Peacock
Truth Be Told: Abigail Klein’s Stephanie couldn’t continue to lie to Alex (Robert Scott Wilson).
Xander’s mistaken belief that Stephanie and Philip are having an affair pushed Stephanie to the brink and led her to make a difficult decision: She leveled with Alex about the big secret she’s been keeping for Sarah — namely, that the letter that helped Philip obtain half of Titan Industries was forged. According to Abigail Klein, who portrays Stephanie, her Days of our Lives character was driven by her deep feelings for Alex.
Secret Society
“Stephanie and Alex’s love is her biggest motivation,” asserts Klein. “Preserving where they’ve gotten to is her priority now.”
Sarah put a lot of pressure on Stephanie to keep mum, convinced that Xander and Philip working together at the helm of Titan was best for both of them — and for the company. She made the most persuasive case she could for Stephanie’s continued secrecy. “Stephanie doesn’t want to blow up the secret, but she’s looking at Sarah like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” recounts Klein. “Because Sarah still wants to control this narrative, and she wants to still keep this under wraps. But at this point, Stephanie’s like, ‘Wait. This is getting way too personal and way too out of line, because I’m now being accused of having an affair with Philip.’ ”
With that looming over her head, Stephanie only saw one way out – complete transparency. “There’s no way she’s going to keep this from her boyfriend and not tell him what’s really going on,” says Klein. “But Sarah is just as adamant that everything is going well. She’s like, ‘Let’s keep it that way. Leave well enough alone.’ I remember doing those scenes with Linsey [Godfrey, Sarah], and they were really fun. But there was just this point of Stephanie drawing a line in the sand and saying, ‘I’m not going to go further than this. It’s all gone too far now.’ ”
Considering all the obstacles they’ve faced and the long road Stephanie and Alex have traveled to finally reconcile, Stephanie reached the point where she realized that if her relationship was going to be successful, she needed to put Alex’s needs ahead of Sarah’s. “Stephanie and Alex now have a hard-earned second chance,” rationalizes Klein. “With all of the ups and downs that they’ve been through, she can’t risk it like this. She has to be honest with Alex. She wants this relationship to work more than anything, especially the second time around.”
However, Stephanie, continued to be swayed by Sarah’s side of things and wasn’t quite ready to blow things up. “Stephanie’s worried for Sarah, too, because Xander is so unpredictable,” Klein points out. “That’s another reason why Stephanie is so at odds with herself internally. She wants to be truthful with Alex, but she also understands that Sarah is in a really tough position, too. So I think there’s just this idea of, ‘Well, if I come clean with Alex, and if we are as strong as I really hope we are, maybe he’ll see it my way. Maybe he’ll understand why we’ve been keeping this from Xander, because he knows how volatile Xander can be and how dangerous this could become.’ But there’s also that chance of when Stephanie does come clean that Alex is going to look at her and say, ‘This is more than I want. I’m going to go tell Xander.’ Then everything could come crashing down. So it’s very high stakes.”
Luckily for everyone — except Xander, that is — so far Alex is playing along…
