| Nicole Walker | |||||||||||||||
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| Arianne Zucker as Nicole Walker | |||||||||||||||
| Days of our Lives | |||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Arianne Zucker | ||||||||||||||
| Created by | Sally Sussman Morina | ||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Ken Corday Tom Langan | ||||||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1998–2006, 2008— | ||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||
| Alias(es) | Misty Circle Mary Smith Mary | ||||||||||||||
| Gender | Female | ||||||||||||||
| Born | July 6, 1975 | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Reporter for Titan TV | ||||||||||||||
| Residence | Salem Inn Salem, United States | ||||||||||||||
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Nicole Stella Hernandez (nee, Walker; formerly Mendez-Roberts, Kiriakis, DiMera and Brady) is a fictional character on the NBC soap opera, Days of Our Lives, a long-running series about working-class life in the fictional town of Salem. She was introduced in 1998 by head writer Sally Sussman Morina, and executive producer Ken Corday. Actress Arianne Zucker has portrayed the character since her introduction to the series in 1998. Zucker took a short, two year break from 2006-2008 when she returned to the series again in the same role. Many of Nicole's storylines have often focused on treachery, death, and love, with the character being portrayed as always in pursuit of finding true love and having the family she never had as a child growing up. The character is scripted as the daughter of Faye Walker and Paul Mendez. During her childhood, Nicole was a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Paul, who forced her to do pornography in her adolescence under the name "Misty Circle".
The character came to Salem as a small town waitress, but almost immediately started getting involved with the major families that the show revolved around. While once being seen as a scheming gold-digger, Nicole has grown into a woman committed to finding love and being a good mother. She is known for her longstanding feud with her enemy, Sami Brady, her relationships with Eric Brady, Victor Kiriakis, Brady Black and EJ DiMera, and the 2009 Baby Switch story line which featured Nicole having a miscarriage; lying to her husband; and stealing Sami's baby, Sydney.
Character History[]
1998–2006
Overworked and underpaid waitress Nicole comes to Salem with dreams of becoming a model and meets Eric Brady (Jensen Ackles). Eric convinces his sister Sami (Alison Sweeney) to give Nicole a modeling contract landing Nicole on the cover of Bella magazine. Despite her success, Nicole seems to be hiding something. It is eventually revealed that Nicole is being followed by her ex-boyfriend, Jay. As Eric and Nicole fall in love, a jealous Jay threatens to tell Nicole's secrets. Nicole develops friendships with Sami and Kate Roberts (Lauren Koslow), even planning out Sami's bachelorette party. Kate's son and Sami's ex-boyfriend Lucas (Bryan Dattilo) starts showering Nicole with gifts despite his mother's disapproval; Lucas wants to use Nicole to get custody of his son Will from Sami. Meanwhile, Nicole's sister, Taylor Raines (Katherine Ellis) comes to Salem and befriends Eric and Lucas uses the relationship to keep Nicole and Eric apart so he can have her for himself. Taylor catches on to Lucas's schemes and skips town while Nicole agrees to marriage in exchange for $5 million leaving Eric devastated and running him out of town. When Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston) takes the money away from her, Nicole decides to help Sami regain custody of Will. Also, a brief cancer scare forces Nicole to realize the error of her ways. She shares a brief reunion with Eric and divorces Lucas. However, Eric helps Nicole open up about her troubled past and being forced into porn as a teenager by her father, Paul Mendez. Nicole cozies up to Victor by exposing Kate's plot to kill him and also uses his grandson Brady Black (Kyle Lowder) in her schemes. Victor and Nicole eventually marry on New Year's Eve in 2002 only for Nicole to fake his death with the help of Jan Spears (Heather Lauren Olson), leaving Nicole as the wealthy grieving widow who has fallen for her step grandson. However, Nicole's plans begin to unravel when Victor is discovered alive. Meanwhile, in an effort to keep Brady for herself, Nicole tries to disfigure his presumed dead first love, Chloe Lane (Nadia Bjorlin) during surgery with help from Stan (Dan Wells) and Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis). Nicole learns that Stan is actually Sami in disguise and threatens to expose her. However, Sami exposes Nicole's schemes instead and Brady kicks her out of his life believing she was behind Chloe's "death." Nicole later goes into business with Sami and Austin Reed (Austin Peck). In 2006, she agrees to move to Los Angeles to manage the newly acquired branch of the company. Before leaving town, Nicole has a one-night-stand with Sami's father, Roman Brady (Josh Taylor).
