Days Of Our Lives Rewind: The Love Story Of Eric And Nicole

Days of Our Lives fans were first introduced to the love story of Eric Brady and Nicole Walker back in 1998. Now that the duo has finally reunited — both with each other and with their son, Jude — and has headed off to Paris, Digest takes a look back on their complicated path to a happily-ever-after.

 

In 1998, Nicole was working as a waitress at Salem’s Java Café when she first encountered Eric, a photographer at Countess Wilhelmina. Eric became smitten with Nicole and helped her land a modeling contract, which soon had her gracing the cover of Bella magazine. When Nicole’s jealous ex, Jay, threatened to reveal her sordid past to Eric, Nicole paid him to head off the threat to her burgeoning romance with the shutterbug. Meanwhile, Nicole’s sister, Taylor, also began modeling and crushed on Eric.

Eric popped the question to Nicole in 1999, but the very next day, Lucas’s mother, Kate, made Nicole an offer she couldn’t refuse: to marry Lucas instead for a cool five million bucks. Eric was heartbroken when Nicole said, “I do” to Lucas. Nicole pined for Eric and when he took up with Greta, she tried to split them up. In 2000, Nicole finally revealed the painful details of her past to Eric: as a teen, her father, Paul Mendez, had forced her into doing porn. They became lovers again, but the reunion was short-lived and Eric left town — but not before telling Nicole that he would always love her.

Lucas (Bryan R. Dattilo, r.) was an early spoiler in Nicole’s (Arianne Zucker) romance with Eric (then-Jensen Ackles).

Hot Under The Collar

In 2012, Eric returned to Salem — as a priest, Nicole was flabbergasted to realize. He and Nicole renewed their friendship and each tried to ignore the growing romantic sparks between them. In 2013, Nicole’s struggle to keep her feelings for Eric at bay led her to have flings with Vargas and Brady. Meanwhile, Kristen drugged and raped Eric, who believed that Nicole was the culprit. Nicole was stung by her ex’s nasty accusation. Still, when Eric was suspended from the priesthood, she worked to exonerate him. After the truth about Kristen’s horrible acts came out, Eric proffered a heartfelt apology to Nicole. Both parties continued to do their best to fight off their undeniable attraction.

At the risk of being offed by Dr. Chyka, one of Kristen’s minions, in 2014, Eric and Nicole declared their love. They survived the ordeal, but when Nic feared that she would lose Eric again if he was to be reinstated as a priest, she destroyed the evidence of Eric’s drugging by Kristen. Eric and Nicole got engaged again, but he broke it off when he found out (courtesy of Jennifer) about what his fiancée had done and spat that he would never forgive her. Eric ultimately decided not to go back to the priesthood.

Desperate Times: A near-death experience drew Eric (Greg Vaughan) and Nicole closer together in 2014.

In 2015, Nicole was in a renewed relationship with Daniel, while Eric had paired off with Serena. Nicole tried to prove that Serena was in cahoots with shady newcomer Xander and was generally up to no good. Xander made an attempt on Nicole and Eric’s life, trapping them in a furnace, and they nearly made love, but after they were rescued, Nicole told Eric that she wanted a future with Daniel. Eric turned to the bottle to cope with the loss, and on New Year’s Eve, his driving drunk caused a terrible car accident that killed Daniel, by then Nicole’s fiancé.

Nicole helped Chloe deliver a baby girl in 2016, clueless to the fact that the child was actually born of a Nicole/Daniel embryo and that Holly was her own biological daughter. The truth came out in 2017, and Nicole and Brady fled to Canada with Holly. Eric persuaded her to return to Salem. In time, Nicole secured legal custody of Holly, and she and Eric got back together once again. But Brady, determined to fulfill his own dreams of a future with Nicole, blackmailed her into dumping Eric by threatening to reveal that she had killed Deimos Kiriakis. The following year, Nicole (who had been forced to marry Xander to keep him quiet about her role in Deimos’s death) was living in Nashville when Eric found out why she had really broken up with him. He tracked her down and declared his love. Eric and Nicole made plans to run off together, but she was presumed dead in a warehouse explosion.

Love Makes A Family

In 2019, Eric was gobsmacked when “Nicole” turned up alive — but really, it was Kristen in a Nicole mask. When Holly appeared to have died (in actuality, her “death” had been faked by Xander), “Nicole” lashed out at Eric, blaming him. Then, with Eric’s help, the real Nicole returned to Salem — with a very much alive Holly. He and Nicole reunited, causing a pregnant Sarah, with whom Eric had been involved, to pretend that Xander was the father of her baby.

Sarah gave birth to a daughter, Mickey, in 2020 (during the show’s time jump tale). After a guilt-ridden Nicole turned down Eric’s marriage proposal, she spilled to him that Mickey was his daughter. Eric broke up with her, but found it in his heart to forgive her and they reunited yet again. In time, it was revealed that Sarah and Eric’s daughter had actually passed away, and “Mickey” was actually Brady and Kristen’s daughter, Rachel.

In 2020, Nicole and Eric finally said, “I do.” But soon, he jetted off to the Congo (with Nicole’s blessing) to help the distressed villagers he had befriended during his previous stint in Africa. The following year, when Eric decided to extend his stay in Africa, Nicole got drunk and landed in bed with Xander. Eric returned home as a surprise for Nicole on their wedding anniversary, but Sami paid Xander a million dollars to reveal his tryst with Nicole to Eric, leading to their breakup. It also resulted in Nicole landing in bed with Rafe and EJ — (not at the same time, of course!) and Eric returning to the Congo.

Rules Of Engagement: Here’s Eric proposing to Nicole in 2020.

Eric — once again an active priest — visited Salem in 2021 to perform an exorcism on Marlena, and came back the following year with the news that he’d been defrocked for performing the exorcism. By then, Nicole was married to Rafe. Eric took up with Jada, but he and Nicole realized they were still in love with each other, so she ended things with Rafe. Jada learned she was pregnant, and had an abortion after a conversation with Nicole. This put Eric and Nicole on the outs once again, so she rebounded with EJ, while he got entangled with Sloan.

After consuming laced biscuits, a drugged-out Eric and Nicole slept together in 2023. Nicole learned she was pregnant and didn’t know whether EJ or Eric was the father. Sloan tampered with the ensuing DNA test to make it look like EJ was the dad, but really, Eric was the bio pop. Sloan got pregnant but miscarried. She and Eric subsequently tied the knot and made plans to adopt, while Nicole and EJ remarried. Sloan was on the verge of telling Eric the truth about the paternity of Nicole’s baby when Nicole gave birth to her son. Melinda showed up on her doorstep with the newborn and persuaded her to convince Eric that the baby was one that had been available for them to adopt. Opposite this, Nicole was led to believe her baby was dead.

So Happy Together

The truth came out in 2024 that baby Jude was Nicole’s biological son. An enraged Eric dumped Sloan and returned Jude to Nicole, still unaware that he was the baby’s true father. EJ paid Sloan to disappear, eager to protect the secret he now knew, that Jude was not his bio son. Especially after seeing a drunken Nicole kiss Eric, EJ had become convinced that Eric and Nicole learning they shared a son would put the final coffin in his marriage. When Gabi exposed EJ’s manipulations, Nicole ended their marriage. She and Eric reaffirmed their love and, with baby Jude in tow, headed off to Paris.

Hey, Jude: Little did Eric know when he handed Jude over to Nicole and EJ (Dan Feuerriegel) that the little boy was actually his son, and their separation would be temporary.