Days Of Our Lives
DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Craig Reveals to Chloe He’s In Love With Another Man
Looks like it’s the end of the line for “Crancy”. On Thursday’s episode of Days of our Lives, once outside of the Brady Pub, Chloe (Nadia Bjorlin) overhears Craig (Kevin Spirtas) talking to someone on the phone and calling them “sweetheart”.
This confuses Chloe all the more, when Craig just had professed there is no other woman in his life than his wife, Nancy (Patrika Darbo), even though Nancy came back to Salem knowing there is trouble brewing in her marriage.
Courtesy/Peacock
Craig admits to Chloe, who accuses him of cheating on her mother, that he is indeed cheating on her, but not with another woman, but a man.
Chloe is gut-wrenched and starts to cry and asks Craig … if he is gay? Craig owns up to that he is attracted to men, so if that makes him gay, then he’s gay. He also adds that he loves Nancy very much.
Next, Chloe wants Craig to end things with the guy and Craig refuses, saying that he and the other man share a great connection and chemistry, something that he’s never felt before and … wait for it … that he is in love with him.
A teary-eyed Craig swears he never meant to hurt Nancy. Next, Nancy comes upon the scene and announces to Craig that they are staying in Salem, while Chloe tells Craig he needs to come clean with her mom.
So, what did you think about the story turn for the character; where Craig is now in love with another man? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Just a random thought bouncing around in my head between the horns but….
What if Craig’s boyfriend is the new character “Ray” or “T.R.” or whatever his name is??
Probably not likely, but at least they wouldn’t have to hire yet another newbie if that were the case. It damned well better not be Leo Stark, because that would make zero sense at all for Craig to fall head over heels in love with somebody like him
Now as to why they brought back Craig & Nancy after all these years, just for this storyline…. Hell only knows. Though thank Hell neither one was a recast!
Satan – this story line has great potential if handled with care and sensitivity. A husband who loves his wife yet wants to be with another man. How will Nancy deal with reality?
“care and sensitivity” would definitely exclude Leo from consideration, so that would be a good thing.
I’m not saying it’s a bad idea for a story, just seems kinda random that they would bring back a long lost couple of characters for this purpose. I wish Days would make up their mind as to whether they want to write for LGBT characters or not. They have an iconic young legacy couple with Will & Sonny… then disappear them entirely (except for the Peacock spinoffs). They can’t make up their minds whether to go there or not with Allie & Chanel. Now they bring in 60 something Craig & Nancy after decades of absence… and no previous indication that Craig might play for the “other team” (other than the actor’s real life orientation, of course).
Satan
I think your(our) worst nightmare is happening. Saw Craig and Leo together on another soap blog. I dont know if I will be able to watch the two of them even remotely romantic. I thought there was nothing worse than the Devil, boy was I wrong.
I don’t like it. Why break up Craig and Nancy? I know at the time they were brought on, it was a big deal having a plus size gal paired with a hunky man.
Momo- it is more than possible for two people married to each other for years to grow apart. AND this story line is based on the reality that this actually does happen in the real world.
anne, I just want to give you kudos for your sensitive, realistic take on this storyline. Yes, it does happen in real life. I know plenty of people who have lived this situation. It’s unfortunate that some people feel compelled to deny who they really are while attempting to conform to societal, familial, religious norms.
We have yet to see how this storyline will unfold. But I think some find it objectionable because Craig appears so selfish and Nancy appears so needy. Most of Nancy’s dialogue has been cringeworthy thus far. Humanity and realism are sorely needed.
James 75
I loved your last two sentences. If you are referring to Nancy calling Craig an S.O.B, I might have said worse!
Thank you, Violet! “I might have said worse”: Awesome! Also, we keep hearing about how delicious that damn chowder is supposed to be, but Nancy found a good use for it!
Not just plus size but since I’ve never seen them, was the 13-14 year age difference ever mentioned? Boy, after today’s show I was impressed with Nancy’s spunk and that was before she even found out her rival is a man, if that’s what they are calling Leo Stark these days. He’s a worm that she can squash under her shoe.