After her departure, it is mentioned that Nicole had plans to marry "some soap actor." This was presumably a nod to Zucker's marriage to her former Days of Our Lives costar, Kyle Lowder, who played Brady.
2008–2019[]
Nicole resurfaces in 2008 and announces that she and Victor are still legally married. Nicole hires EJ DiMera (James Scott) to help her with the divorce only for Nicole to discover that she is still married to her first husband, Trent Robbins (Roscoe Born), making her subsequent marriages to Lucas and Victor invalid. Nicole had married Trent when she was in college but she left him because he was abusive; however, she never filed for divorce. EJ starts using Nicole to make his soon to be ex-wife Sami jealous and after Sami dumps him, EJ and Nicole end up having sex in an elevator. Nicole is a prime suspect when Trent is found dead in September 2008, but she is exonerated. Nicole later discovers she is pregnant, and knowing she was not supposed to have children, Nicole considers the child to be a "miracle." EJ and Nicole move in together only for her to miscarry. Realizing that EJ loved their baby and not her, Nicole fakes her pregnancy fearing he will leave her. Nicole discovers that EJ is still in love with Sami, so she adopts Mia McCormick (Taylor Spreitler)'s baby with help from Dr. Richard Baker (John Callahan) and passes the child off as her own. To make matters worse, Nicole switches Mia's child with Sami and EJ's baby allowing EJ to raise the child even though Sami planned to keep him from the child. Nicole names the child, Sydney only for her lies to be exposed when the child's father, Chad Peterson-Woods (Casey Deidrick) tries to sue for custody. Nicole is sent to prison for her crimes and later released with the help of Anna DiMera (Leann Hunley). However, Nicole blackmails Anna into getting her out of jail early, as she realized EJ hired Anna to kidnap Sydney. Nicole returns to Salem and frames Arianna Hernandez for crimes. Brady and Nicole get back together, until he learns of her treachery. However, Arianna's death leads Brady to forgive Nicole and get back together with her. Nicole later blackmails Sami and Rafe--she wants time with Sydney in exchange for covering up the fact that Sami shot EJ. But when they try to break the deal, Nicole takes the evidence to EJ and makes the same deal. EJ is cruel to Nicole and forces her to dump Brady, but agrees that she can be in Sydney's life. Nicole tries cheating on EJ in secret with Brady, but he learns the truth thanks to Vivian and forces her to leave Brady for good. Nicole sees that Johnny is developing eye cancer and helps save his life, which warms EJ, Sami and Rafe up to her.
Seeing that Nicole is still attached to Sydney, EJ arranges for her to be a part of Sydney's life and live in the mansion leading him to propose to her in order for Nicole to be a "mother figure" to EJ's children. Nicole accepts, leading her to start falling in love with him again. EJ also starts developing feelings for Nicole. On their wedding day, EJ meets Nicole's sister Taylor (Natalia Livingston) and it is love at first sight. After weeks of cheating, EJ asks Nicole for a divorce and she is left shattered. At first she tries blackmailing EJ, as she knows of his FakeRafe scheme. But when Nicole sees that EJ no longer has feelings for her, she leaves him and gets back together with Brady. Later, Taylor ends her engagement with EJ after learning about FakeRafe. She leaves Salem with Quinn Hudson, her boyfriend, after making things right with Nicole. Nicole has her life threatened, which makes EJ see what he almost lost. Realizing she still loves EJ, Nicole dumps Brady and decides to be single, despite her divorce to EJ not being finalized.
Nicole is employed as EJ's secretary and they start working together for EJ to win the election and become Mayor of Salem. During the election their romantic relationship evolves but Nicole holds back fearing that EJ will end up hurting her again. However, finally the two of them make love and give into their passion, with EJ falling madly in love with Nicole. Despite them still being married, EJ symbolically proposes to Nicole in February 2012, wanting them to finally get their marriage right. Nicole accepts, only for Rafe to reveal that EJ had cheated on her once again with his wife, Sami. She storms out of the mansion and goes to the Town Square where she meets Daniel Jonas (Shawn Christian). During their talk Nicole faints and Daniel takes her to the hospital only to find out that Nicole is pregnant.
