Bold and the Beautiful dives into 2026, but we’re going to take a look back at the characters and actors who were in and out on B&B in 2025.

From deaths to drive-bys to returns that honestly let us down, we’re going to talk about it all.

Steffy Forrester’s 2025 Maternity Leave and Return to Bold and the Beautiful

All right, let’s get right into it and start with Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood). Fan favorite Jacqueline MacInnes Wood left for maternity leave in July 2025. She welcomed her fifth son. His name is Talon. All her kids have the coolest names. She had him with husband Elan Ruspoli.

Jackie has had five boys since 2019. That is a whole lot of kids in just a few years. Bless her heart. I don’t know how she does it. And she looks great. Always phenomenal.

To facilitate Jaqui’s maternity leave though, B&B had Steffy leave town after Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton) was shot and Luna Nozawa (Lisa Yamada) was supposedly dead for the first time. Steffy took a little vacay with the kids to clear her head. And then Jaqui was back from her baby leave in September. And of course, Steffy had a lot to catch up on and she’s been busy since she got back.

Is Luna Nozawa Really Dead? Lisa Yamada’s Shocking Bold and the Beautiful Exit

That leads us to the next character who left us supposedly dead, but there’s a lot of red flags that she survived. And of course, we’re talking about Luna. We saw that Lisa Yamada wrapped her most recent run as Luna when the psycho escaped prison.

Finn’s (Tanner Novlan) daughter got out and she triggered a massive manhunt—or woman hunt, I guess. And then Luna showed up at the beach house in Malibu and told Will Spencer (Crew Morrow) she had miscarried their baby.

Then Luna ran off running around the dunes with people chasing her with cell phone flashlights and she wound up running into traffic and Miss Dylan (Sydney Bullock) hit Luna with her car. Lisa Yamada’s character was declared dead, but it happened very abruptly.

We didn’t even see a corpse and didn’t get a memorial. We got nothing. So many fans suspect Luna is not dead and may return again someday. We could even get her back in 2026.

Matthew Atkinson Returns as Thomas Forrester on B&B

The next cast change to talk about is fan favorite Matthew Atkinson. He’s been in and out a few times this year as Thomas Forrester after a gap of like a year of not being on screen. In March 2024, we had Thomas moved to Europe with Douglas Forrester (Henry Joseph Samiri) after Hope Logan (Annika Noelle) rejected his second marriage proposal and Thomas ran off and got engaged to Paris Buckingham (Diamond White).

But then Thomas returned in September 2025 to confront Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang) for getting back with Ridge Forrester (Thorsten Kaye) and breaking his mom Taylor Hayes’ (Rebecca Budig) heart. That was when Jacqueline MacInnes Wood was on maternity leave and they needed one of Ridge’s and Taylor’s kids to show up for this confrontation because it couldn’t go unremarked.

So, for my money, that was a pretty lame appearance because Thomas ranted for about a minute and then hugged it out with Brooke and accepted her as Ridge’s new wife and immediately got over Taylor’s heartbreak. It was ridiculous.

And then, of course, we got Thomas back in December when he announced he was going to work on Hope for the Future, which forced Hope to fire Deke Sharpe (Harrison Cone). But Matthew Atkinson is not sticking around. They already took him off the opening credits and I suspect he came back just to trigger Hope to be so upset that she may actually leave Forrester Creations, maybe go over to Logan Designs. I don’t expect to see Thomas back much in 2026, but we’ll see how it goes.

Henry Joseph Samiri’s Brief Return as Douglas Forrester on Bold and the Beautiful

That leads us into Henry Joseph Samiri’s exit as Douglas Forrester. We had Henry back in December 2025 for his mom Hope’s wedding to Liam, but we only got three episodes of him as Douglas and then he left again. Of course, we may get Henry back again at some point in 2026, though that remains to be seen.

The Mystery of RJ Forrester and Rumored Recast Brian Nicoletti

I also want to talk about another cast change that may have been triggered in 2025, but won’t fully manifest until this year. Joshua Hoffman was out at Bold and the Beautiful as RJ Forrester in October of 2024. Just gone one day. Poof. No explanation for the character exit.

It’s insane when B&B pulls stuff like this and they just ignore an actor exit. Never confirm it. Never address it. And if it’s addressed, sometimes they even deny it. It’s the craziest, weirdest, most murky PR strategy I’ve seen on any soap.

So, while Joshua Hoffman didn’t leave in 2025, I mention RJ because the soap may have already recast the character in 2025, and we could see a new RJ debuting early this year. There’s a young actor, very muscular, very cute, very much the same style as Joshua Hoffman.

His name is Brayan Nicoletti and he was spotted at the B&B holiday cast party. He posed for a photo with John McCook and Thorsten Kaye. You can kind of see a little family resemblance. If he is RJ, that photo makes sense because that would be three generations of Forrester men—technically Marones.

But Brayan is followed by and followed back on Instagram by a bunch of B&B cast members, actors and producers. So yeah, I feel like he is coming to Bold and the Beautiful and maybe he’s going to be RJ, maybe he’s going to be somebody else.

Ridge and Brooke’s son may turn back up at Forrester Creations to help play dirty against Katie’s rival fashion house. B&B spoilers have Brooke and Ridge starting to make sketchy moves to sabotage Katie this week.

Murielle Hilaire and the Future of Daphne Rose

Next we also saw Murielle Hilaire in and out as Daphne Rose the perfume nose. In May of 2025, Murielle’s character moved back to France after Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor) got back with Hope and that really hurt her because she had fallen for Carter.

But Daphne was back in July right after Hope and Carter got engaged and then their engagement ended so Hope could be with Liam and then Daphne was shooting her shot with Carter. But Daphne is making Carter work for it which I like. They are closer now under the Christmas mistletoe and I expect Daphne to stick around.

Status Updates for Poppy Nozawa and Li Finnegan

We also have Romy Park seemingly gone, although she is still in the Bold and the Beautiful opening credits for now. Poppy Nozawa has been offscreen since her daughter Luna was supposedly killed after being run over. I do suspect we’ll get Poppy back at some point in 2026, especially if Luna comes back from the dead yet again. By the same token, we’ve not seen much of Li Finnegan. Actress Naomi Matsuda. I do expect her back in 2026, especially since she and Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) are friends.

Jack Wagner’s Disappointing Return as Nick Marone on Bold and the Beautiful

We also had the last thing I want to talk about. Talk about a disappointing return. Jack Wagner was back from June to August 2025 as Nick Marone. This return was heavily promoted as this brand new big chance of romance for Nick and Brooke. After barely kissing her, Nick had an engagement ring ready to propose to Brooke in Italy. And instead she fell off the back of Nick’s boat. Ridge fished her out of the Mediterranean, did CPR, then they got married in the CEO office.

Jack Wagner has said in interviews that Nick and Brooke had a real shot at romance. The actor hinted he’d be back again as Nick for maybe an ongoing Brooke and Nick story. Obviously, he was saying info, I’m sure, that he was told to say or allowed to say. That’s how these things work.

But none of that manifested. It felt to me in hindsight like B&B was promoting this to drive ratings with maybe no intention to ever follow through because it definitely did not manifest. Most disappointing return of the year for me even though I love Jack Wagner. Drop your comments on cast changes and who you’re going to miss that left B&B in 2025.