‘B&B’s Thorsten Kaye on Ridge’s New Predicament: He’s Married to Shauna?!

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Well, that’s certainly a bold plot twist! This week, The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Ridge Forrester (Thorsten Kaye) found out he got legally divorced from his beloved wife, Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) and married Shauna Fulton (Denise Richards) during a whirlwind trip to Las Vegas. One major problem: Ridge doesn’t remember finally filing those divorce papers and actually marrying Shauna!

How is Ridge going to explain this to Brooke, who is ready for them to finally be reconciled for good? And will he try to make it work with Shauna, who we all know is being nudged along by the manipulative Quinn (Rena Sofer)? What a mess!

Kaye sounded just as perplexed when we talked to him about this storyline, his on-screen daughter Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) developing an opioid addiction, as well as returning back to work on the CBS soap after being shut down for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s what he had to say during our interview.

Thorsten Kaye as Ridge and Jacqueline MacInnes Wood as Steffy (Sonja Flemming/CBS)

Ridge is finding out that he divorced Brooke and married Shauna during a Vegas trip he’s not remembering too well. What’s up with that?

There is a lot of cool stuff coming up and I’ve got to tell you, when you’re working with Denise Richards or Kelly Katherine Lang, it doesn’t really matter what the story is but, yeah, Ridge may have had a couple of drinks and made a couple mistakes that are tough to explain.

How would you explain his feelings about Shauna?

I guess this is what I’m trying to figure out as well! I don’t think Ridge should feel about her a certain way because Brooke did something [wrong]. I hope that there’s going to be that moment in time where [Ridge and Shauna] just get to know each other. I’m not sure where she fits in Ridge’s life but she seems nice enough and she’s not sniffing around Bill Spencer (Don Diamont), so that’s good news!

Bill is always the thorn in his side, isn’t he?

Always!

Denise Richards as Shauna (Cliff Lipson/CBS)

And Steffy is going to be facing a tough road following her accident. Is Ridge aware of what she’s going through, or is she keeping it a secret from him?

I do know that she’s in pain and that things still aren’t sorted out and that she’s started taking some pain medicine, but as far as how that’s going to affect her coming up, no, that’s going to be news to me as well.

And who hit her with his car? Bill Spencer!

Same guy. Why can’t we just get rid of that dude? [Laughs] Seems whenever someone gets hurt, it’s that Bill is right in the middle of it. I love Don [Diamont] but Bill is a tool. I think we all agree on that.

Well, that’s good for the audience since they love to see you guys tussle. Safe to say there will be more of that?

Of course, of course. And the only good thing about that is, I don’t know if you know about all that kissing stuff that comes up, because we can’t kiss. So Denise Richards has her husband (Aaron Phypers) come in to do those scenes and that guy is a beast. I don’t know how many hours a day he goes to the gym, but I’m glad he does because if they’re doing just neck down, I’m perfectly fine with that. And also if there’s any kind of fight scene, I’m going to suggest just for safety issues that he should go after Bill. That’s my idea.

With everything going on, I feel like his heart will still be with Brooke whether they’re together or not. Is that safe to say?

I think it is safe to say because, listen, you can’t replace history. If you feel comfortable with someone, you can’t replace that. It takes too long to get to that place again. I think those two will always be first to each other in a lot of ways.

That’s what the audience wants too even though we love it when there’s drama between these characters, right?

No one wants to see people being happy on TV, not on any show. No, you’re going to see the dark stuff.

Going back to just being back to work, how was your first day back with all the safety precautions?

My concern and probably the same with you. What we sell is romance and kissing and touching and hugging and with all the rules in place, is it going to be a waste? I didn’t think that we had what we needed to keep telling our stories but between Brad and the writers and everybody else, they figured it out and we’re doing it.

CBS

Since you’ve been back to work for awhile now, is it starting to feel like second nature, or does it still feel odd at this point?

It feels odd. Listen, the people are there and it’s the same place, but it is different. Listen, one of my favorite things is to sit with John McCook (Eric Forrester) after work and just hear stories because he’s a great storyteller and we’ll have a beer and just talk about life. And those moments are not here right now. We just can’t do it. And even just on set, messing around with everybody, we’re not there yet. But what kind of keeps us going is the people, hugging it out or just making jokes with camera guys and all that. That’s part of what we do. I don’t think we’ve found that comfort level yet, but that’s not going to affect the work in any way.

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