Nicole worries about her pregnancy ending up in a miscarriage again and wanting to get away from EJ she hides her pregnancy from him with the help of Daniel and Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering). EJ finds out that Nicole is pregnant and Rafe steps in claiming the child is his leading him and Nicole to fabricate this story to keep the baby from EJ. EJ begs Nicole to take him back, but she refuses and divorces him, having developed a crush on Rafe. But it isn't meant to be, as Rafe ends up torn between Carrie and Sami. On May 2012, Nicole stresses over EJ and starts having pains in her stomach but gets to the hospital in time and everything turns out to be fine. Nicole begins a romantic relationship with Daniel but due to his daughter's priorities at the time, he broke it off. In August 2012, an earthquake hits Salem and Nicole goes into preterm labor but luckily enough Daniel manages to stop the contractions and keep the pregnancy healthy. She then starts a rivalry with Jennifer Horton (Melissa Reeves) fearing that Daniel will get back together with Jennifer. In October 2012 and at 37 weeks pregnant, Nicole goes to her prenatal visit but her doctor informs her that her baby is dead. A distraught Nicole grieves her second loss but does not tell Daniel fearing that he will get back together with Jennifer seeing there is no baby. That same day Nicole gets into a fight with Jennifer on the stairs of the Town Square and Nicole falls down going into labor. Nicole gives birth to her stillborn son and seeing the opportunity she blames Jennifer in pushing her. A month later the truth comes out and seeing she is left with nothing, she tries to commit suicide but Rafe and Daniel step in just in time to stop her.
Nicole's first love, Eric Brady (Greg Vaughan), returns to Salem as a priest. He offers her a job as his secretary at the church, which Nicole accepts. As the two continue working together, Nicole's old feelings for Eric resurface. Knowing that he is a priest and cannot be with her, Nicole aches about not being with him. She instead begins having sex with Brady and a coworker at the rectory, Vargas. But Vargas is sent back to prison while Brady once again gets engaged to Kristen. In June 2013, Eric is drugged and seduced by Kristen DiMera. Due to coincidences that happened that night, such as Nicole finding a delirious Eric in his hotel room shortly after Kristen leaves, Eric is led to believe that it was Nicole who raped him. He confronts her about the matter. While Nicole admits her feelings towards him during the confrontation, she repeatedly denies any wrongdoing. Eric does not believe her, concluding that Nicole acted on her feelings. Dismayed by Eric's false accusation, Nicole does not want to have anything to do with Eric. After Eric is suspended from the priesthood due to the sex scandal, Nicole forgives him, and together with Daniel, they work together to prove Eric's innocence. Knowing that Eric would deny her help due to her feelings for him, Nicole fabricates a fake romance with Daniel, assuring Eric she is over him. The lie shocks both Daniel and Eric. Daniel is initially reluctant at first, as Nicole had made up the lie before informing him, but he agrees to play along, blindsiding Eric. Since finding out about Nicole's new romance, Eric begins to have dreams about Nicole and is unsure how he feels about her. As Nicole and Eric begin spending more time together to clear his name, Eric's old feelings for Nicole resurface. This becomes especially apparent after Nicole's photo shoot, when Eric reminisces about an old photo shoot with Nicole during her modeling days with Countess Wilhelmina. Nicole and Eric's relationship becomes more mutual, leaving both of them confused and unsure how to react. On January 13, 2014, Nicole and Eric are kidnapped by Kristen's potion doctor, as the two have gotten too close to the truth about the night Eric was drugged. The doctor tied them together in the basement of Daniel's apartment complex. He initially was going to wipe their memories with his drugs, but instead opens a gas line in the basement and leaves Nicole and Eric to die, either by asphyxiation or an eventual explosion. It is in this dire situation Eric confesses he loves Nicole. Nicole finds evidence that could clear Eric's name, but Eric decides he wants to be with Nicole and proposes to her. Because of this, Nicole destroys the evidence. Later, Daniel Jonas learns the truth and tries pressuring Nicole to be honest with Eric, but she continues lying. Jennifer soon overhears everything and tells Eric, thinking Daniel would've continued to cover for Nicole. Eric is devastated and breaks it off with Nicole while getting the evidence from Daniel, who dumps Jennifer. Eric eventually forgives Nicole and the two become friends. Eric later is romantically involved with a former coworker, Serena Mason. Her and Nicole have a bad rivalry and her scheming is revealed to Eric, who dumps her. Later, Serena is murdered by Ben Weston. He tries to reunite with Nicole, but she is by this time dating his best friend, Daniel Jonas.
