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Days of Our Lives fans, prepare for more crushing casting news.
Soap Opera Digest reports that Stacy Haiduk (Kristen) will be leaving Days of Our Lives during the week of 5-11-20.
This news comes on the heels of the announcement that Kate Mansi is wrapping up her run as Abigail. But has Kristen really left Salem for good?
Almost no one leaves Days of Our Lives permanently — characters and actors come and go, and even death doesn’t stop iconic characters from returning.
And Kristen is a legend among legends. She’s not only beaten certain death more than once, earning her reputation as the Phoenix’s daughter, but the character survived being recast after being played on and off for decades by Eileen Davidson.
That recast could have blown up in the showrunners’ faces. Some fans are unaccepting of recasts under the best of circumstances, and Davidson not only created an iconic character, but created and played five separate roles when Kristen look-alike Susan Banks and her family were introduced back in the 1990s.
So Haiduk had huge shoes to fill when she took over the role of Kristen in 2018.
Ironically, this wasn’t her first appearance on the sudser — in 2010, she played a prison warden for three days before she had to be replaced due to a scheduling conflict.
In any case, Haiduk did an amazing job of making the role of Kristen her own. She had the opportunity to play both Kristen and Susan, as well as briefly taking over the role of Sister Mary Moira, another of the Banks quads that Eileen Davidson had originally played.
Her portrayals of Kristen and Susan were different than Davidson’s, which took a little getting used to, but playing multiple roles isn’t easy, especially not when the person you’re going to be compared to is Eileen Davidson!
Her version of Kristen showed more vulnerability, struggling to reconcile her love for Brady and desire to be a mother with her difficulty controlling her temper and her desire to get revenge for everyone who had recently wronged her.
After the time jump, Kristen’s world also expanded as Kristen developed a friendship with Lani that made both characters more compelling and could have easily crossed over into romance if the writers had wanted to go that route.
Although Kristen and Brady’s love story is always central when Kristen turns up in Salem, Kristen and Lani’s friendship was a highlight of her most current run for me. While neither of these women was my favorite character, their on-screen chemistry was undeniable, and Salem was a more interesting place whenever they shared scenes.
In any case, Kristen’s exit comes in the middle of a storyline, which is one reason that many fans speculate she will be back sooner rather than later.
Before leaving Days of Our Lives, Kristen is supposed to confront Sarah in Paris and try to get her baby back, while Brady and Xander are flying to France to try to stop the ladies from doing anything crazy to each other.
While Lani thinks Kristen got the violence out of her system when she stabbed Victor, everyone else knows better, and there’s no telling what’s going to happen.
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According to Soap Opera Digest, Kristen will be leaving with the baby, which means that Brady will once again be separated from his children, this time right after learning that his daughter is alive.
That just seems cruel, especially since Kristen’s absence will also mean that Brady and his current love of his life will not be together either. Of course, Brady moves on quickly, so he may find some other woman to focus on before Kristen returns, assuming she does.
Many fans are hoping Haiduk’s absence will only be temporary while Kristen’s legal situation is resolved so that she doesn’t have to go to jail for stabbing Victor. And Haiduk herself has teased fans with a statement that could be interpreted as a clue that Kristen will be back soon.
So yesterday you all read that I was leaving Day’s [sic]!!! But let’s not write Kristen Dimera off yet!!! Is anyone really gone in Salem? After all, I am the Phoenix!
Stacy Haiduk (Facebook post, May 7, 2020)
Hopefully, her allusion to the Phoenix means that Kristen really will be back on our screens soon rather than being wishful thinking on fans’ parts.
What do you think, Days of Our Lives fanatics?
Hit the SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us how you feel about Stacy Haiduk leaving Days of Our Lives and whether you think she’ll be back soon.
Want to chat more about Days of Our Lives? Check out our Days of Our Lives reviews and Days of Our Lives Round Table discussions.
Days of Our Lives airs on NBC on weekday afternoons. Check your local listings for airtimes.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.