This was very predictable! I saw the writing on the wall.
For what it’s worth, who cares about Chloe’s middle-aged parents sex problems? I surely can’t imagine anyone calling that Ray guy sweetheart, man or woman, he’s disgusting. That would be the last straw for me. This gay younger man with the much older frumpy wife is insulting and embarrassing to everyone, guy straight or otherwise!
I think Craig & Nancy are supposed to be the same age. They were high school sweethearts if I’m remembering the backstory correctly. She just looks older now because of that granny wig. Craig’s got gray hair, but his face doesn’t seem to have aged hardly at all since they were last seen decades ago.
I wasn’t 666% serious about Ray being his boyfriend, but the only thing worse than that would be that idiot Leo Stark…. and that’s the rumor on some other soap sites.
As much as I love Greg (actor) and Leo, I hope Leo is not Craig’s bf. It just would seem too desperate or something.
And yes, Craig and Nancy were high school sweethearts so they’re supposed to be the same age.
I do think Nancy/Patricka looks better with her red or strawberry blonde hair, but I still love her.
Does anyone else remember that Nancy was on the jury that sentenced Sami to death? 😀
I’d forgotten that Nancy was on that jury, but that explains why Roman wasn’t exactly happy to see her or Craig when they came to the pub. Did she do something to Carrie as well? I don’t remember specifically, but I remember Nancy really hating Mike Horton, and of course he & Carrie were together for a while, so it probably had something to do with that?
Senior Devil moment here, don’t remember the details of all those 90’s storylines.
Yes, they did stuff with Mike and Carrie. Craig and Mike were both vying for the same job at the hospital. I think Craig and Nancy played dirty. I was a bit surprised Roman was still upset, but I totally get it.
You know what would be the ultimate twist and actual creative use of Days history for this storyline?
What if Craig’s “mystery boyfriend” was none other than Mike Horton??
Now obviously, Mike – in his various incarnations – was fairly well established as a heterosexual character. But OG Mike was portrayed by Wesley Eure, who (like Kevin Spirtas) is openly gay. So if they can talk him into coming back, that would be the biggest shocker ever. And it would really piss off Nancy!
The devil is in the details…
Satan
I don’t know how they managed the age difference years ago, when I wasn’t watching but the minute they appeared together this time back, I looked them up because he looked so much younger. I had seen Nancy last time she was on but not Craig. It says he’ll be 60 this spring and she’ll be 74. I’m not trying to make a big deal about the age difference but there was never a mention of it previously, so I was quite taken aback when I first saw them together.
Hope this is an opportunity to bring in Nancy and Craig’s daughter Joy who would struggle with accepting her dad’s orientation. This show needs a new bloodline unrelated to everyone else and it would show that this storyline wasn’t done for shock value.
Craig seems to be having a hard time keeping his stories straight (er, no pun intended).
First, he tells Chloe that this was the first time he’s ever been with a man, and when she says “tell mom you’re gay”, he hesitates to even identify himself as “gay”.
Then he turns around and tells Nancy that he’s always known he’s gay, he hooked up with some dudes in college, and then suppressed his gay “urges” for the entire time he was married to Nancy, up until just recently. And when Nancy asked him if he was bisexual, he said “nope, I’m gay. Goodbye”.
Now as a long time observer of mortal history, a Devil has certainly seen enough examples of people who suppressed their true selves for whatever reasons (religious beliefs, family pressure, oppressive cultures, etc) so it’s entirely plausible that Craig’s story would have played out the way he described it to Nancy. But if that’s the case, why tell Chloe a completely different story? While she would obviously have some justified anger about Craig hurting her mother, Chloe’s generation didn’t grow up thinking sexual orientation was a matter of “choice” or a “sin” with all the rhetoric of my Former Employer creating Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve, or all of that noise.
Or was this just sloppy writing from Team ReRon??
Craig seemed to be quite the ladies man previously. I was surprised as Nancy when he said he had dabbled with men in college. Not the Craig I remember.
