What Happened to Stefan on DAYS OF OUR LIVES

The character of Stefan O. DiMera on DAYS OF OUR LIVES arrived with a bang in December of 2017 just in time for the New Year. Now, this isn’t the classic villain, Stefano DiMera, who was played by the late Joseph Mascolo — this is his son, Stefan, originally played by popular Daytime Emmy Award winner Tyler Christopher. However, after just over a year in the role, he was replaced by another GENERAL HOSPITAL alum, Brandon Barash, in March of 2019. But then the character exited with a literal bang in October of that year! However, this being DAYS, some wild twists and turns brought Stefan back onto the canvas in August 2022!
Stefan Octavius DiMera is the previously-unknown child of Vivian Alamain and Stefano DiMera. He was conceived when Stefano was posing as Rudolpho Meradi and seduced Vivian to steal her ruby. Although Viv’s manservant, Ivan, told her the baby was stillborn, the infant was spirited away. However, as an adult, Stefan learned the true identity of his mother and confronted Ivan, who revealed the truth. As the brother of Chad DiMera, Stefan took over as the new CEO of DiMera Enterprises.

Clashing with the rest of his family, Stefan found himself drawn to Chad’s wife, Abigail Deveraux. However, she wouldn’t even give him the time of day. Well, not until she suddenly had a mental break and began suffering from DID. One of her alternate personalities, who called herself “Gabby,” seduced Stefan and even got him into bed. Unfortunately, Chad caught them together and beat Stefan to within an inch of his life!
After Abigail received treatment and integrated her personalities, Stefan realized he’d lost “Gabby” forever. Then he was horrified when he heard a gunshot at the DiMera mansion and found Kate holding a gun standing over Vivian’s dead body! Stefan vowed revenge against Kate, and also targeted Kayla Brady, offering to help Steve Johnson regain his eyesight via the bionic eyes being developed by a company he’d recently acquired. But when Steve was arrested for recording sensitive documents, Kayla accused Stefan of using them for his own benefit. Abigail found out she was pregnant, and Gabi Hernandez took her revenge by tampering with the paternity results to lead Stefan to believe he’d fathered the girl, not Chad.

Following the birth of Abigail’s daughter, Charlotte, Chad had her committed and she pretended to be “Gabigail” again in order to seduce Stefan into having her released. Stefan was crushed to lose both Abigail and his daughter and immediately blamed Gabi for orchestrating the deception that led him to believe he was going to be a father. Although their arguments always had a flirtatious edge to them…
Stefan also became smitten with Chloe Lane and invited her to live with him in the DiMera mansion for protection from the goons who were after her. But he had fallen completely head over heels for Gabi, though he insisted otherwise. Gabi seduced Stefan in order to marry him and take over DiMera, but in the process, actually fell in love with him, too! Of course, things got more complicated when Kate was named head of DiMera Enterprises and Vivian turned up alive and out for revenge! Stefan tried to keep his mother under control, but her violent antics led to tragedy when he stepped between Vivian and Lani Price and the cop shot him in the neck! Rushed to the hospital, Kayla sadly informed Gabi that his brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long and he was brain dead.

Gabi was devastated to learn that nothing could be done to bring Stefan back to her and when it turned out that his heart could save Julie Williams’ life, she forced Lani to beg for it on her knees. Julie was later shocked to learn that she owed her life to Gabi and Stefan. But that was nothing compared to the shock Gabi experienced months later when in April of 2020, she came face to face with Jake, a man who looked exactly like Stefan!
Confronted by Gabi, Dr. Rolf reminded her that he wasn’t able to save Stefan, but then admitted that he actually had and Jake was really Stefan with amnesia! He offered to restore Stefan’s memories if Gabi got him out of prison, so she was determined to make that happen! Unfortunately, that was ultimately revealed to be a lie, and Jake was actually Stefan’s previously-unknown twin brother. However, a couple of years later, Jake was shot dead, and Dr. Rolf transplanted his heart into Stefan’s body to bring him back to life!
Complicating matters, though, were Li Shin and Kristen forcing Dr. Rolf to brainwash Stefan into forgetting about his love for Gabi and only remembering his feelings for Chloe.
Stay tuned to DAYS to find out what happens next!