Days of Our Lives has fired actress Melissa Reeves after the actress’ views on Black Lives Matter sparked a backlash among her co-stars and fans.
Earlier this week it was revealed that Reeves — who has played Jennifer Horton on the NBC sudser on and off for the past three decades — “liked” several anti-BLM posts from right-wing activist Candace Owens on Instagram.
Reeves’ Days co-star, Linsey Godfrey, wasted little time responding. After one Twitter user defended Reeves’ right to express her opinion, Godfrey countered, “Nah there is no difference of opinion on racism, homophobia, transphobia and xenophobia.”
When another fan noted that she found Reeves to be “completely lovely and non-judgmental” after encountering her at several Days fan events, Godfrey responded, “Yea but even the nicest people can have awful views. Plenty of nice people have awful moral compasses. I can’t associate w/ it because it makes me a hypocrite. I condemn all those hateful & harmful beliefs.”
This is not the first time Reeves has come under fire for her controversial views. Several years ago, she incurred the wrath of the LGBTQ community when she expressed support for antigay fast food chain Chick-fil-A, tweeting, “Land of the free and home of the brave. Love that we all appreciate free speech, right?”
The proprietor of the popular Instagram fan account “Days of Our Lives Classics,” condemned Reeves’ stance in an early Wednesday post. “Being a racist/bigot is not something we should tolerate/ignore/accept,” read the caption. “I know Missy is Days vet and a lot of us have loved her every since she came to Salem in 1985. But I just can’t support this kind of behavior. It’s not acceptable.”
Despite being on a production hiatus since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Days has enough original episodes banked to last into fall.
Reps for Days, NBC and Sony Pictures Television declined to comment for this story.