Later Nicole gets engaged to Daniel until a drunk Eric kills him in a car accident. Nicole loathes Eric for months after, though later forgives him. Nicole is briefly engaged to Deimos Kiriakis--her former half-brother-in-law--who begins scheming and becoming wicked. He also develops an attraction to her best friend, Chloe Lane. Nicole secretly murders Deimos to keep her and Daniel's daughter, Holly, safe. She also ends up reuniting with Brady, but her and Eric can't hide their attraction. Nicole dumps Brady, but he blackmails her (knowing she killed Deimos) into leaving town instead of being with Eric. Eric and Jennifer decide to get engaged, as he becomes an alcoholic and Jennifer is addicted to painkillers--similar to her friend, Carly, years ago. Jennifer learns the truth from her nemesis, Eve, who got engaged to Brady. Jennifer tries to keep the secret because she doesn't want to lose Eric, but she eventually decides to be honest, ending their engagement. Eric and Nicole eventually forgive Brady, but Nicole is now married to Xander Cook-Kiriakis, who blackmailed her into the marriage using the same information as Brady. The marriage is later annulled, but by this time Eric has moved on with Sarah Horton, who divorced her husband (and Eric's half-brother) Rex Brady to be with him. However, Sarah later ends the relationship after falling in love with Xander. Having overcome all of their obstacles and failed to move on with other people, Nicole and Eric reunited and got engaged. They also seemingly forgave Jennifer for her role in the deception. Eric and Nicole decide to help Eric's niece, Allie Horton, buy allowing her and her unborn child (later baby Henry) move in with them--infuriating Eric's twin sister, Sami--Nicole's archenemy.
2020-[]
Nicole and Eric go through multiple trials and tribulations, but marry in July 2020. However, Eric leaves Salem to work for charity in Africa, with Nicole's support. But Nicole soon gets lonely and is dismayed when Eric chooses to stay for another 3 months. Nicole gets drunk with Xander and the two have sex. When Eric returns soon after, the two make love and celebrate their year-long anniversary, only for Xander--paid $1 million by Sami to expose the affair--reveals all at their party with the family. Eric and Nicole agree to divorce as he returns to Africa, both being devastated. Nicole learns Sami was behind the reveal, and, thanks to Phillip Kiriakis, gets a hold of Kristen's letter saying Sami cheated twice on EJ with Lucas. Nicole brings the letter to EJ, ending his marriage to Sami. Nicole and EJ eventually start dating. However, Nicole is really trying to hide her feelings for her best friend, Rafe Hernandez--EJ's arch-nemesis. She tries staying away from Rafe because he is in a relationship with her friend, Ava Vitali. However, on Halloween 2021, the two end up making love. Still, Nicole insists Rafe keep trying with her friend Ava to be together, and she throws herself even more at EJ. Eric Brady returns and finalizes his divorce with Nicole. The two are on good terms, although both he and Abe Carver think she "can do better" than EJ DiMera. However, Nicole and Rafe almost kiss twice ,only both times to be interrupted by EJ.