Because it’s not the Craig we remember. I read on another soap site that this is absolute character destruction. I agree with that.
It’s like Satan said it’s another Re-Ron. Ron Carlivati takes beloved characters and destroys them. I didn’t watch OLTL at the end but it’s my understanding he did the same thing there and look where they are now. Nowhere.
The real shame is that Ken Corday allows it.
I have liked some stuff Ron has done, but not totally thrilled with rewriting history, like with Lani and Paulina.
Because it sounds so much better to tell your daughter I just discovered I was gay than to admit I knew I was gay all along but I thought I could live the conventional lifestyle with my supportive rich wife and two beautiful kids. Sorry about that Nancy. I hope Craig stays becomes chief of staff and deals with the fallout from Nancy, Chloe, Joy and his stunned former colleagues.
Very intrigued by this storyline. My best friends daughter informed her mother 15 years ago she was gay. My friend refuses to accept it even though she loves her daughter very much. She refuses to meet her daughters partner or allow her to come to her home. Her daughter eventually moved to another city. So I applaud the writer for going there but hope he does not sugarcoat the chaos Craig’s revelation will leave in its wake.
Chloe and Nancy have been hit hard by the fact that Craig is gay and hid it for so many years. Guess he enjoyed the best of both worlds. Unless they have recently changed his character, mother and daughter will be in for the shock of their lives when they meet Leo. Talk about insult added to injury!
Today’s show was a letdown not showing that rotten Leo until the very end.
If you have ever tuned-in to the soap opera genre over the last 50 years, and witnessed some of the greatest romances, drama, classic and outlandish storylines of all-time, you would have seen Deidre Hall smack dab in the middle of it as longtime Salem heroine, Dr. Marlena Evans.
It was 50 years on this date, June 21, 1976 that Hall first appeared on DAYS on NBC which was its home for 57 years before it moved to its current streaming platform on Peacock in September of 2022.
In Hall’s first episode she was introduced as a psychiatrist treating Mickey Horton (John Clarke) at Bayview Sanitarium after he suffered a complete mental breakdown. Mickey learned that his brother Bill Horton (Edward Mallory) was the biological son of Mike Horton (Wesley Eure) with his wife Laura (Susan Flannery) and that he had been lied to for years and years. From that moment on, the rest is television and soap opera history. Days of Our Lives put Hall front and center.
Photo: NBC
There were so many heartbreaking and shocking story twists involving the beloved Marlena. One of the first was the historic crib death of baby DJ (Don Jr.) in 1980, Marlena’s infant son with Don Craig (Jed Allan). The story had never been told on daytime television and Hall’s performances received accolades from TV critics to fans when Deidre received thousands of letters from grieving mothers who had gone through the same thing in their own lives.
DAYS also brought Deidre’s twin sister, Andrea Hall Lovell to the show as her on-screen sister Samantha, who had a grudge and even locked Marlena up in a sanitarium and took her place! Fast-forward and in 1982, DAYS launched the Salem Strangler story where everyone believed Marlena was his next victim, only it turned out to be Samatha. Jake Kositchek (played by Jack Coleman) was revealed to be the actual serial killer.
Later, Deidre would assume the role of Marlena’s look-alike, Hattie Adams in 2004, once played by her sister, Andrea. Over the years, Hattie has come back to Salem and caused trouble giving Hall a chance to play a different type of character, then the always upstanding Marlena.
Photo: JPI
THE LOVES OF MARLENA
Deidre Hall struck gold with all her leading men: from the late Jed Allan, to Wayne Northrop as Roman Brady, and of course, her enduring love story with the late John Black played by the iconic Drake Hogestyn. In fact, Marlena’s 1986 wedding to John (who was believed to be Roman at the time) remains a favorite of fans to this day.
TOP MARLENA STORYLINES OF ALL-TIME
While the list is long, here are several that were some of the memorable during Deidre’s five decades in Salem!
