Melissa Reeves Is Returning to DAYS OF OUR LIVES!

Add another actor to the list of those returning to DAYS OF OUR LIVES for the episodes airing this fall! Melissa Reeves will be coming back to play Jennifer again!

TV Insider first broke the news that Reeves would be back for scenes slated to air in November. Jennifer will be back on screen to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Horton family as well as attend the memorial for Doug Williams, reflecting the real-life passing of portrayer Bill Hayes. “I heard about Bill, which was just devastating for all of us,” the actress confided. “I was like, ‘I wonder if they’re going to do tribute shows.’”

Reeves took over the role of Jennifer Horton back in October 1985, but the most recent actress to play the character was actually Cady McClain, who stepped in for a couple of stints back in 2020 and 2022. “My one thing was, ‘I’m not taking this away from Cady,’” Reeves said of her decision to return. “‘If this is Cady’s thing and she loves being here and she really loves playing this part, I don’t want to take it away from her. I’m so good either way.’”

Returning to the set meant being able to reunite and catch up with all of her DAYS family both behind and in front of the camera. And she’s especially grateful to be a part of the special episodes paying tribute to Hayes and the equally beloved character of Doug Williams. 

“Of course, I cried because he’s such an incredible man,” Reeves confessed, “but what an incredible legacy he has left behind as a man, as a father, as a grandfather, as a husband. That’s what you want to leave behind when you go, people speaking so well of you.

“Someone has a video of it somewhere but when we were filming the 50th anniversary show, Bill Hayes gave me dance lessons in between takes and I would give anything for those videos,” she added. “That’s one of my sweetest memories of him, him teaching me how to ballroom dance in between scenes and I will never forget it.”