Stephanie Forrester (B&B)

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Soap opera character
Stephanie Douglas Forrester
Nicknames	Queenie; Highness (both by Sally Spectra)
Address	Los Angeles, California
Date of birth	circa 1940's
Gender	female
Parents	John Douglas Ann Douglas
Siblings	Pamela Douglas
Married	Eric Forrester
Children	Ridge Forrester Thorne Forrester Felicia Forrester Kristen Forrester Angela Forrester (Angela deceased)
Grandchildren	Thomas Forrester Phoebe Forrester Steffy Forrester Zende Dominguez (adopted) Alexandria Forrester R.J. Forrester Dominick Damiano
Romantic entanglements	Eric Forrester Massimo Marone
Occupation	Forrester Originals
Portrayer	Susan Flannery

Stephanie Douglas Forrester is a fictional character on the American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. She has been played, since the show's beginning in 1987, by actress and sometime director Susan Flannery.

[edit] La Forrester

Stephanie is best known for her strength of character and her determination to protect her family. She thinks she clearly knows what is best for her family and doesn´t hesitate to guide them in the right direction. Some would consider this manipulation.

She has been married to Eric Forrester (John McCook), whom she met while attending Northwestern University, for many years and had four children with him -- Thorne (Winsor Harmon), Kristen (Tracy Lindsey Melchior), Angela (Judith Borne) (deceased) and Felicia (Lesli Kay).

Her oldest son, Ridge (Ronn Moss), was sired by Massimo Marone (Joseph Mascolo), her former college fling, but raised by Eric. She also has two stepchildren from Eric's marriage to Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang), Rick (Kyle Lowder) and Bridget (Ashley Jones).

She is also a grandmother. Her grandchildren include Ridge's sons, Thomas (Drew Tyler Bell) and R.J. (Trevor and Preston Shores); Ridge's identical twin daughters Phoebe (MacKenzie Mauzy) and Steffy (the latter named after her), Felicia's newborn son, Dino (Eric and Jacob Steinberger); Kristen's adopted child, Zende (Daniel Smith); and Thorne's daughter, Alexandria (Harley Graham).

She is also full owner of Forrester Creations, a prestigious Los Angeles, California fashion design house, after discovering that a trust given by her late father, John Douglas, had given her control. Her husband Eric kept the company away from her by keeping the trust secret for many years.

Her best friend (and former arch-rival) Sally Spectra worked at Forrester Creations as the new receptionist (until Sally's portrayer, Darlene Conley, passed away in early 2007), replacing longtime receptionist Megan Conley (Maeve Quinlan).

At present, Stephanie is dealing with some residual pain which she had hidden for many years. She went to see her friend, and former daughter in-law, Dr. Taylor Hayes (Hunter Tylo) about how to repair her strained marriage. It came out that while she was growing up, her father abused her terribly, and her mother, Ann Douglas (Betty White), did nothing to protect her. Since she had no control over being abused when she was a little girl, Stephanie felt she had to have control as an adult, so she wouldn't be hurt again. This would explain why she was perceived as manipulative.

With that in mind, she and Eric went to Chicago to confront Ann over the events of her childhood. However, Ann refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing on the part of Stephanie's father. A few days later, however, Ann, along with her other daughter, Stephanie's younger sister Pamela (Alley Mills), showed up on Stephanie's doorstep in Los Angeles asking for forgiveness.

At first, Stephanie didn't want to even entertain the idea of forgiving her mother, although she did accept her apology, albeit half-heartedly. Then Eric invited Ann and Pamela to their Christmas celebration. Despite pleas from Pamela and Taylor, Stephanie wanted Ann to leave. It took her youngest granddaughter, Thorne's daughter, Alexandria, to help her. When Alexandria took Ann's hand during the singing of Christmas carols, something moved in Stephanie. In a true show of strength and love, she forgave her mother and allowed her to stay.