The Possession (1994- 1995)
Considered one of the most ambiguous, outlandish and unforgettable story arcs in soap opera history, then Days of Our Lives head writer, James Reilly went there! Marlena was possessed by the devil! That included; the demonic eyes, hissing at father John (Black) the priest, morphing into creatures, and the classic levitating in her bed! It became a cultural phenomenon and cemented Deidre Hall’s status as a daytime television legend. Just ask Ryan Gosling!
Photo:JPI
The Affair with John Black (1993)
John and Marlena’s forbidden love could not be denied and they had passionate affair, while she was still married to the real Roman. Problem was her daughter, Sami (Alison Sweeney) caught her mother having sex with John on a desk that changed Sami forever.
The Salem Stalker Mystery (2003-2004)
In a shocker, Marlena was revealed to be a serial killer who bumped off several Salem favorites residents who were all alive on the island of Melaswen (spelled “New Salem” backward). Turns out, she was manipulated and gaslighted by Andre DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) to do the “killings” and had no memory of her actions.
The Pier Scene (1991)
This remains Michael Fairman TV’s all-time favorite Deidre Hall moment, which featured some of the best acting in the storied careers of both Hall and Drake Hogestyn.
In the story, a presumed-dead Marlena returns after four years. One foggy night on the pier, John is alone, and Marlena steps out of the fog to reveal herself, and is reunited with the love of her life. You can watch it any year, any decade, and in any moment, and it will have you reaching for the hankies again and again. (best music score fo a soap scene of all-time too!)
Photo: NBC
Kristen’s Secret Room Reveal (1997)
Marlena was caught in Kristen Blake’s (Eileen Davidson) elaborate web of lies, when she was held hostage in a secret wine cellar/room until John managed to track her down, leading to an iconic on-screen reunion. The classic catfight between Hall and Eileen Davidson was one for the ages.
It should be noted that Maison Blanche, Queen of the Night, Possession, Aremid and Lady in a Cage were all a part of classic DAYS storyline and all featured Hall at the epicenter of it from 1993-1996.
THE RECENT YEARS OF MARLENA
In recent years, DAYS brought back the possession 2.0 storyline under then head writer Ron Carlivati in 2021 where the devil leapt back in Marlena after taking advantage of a frail Doug Williams (the late Bill Hayes)
In 2025, viewers watched the end of the love story of John and Marlena, as John succumbed to injuries sustained in an explosion saving a vial of medication needed to bring Bo (Peter Reckell) back to life. Marlena has been a widow on-screen since June of 2025 as Hall as portrayed the good doctor struggling with her grief and to move on with her life since his death.
Photo: JPI
One story that never goes away is Stefano DiMera’s (the late Joe Mascolo) obsession with Marlena, his “Queen of the Night.” Even in death, Stefano is toying with her from the great beyond with the mysterious chess set and the missing “pawn,” that he had gifted John and Marlena in his will. The mystery is currently unfolding on all-new episodes of Days of Our Lives.
Tune-in to Days of our Lives on the Monday, June 22 episode as Marlena looks back at her 50 years in Salem.
Share your congratulations to Deidre Hall for this incredible 50-year milestone as Dr. Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives in the comment section. Then let us know, what is your all-time favorite storyline or moment in the life of Marlena over the past 5 decades? And, just for kicks, and to celebrate this amazing milestone, here is Marlena levitating below circa Christmas Eve 1994.
Days Of Our Lives
Al Calderon Reflects on ‘Major Chapters’ Coming to an End on ‘Days of Our Lives’ and ‘Brilliant Minds’
It’s been a bittersweet time for Al Calderon. The talented actor/singer/songwriter has watched from his vantage point to roles he loved so much come to their conclusion for different reasons.
In a heartfelt message posted to his Instagram story on Saturday, Calderon took a moment to share how grateful he was for the opportunity to play Javi Hernandez on Days of Our Lives, and nurse Nico Silva this year on NBC’s second season of Brilliant Minds. Currently, Brilliant Minds has two more episodes that will air on June 24 and the series finale on July 1.
