On January 12, 2024, longtime fans of American soap operas were heartbroken to learn that Days of Our Lives star Bill Hayes had passed away – unless he was taking a leaf out of his character’s book by faking it and living on a desert island under an assumed name. He probably wasn’t, though. Not this time.
Hayes was as close to a load-bearing member of the Days of Our Lives community as anyone can be, performing in more than 2,000 episodes across half a century. And while he saw all manner of romantic no-goodery in his imagined life as Doug Williams – or should we say Brent Douglas, half-brother of Byron Carmichael – his real personal life was a good deal less salacious.
Who was Bill Hayes married to?
William Foster Hayes III was married just twice during his 98 years on Earth. His first marriage to his college sweetheart, Mary Hobbs, lasted from 1947 until 1969, ending in divorce after 22 years and five children.
The next year, Hayes joined Days of Our Lives and began working with Susan Seaforth. The chemistry between the two performers was impossible to ignore, and they’ve since been singled out as daytime TV’s first “super couple.” Rank has its privileges, and the two were featured on the cover of Time Magazine, back when there was still a Time Magazine and it still had a cover.
Bill and Susan were married in 1974, and they stayed that way until Bill’s death in January 2024. For more details on their life of domestic bliss, you can check out the couple’s memoir, Like Sands Through the Hourglass, which came out in 2005.
What is Susan Seaworth Hayes’ net worth?
At present, the details of Susan Seaworth Hayes’ financials remain a mystery. Folks have made educated guesses – the people at Celebrity Net Worth, who pride themselves on being able to bullseye a famous person’s liquidity like they’re guessing weights at a carnival, speculate that the longtime soap star has personal assets in the neighborhood of $5 million.
It’s hard to know if that’s accurate, since they don’t show their work by providing salary details or valuations on her properties. What we can say with some certainty is that Susan Seaworth Hayes has acted on the astonishingly long-lived Days of Our Lives since 1968, making her the only performer to appear on the show during every decade of its almost 60-year history. Whatever the producers are paying her, she’s due for a raise.