[edit] Rivalry with Brooke Logan

Stephanie's main rivalry had always been that with Brooke Logan, the daughter of Eric's former college sweetheart, Beth Logan. She first met her when Brooke and her mother were hired to cater a party. The animosity between the two is one of the anchoring themes of this soap.

To Stephanie's chagrin, Brooke has married Eric, Ridge and Thorne, over the years. She sees Brooke as a tramp, a slut, and a thief (i.e. being CEO of Forrester Creations). Stephanie is always looking for a way to keep her out of not only her family, but her company.

Stephanie sees herself as a woman of high morals and integrity, but there have been times when her methods have been less than honourable, but when dealing with a woman like Brooke, totally justifiable. Unfortunately she can come across as interfering and her actions have alienated her from those she so fiercely protects.

After Ridge suffered a near fatal heart attack, Stephanie blamed herself for it and did an about face on her attitude to Brooke. She gave her half the company as a show of goodwill. This goodwill was thrown in her face when Brooke married Nick after Taylor Hayes sold her two percent of shares to Brooke, giving her 52 percent of the company. Despite the pain this caused Stephanie, she stood firm in her resolve to let Ridge have his Logan. Events have so transpired that the real Stephanie is now back and the vendetta is back on.

The Forresters recently sold the company to Nick Marone as an alternative to Stephanie being charged with assault on Nick's mother. When Stephanie discovered that Brooke also signed over her shares of the stock to Nick and left him for good, Stephanie was clearly touched by this and welcomed Brooke into the family with open arms, thoroughly pleased to discover that her loyalty was to the Forresters.

[edit] Her Love/Hate relationship with Eric

Stephanie's love/hate relationship with her husband, Eric, is also a main part of the storyline. Eric and Stephanie have been through two divorces and has split many more times over the years, but always seem to come back together. Eric has also been married to Brooke Logan and Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown), and was "engaged" to Jackie Payne (Lesley-Anne Down) though still legally married to Stephanie. Jackie broke off their relationship saying he clearly belongs with his family.

Stephanie was angered yet again, after Eric was bullied into selling the company to Nick Marone, with the intention of protecting Stephanie. Nick had threatened to file charges against Stephanie for the accident in which his mother was seriously injured if the Forresters did not sell their company to him. When Stephanie discovered it, she was furious, but later realized that Eric was protecting her from going to jail. This solidified her animosity towards Nick and Jackie.

However, recently, Stephanie discovered that Jackie had lied about how she was injured, and discovered that when Nick was younger, she slept with sailors for money. Stephanie ended up using this as ammunition against Jackie and Nick to force them to selling Forrester back to Eric and their family.

She proceeded to do this by having Captain Jerry Kramer (Hal Linden), who was the most frequent of the men she slept with, come on to the runway at the first Fashion show that Nick and Jackie set up. However, the situation backfired on Stephanie.

Instead of Nick selling back Forrester Creations, he had lost his job as CEO of Marone Industries and sold his stock to the new owner, and bought Forrester Creations outright. This has incurred the wrath of Eric against Stephanie and has once again placed their marriage in jeopardy. After losing Forrester Creations, they helped begin Forrester Originals.

To allow things to calm down, Stephanie spent some time in Chicago, repairing her relationship with her mother, Ann, while Pamela took care of things in Los Angeles. Whilst she was in Chicago, Pamela succeeded in turning the usually cold and formal Forrester house into a home. For this, she won the gratitude of her brother in-law. She also began to have a crush on Eric.

Stephanie came back, and was stunned to discover that Eric had, behind her back, offered Ann to move to Los Angeles; (he had found a condo in Santa Monica that she would like) and has offered Pamela (and eventually Ann herself) to move into one of the two guest cottages on the Forrester grounds. Stephanie was furious that Eric would extend that to her family, but Eric pointedly explained that it was time for Stephanie to be there for her mother, and to let Pamela have a life of her own. Also, it turned out that Stephanie may have another rival for Eric's affections, that of her own sister. She and Pamela had a confrontation on that front, but Pamela, although shy, can be assertive when she needs to be, and put her foot down to her sister.