Calderon expressed, “As I sit here reflecting on this lovely Saturday afternoon over the last two years of my life, I have two major chapters closing that have been part of my life every day for the last two years. We have Brilliant Minds. Our last episodes are wrapping up, and then my last scenes aired yesterday as me as Javi on Days of Our Lives.
Photo: JPI
“I’m just unbelievably grateful for the chance and the opportunity to be a part of something so much larger than me,” continued Al. “I (will) love Days of Our Lives forever, my family. Thank you for supporting me and supporting my decision to take the leap of faith and believe in myself and, and tell other stories. You know, it’s never goodbye. It’s always ‘see you later’ to me and just leaving with love and leading with love.”
Al concluded with a special mention to some very important people, the fans: “Thank you to the fans and the support from everyone, the lovely messages. So this next chapter, hopefully it’s not a dragon, hopefully it’s a gold coin.”
Photo: NBC
Calderon’s journey on-screen on Days of Our Lives began in October of 2024 and concluded this month. In one of his last appearances Javi was asking a favor from Gabi (Cherie Jimenez) before bumping into his ex, Leo (Greg Rikaart). In story, Javi has a new romance with Gus (Michael Ocampo), while fighting his feelings for Leo. The role of Javi will be played starting on June 30 by Jacob Martinez who takes over the role.
NBC decided to cancel the Brilliant Minds, after it split up the airing of its second season which began in the fall of September of 2025 and the back-half started airing after a long break this past May. Calderon joined the medical drama staring Zachary Quinto for the new season, which sadly was its last.
So, will you miss Al on Days of Our Lives and Brilliant Minds as his time on-screen has come to an end? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.
Next week, Days of Our Lives welcomes back fan favorites Colton Little (Andrew Donovan) and Christopher Sean (Paul Narita) when they reprise their roles for an upcoming special episode which contains Deidre Hall’s 50th anniversary as Marlena Evans.
Circle Monday, June 22 when the married couple comes back to Salem. Paul is the son of Marlena’s beloved and late husband, John Black (Drake Hogestyn). Andrew is the son of iconic couple Shane Donovan (Charles Shaughnessy) and Kimberly Brady (Patsy Pease).
According to the official Days of Our Lives spoilers for the week of June 22-26, Andrew scolds Cat (AnnaLynne McCord). Let’s remember Andrew is ISA. Meanwhile while Marlena thinks back on her fifty years in Salem, Paul arrives back in town.
Photo: JPI
ANDREW AND PAUL
Christopher Sean began playing Paul Narita back in 2014. He has come and gone from the show over the last decade. He was last on-screen back in November of 2025, when Paul arrived back in Salem for the dedication of the Tom Horton Free Clinic as part of the Days of Our Lives 60th anniversary celebration.
Colton Little, first began playing the all grown-up Andrew Donovan in 2022 on the Peacock limited series, Beyond Salem: Chapter 2. Little eventually moved to the mothership and Days of Our Lives in 2023. He was last seen on the soap opera back in March of this year in scenes with Peter Porte (Dimitri Von Leuschner) and Greg Rikaart (Leo Stark).
In story, Andrew and Paul tied the knot in front of family and friends on June 24, 2025, which followed the heartbreaking funeral of Paul’s father, John Black, who had passed away several weeks earlier from injuries sustained in an explosion.
Photo: JAnchondoIG
Michael Fairman TV also confirmed the romance exclusively of Colton Little with former General Hospital actor, Adrian Anchondo (ex-Marco Rios) at the end of December of 2025.
Anchondo shared at that time, “I reached out to him (Colton) when I got the job on GH. We knew of each other through mutual friends; so I knew of him for a long time. I started asking Colton about what his experience was like on soaps and asked about SAG health insurance, etc. We met up one night and were hooked from then on.”
So, are you excited to see Andrew and Paul back on your screens? Share your thoughts and if you would like to see them stay longer in Salem in the future, with a story all of their own via the comment section. But first, check out the just released promo for the action on Days of Our Lives entitled “Conspiracy” below featuring Christopher and Colton.
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