Days of our Lives fans are still trying to digest the news that Kristian Alfonso will not be reprising the role of Hope Brady when the NBC soap opera resumes production later this year, and the news will be all the harder to accept due to something else that the actress revealed in a new interview: there won't be an exit storyline for Hope.
Alfonso explains in the August 3 edition of Soap Opera Digest that due to the timing of her decision to leave, the writers didn't get the chance to write a proper sendoff for the character, as she had already filmed her final episode prior to the COVID-19 shutdown.
"Because [my exit] was just only decided, nothing was planned in terms of story," Alfonso reveals. "I would have liked to have given the fans that have been so devoted to Days of our Lives all these years a final goodbye and not, 'Oh, she's out looking for someone,' or 'She's upstairs cleaning her room,' or 'She's taken a trip.'"
But alas, that's the way the cookie crumbles, and Alfonso reveals that, as of now, fans will see the last of Hope -- without much fanfare -- on Thursday, October 15.
As for the storyline that Hope has experienced in the last few years, Alfonso says that it seemed like the writers struggled on pairing the character with a new romantic interest after her longtime lover, Bo (Peter Reckell), died in 2015.
"I thought Aiden [Daniel Cosgrove] and Hope worked really well together. I think the audience enjoyed the coupling. But then they turned him to the dark side and they made him into a dirty character," she opines. "I mean, even when they brought him back, how could Hope once again be with him? And then they had him trying to kill her. The pairing with Galen [Gering, Rafe Hernandez] worked, but the minute they had him sleep with Sami [Alison Sweeney], I mean, game over, basically. They didn't let his character have a moment before jumping into bed with Sami. Not even 12 hours! You blinked and he was in bed with Sami. It was bizarre [laughs]. I don't think Hope and Rafe ever even went out on a date."
Earlier this month, Alfonso shocked the daytime community when she announced that she had made the decision to walk away from the role of Hope, which she has been playing since 1983.
"Days of our Lives has been a vital part of both my personal and professional journey," the actress said in a statement. "I am forever grateful to NBC and the late [DAYS co-creator] Betty Corday, who took a chance on me many years ago and changed my life. I have built some lifelong friendships with my extraordinarily talented castmates. DAYS has one of the hardest working crews in all of television, many of whom have become part of my extended family. I feel blessed and honored to have been invited into people's homes for over three decades."
Alfonso later revealed that she made the decision to leave DAYS when the NBC soap's executive producer, Ken Corday, told her that her character would be off camera for four to five months.
"It was not something that had ever been discussed, but that's what it was, and to come back in five to six months, or four to five months -- whatever that timeframe was -- I just thought, you know what, it's time to really write a new chapter," Alfonso explained in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "I've had an incredible run there. I've had so many amazing friends and memories. I cannot say enough how I'll miss so many people working there and working with them, but they are in my life, and we do socialize, but like I said, I think it's time."
Alfonso also admitted that the coronavirus pandemic played a part in her decision, but not exactly not in the way that most people might think.
"This time during COVID, which has been so horrific for our country, the world, it really made me pause and think about life and to really appreciate our health every single day and never take it for granted, and that was part of my decision, also," she noted. "Through all of this horror of COVID, it's the first time in my life I was actually able to exhale, because I've been so busy with my life, and really enjoyed just being home and really doing nothing. Maybe cooking. But just enjoying my family, my friends. Catching up. I don't know if you realize or not, but I used to have a jewelry line also on top of working on Days Our Lives, and I miss it."
For more about Alfonso's decision to leave DAYS and to find out what she has planned for the future, click here.
What do you think about Kristian Alfonso's Hope Brady not getting a proper exit storyline? How would you have liked to have seen Hope leave the canvas? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
