Christian Weissmann – Photo: Instagram; Harrison Cone – Photo: Facebook
The CBS soap opera The Bold & the Beautiful will soon introduce its first gay male couple, with actor Harrison Cone — whose credits include Ick, I Wish You All the Best, HBO Max’s Hacks, and Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty — cast as one half of the pairing.
Cone’s character name has not yet been revealed, but according to Deadline he is closely tied to one of the soap’s major figures. Described as an “aspiring designer,” he will debut at Forrester Creations, the show’s fictional fashion house.
The character will become involved in a relationship with Remy Pryce, played by Daytime Emmy nominee Christian Weissmann.
Cone and Weissmann’s characters are expected to make history as the show’s first gay male couple to share an on-screen kiss.
Executive Producer Brad Bell told People the storyline will harken back to the soap’s roots, weaving the couple into a “fashion wars” plot between rival design houses.
“We are headed into an era of The Bold and the Beautiful — and it will begin here — that is going to be highlighting fashion much more than we have in the past,” Bell told media at a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the show’s first day of taping at Sunset Las Palmas Studios, its new home after 38 years at CBS Television City.
While featuring a gay male couple will be a first for the show, neither Cone nor Weissmann’s characters are the first form of LGBTQ representation on the long-running soap.
In 2012, the soap introduced its first lesbian couple: Karen Spencer (Joanna Johnson) and Danielle (Crystal Chappell). Danielle was initially presented as Karen’s friend, but later revealed as her romantic partner.
In 2015, the show made history by introducing Maya Avant (Karla Mosley), the first regular transgender character in daytime TV. She later became the first transgender bride on TV before being written off in 2019.
That same year, Scott Turner Schofield became the first transgender actor to appear in daytime television when he joined the cast as Nick.
Other soaps have featured gay male couples before, including As the World Turns’ fan-favorite Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer, and Days of Our Lives’ Will Horton and Sonny Kiriakis. CBS’s Beyond the Gates currently includes an interracial gay couple, Martin Richardson and Bradley “Smitty” Smith, played by Brandon Claybon and Mike Manning.
Rapper and pop culture personality Snoop Dogg blasted LGBTQ representation in children’s movies, recounting on the It's Giving podcast that he was shocked when his grandson saw two mothers depicted in Pixar’s 2022 film Lightyear.
"They're like, 'She had a baby -- with another woman.' Well, my grandson, in the middle of the movie, is like, 'Papa Snoop? How she have a baby with a woman? She's a woman!'" Snoop recalled to host Sarah Fontenot, as reported by Entertainment Weekly
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