As Days of Our Lives hits an important milestone, the show is saying its final goodbye to soap legend, Bill Hayes.
On Monday, Dec. 2, the long-running soap opera will hit 15,000 episode milestone after 59 years on air. In PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peak at what’s to come, Days of Our Lives honors the late actor and his decades-long performance as Doug Williams.
“It’s time, time to say goodbye,” Julie Williams — who is played by Susan Seaforth-Hayes, Hayes’ wife both on and off screen — says while clinging to a photo of Doug at his memorial.
With Doug’s celebration of life comes the return of a few familiar faces. Though Julie acknowledges she’s “lost the love of my life today,” she looks around at the solemn faces who showed up to remember Doug and admits, “But I feel love all around me from all of you.”
The clip then transitions to an emotional scene of Hope Brady (Kristian Alfonso) leaving flowers at Doug’s grave. With tears streaming down her eyes, she emotionally admits, “I love you so so much.”
Over the decades, the show proved to be special to Hayes in more ways than one. The late actor met his wife, Seaforth-Hayes, on set of the soap and shared their first on-screen kiss in July 1970. Eventually, they became a couple in real life and tied the knot in October 1974.
In January, a rep for Days of Our Lives confirmed that Hayes died at age 98. Six months before his passing, the Harvey, Illinois-born talent celebrated his 98th birthday on the set of the Peacock soap opera.
Ahead of the milestone episode, Seaforth-Hayes exclusively tells PEOPLE of how honored she feels to be a part of such an important achievement.
“This show has been 54 years of my life. It’s gratifying to be included in the 15,000th episode,” she says. “Because of Days I’ve had a career, a happy marriage, and great experiences with co-workers and fans from all around the world.”
While filming the episode was difficult for her to do, Seaforth-Hayes opened up about how the experience helped her with her grieving process.
“My husband Bill was so universally admired, I never grieved alone. The cast, crew, and producers sustained me,” she confessed, adding how the show had been a great family to her. “For the farewell episode, my eyes will be glued to the screen expecting a perfect tribute to Bill Hayes and to all the cast we’ve been privileged to love for 59 years. I would not miss it for the world.”
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To the actress, the show’s 15,000 episode milestone comes as no surprise. She says the show is “beloved for showing the truest of emotions even when the plots seem fantastical.”
“That’s our history and our strength,” she explains. “We shoot for the moon 5 days a week and are planning to hit the target for decades more with young cast and mellowed characters, too. We plan to please every generation.”
Days of Our Lives can be streamed on Peacock.
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