective Services on him, Ridge, rather than confront his wife or disclose why he was grumpypants, flew off to Aspen, where he informed Taylor that they were on again. Against her better judgment, she was like, “Whee!”</p>
Image: CBS screenshot
28/28