Later, Rafe kisses Nicole in the Town Square, but she slaps him, reminding him that they're in public, he is with Ava, and that she slept with EJ. However, Sami returns and had walked in on EJ and Nicole making love. Eventually, EJ chooses to reunite with Sami and breakup with Nicole, infuriating her as Nicole believed in EJ's innocence (Lucas framed him for the kidnapping of Sami). Eventually, EJ was arrested for Sami's kidnapping, resulting in Sami divorcing him, holding EJ responsible for her kidnapping, and leaving Salem with a new boyfriend--Lucas--without saying goodbye to EJ or most of her family. Nicole and Rafe learn this when they find their teddy bear beheaded in her office, and Nicole takes pleasure in telling EJ that Sami finally chose Lucas and left town. EJ begs Nicole for another chance to be together, but she turns him down and continues to spend time instead with Rafe, who is glad she is finished with EJ. The two of them have dinner and share another kiss, where Rafe proclaims to Nicole that he wants to be with her and breakup with Ava. Nicole and Rafe suspect Ava of beheading their stuffed bear, even though Nicole initially suspected Sami. Later, Rafe is arrested for planting evidence--and both he and Nicole suspect that Ava is behind the framing and knows of their affair. Nicole also seeks comfort in Brady, who reveals that Chloe told him she slept with Rafe. Eventually, a jury clears Rafe of the charges. He and Nicole are upset at Ava for her conniving. Ava dumps Rafe and reveals she knew all about his affair with Nicole. After Rafe is freed from jail, he and Nicole begin a relationship and share a bubble bath. The two there reveal they are deeply in love with each other. Later, Eric Brady returns to Salem and learns that Nicole is with Rafe. The two agree to be friends, though many suspect Eric and Nicole harbor feelings for each other. Rafe gets uncomfortable and proposes to Nicole, insisting that he was going to soon anyways because he and Nicole have known each other and been friends for years. Nicole is hesitant due to Rafe feeling insecure over Eric, but ultimately accepts the proposal. She tells EJ and Eric about the engagement, and also learns that Eric was removed from the priesthood. Nicole continues to run into Eric at the Brady Pub, with Roman and Kate insinuating that perhaps she and Eric have unresolved feelings for each other. As this begins to cause tension in her relationship with Rafe, she marries him quietly and quickly at the Justice of the Peace--leaving Eric sad, as he was about to tell Nicole he still loves her.
Crimes Committed[]
- Slapped her sister, Taylor [May 24, 1999]
- Got into a catfight with Celeste Perrault [Jan 5, 2000]
- Punched Kate Roberts after she slapped her [Jun 28, 2000]
- Slapped Lucas Horton [Oct 26, 2000]
- Slapped Victor Kiriakis [Mar 7, 2002]
- Slapped Colin Murphy [Jun 12, 2002]
- Poured ice on Colin [Jun 12, 2002]
- Punched Sami Brady [Sep 17, 2002]
- Slapped Colin [Dec 31, 2002]
- Slapped Brady Black [Jun 17, 2003]
- Slapped Brady [Feb 16, 2004]
- Slapped Jan Spears [Feb 20, 2004]
- Slapped Jan [Feb 28, 2004]
- Slapped Sami (who was disguised as Stan) [Apr 20, 2005]
- Slapped Tony DiMera [Mar 23, 2009]
- Punched Sami after she punched her; which turned into a catfight [Mar 31, 2010]
- Slapped Brady [Oct 1, 2010]
- Slapped EJ DiMera [Dec 14, 2010]
- Slapped faux Rafe [Apr 14, 2011]
- Slapped EJ [May 4, 2011]
- Slapped Taylor [Jun 8, 2011]
- Slapped Taylor again [Jun 9, 2011]
- Slapped EJ [Sep 7, 2011]
- Slapped EJ [Feb 24, 2012]
- Slapped Kristen DiMera after she slapped her [Jun 11, 2013]
- Slapped Miles [Jan 28, 2014]
- Slapped Chyka repeatedly [Feb 5, 2014]
- Slapped Daniel Jonas [Jun 9-10, 2014]
- Slapped Sami after she slapped her [Jun 17, 2014]
- Slapped Kate [Jun 9, 2016]
- Slapped Deimos Kiriakis [Oct 21, 2016]
- Slapped Eric [May 12, 2017]
- Stabbed and killed Deimos Kiriakis [Jun 29, 2017]
- Slapped Xander Kiriakis [May 12, 2021]
- Punched Zander in the stomach [Jun 15, 2021]
- Slapped Sami [Dec 10, 2021]
- Slapped Rafe [Dec 15, 2021]
- Slapped Ava Vitali after she slapped her [Apr 1, 2022]
- Slapped Sloan Petersen [Jan 26, 2023]
- Punched Sloan [May 31, 2024]
Trivia[]
- Nicole's astrological sign is Cancer