Heather Tom, known for playing Katie in The Bold and the Beautiful, has been involved in several on-screen romantic relationships across her various shows. The actress recently named two of her favorite storylines from her long-standing soap opera career.
Heather Tom says her Young & Restless character’s romance with Scott Reeves’ Ryan was ‘wildly romantic’
The Bold and the Beautiful’s Heather Tom recently celebrated her 35th anniversary in the industry. When asked about her favorite on-screen romances, the multiple Emmy-nominated actress highlighted two specific storylines.
“I think that, honestly, it goes to my first and my last,” Tom revealed to PEOPLE magazine. Her first on-screen relationship was with Scott Reeves’ Ryan McNeil in The Young and the Restless, where she portrayed Victoria Newman. She labelled the relationship “wildly romantic.”
“Victoria was 16, and he was older. It was just a Romeo and Juliet storyline,” Tom recalled. “People still come up to me and talk about how much they love that story, and it was really well-constructed. I had so much fun doing it. It was very exciting, and I think that excitement played onto the screen, and so people really related to it.”
The soap opera star then pointed to her ongoing on-screen romance with Don Diamont’s Bill Spencer Jr. on The Bold and the Beautiful. “I’ve known Don Diamont since I was 15,” she said. “And so we have just a truthful relationship. I love him. He’s my family in real life, and I think that they allow the history to really play out.”
Interestingly, Diamont was also on The Young and the Restless, where Tom said that they had explored the possibility of a romance between their characters. However, she revealed that the writers “never went anywhere with it.” Luckily for them, they got to explore that on The Bold and the Beautiful when Diamont joined the show in 2009.
Tom recalled pursuing the writers of the show, saying, “We work really well together. Try us together. Try us together.” The writers clearly listened to her advice because their characters, Bill and Katie, have been together for over two decades.
“Sometimes I feel like you can certainly create [chemistry] and play it, but a lot of times it’s just there. It’s just an unspoken thing that makes it work, and it makes it work in a very organic way,” Tom explained.
