The Real Reason Hunter Tylo Never Returned To The Bold And The Beautiful
As Taylor Hayes returns to "The Bold and the Beautiful" and her Forrester family on the CBS soap, she will have a different face as actress Krista Allen, who played Billie Reed on "Days of Our Lives" in the 1990s, is taking over the role that Hunter Tylo first started playing in 1990. Tylo has portrayed the character of Taylor Hayes on and off for nearly 30 years, last appearing on the show in 2019 (via IMDb).
On the show, Taylor will be walking into a powder keg of drama as ex-husband Ridge Forrester (Thorsten Kaye) is on the outs with wife Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) — who is also Taylor's longtime enemy for Ridge's affection. Ridge spent years going back and forth between the two women, as "Fickle" could be his middle name. With Taylor popping back up again, their adult children — Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Thomas (Matthew Atkinson) — couldn't be happier that their dad isn't getting along with their stepmother. What a perfect opportunity to throw Ridge and Taylor together again.
This is nothing new for the Ridge/Taylor/Brooke saga on "B&B," but what will be new is Allen taking over the role of Taylor. So, what happened to Tylo and why is she not returning to the role she made famous for decades?
Where has Taylor been and why did Hunter Tylo not return this time?
Earlier this year, many "The Bold and the Beautiful" fans expected to see Taylor Hayes make her comeback when her daughter, Steffy, had another baby and then got married. It made sense for Taylor to be there for those major life events, but her absence was barely even mentioned on screen. According to Entertainment Weekly, the soap did reach out to Hunter Tylo to reprise the role but she declined. The actress also experienced a tragedy in 2021 when her ex-husband, Michael Tylo, to whom she was married from 1987 to 2005, died at the age of 72 (via The Famous People).
With Tylo declining to return to the role she created all those decades ago, Krista Allen was tapped to offer her own take on Taylor and told Soap Opera Digest that she couldn't be more thrilled. "The day I was offered the role, I was bouncing off the wall," Allen said. "I was just so excited and I felt so grateful and so blessed and just so lucky. Those are the three things I felt. I am really excited."
Whether there may be a casting switcheroo again — something common on soaps — and Tylo does make a "B&B" return in the future remains to be seen.