Danielle Spencer, The Bold and the Beautiful

Danielle Spencer (Crystal Chappel)

On soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful”, Danielle was introduced in 2012 as the wife of long-running character Karen Spencer and adoptive mother of their daughter Caroline. Karen and Danielle had met and gotten married while living in New York but Karen wanted to keep their relationship a secret when the family returned to live in Karen’s home town Los Angeles.

Karen’s late father had reacted very badly to their relationship and wouldn’t even acknowledge Danielle as Karen’s partner, which was the reason for Karen’s reluctance to be open about the relationship after they moved back to LA. Their daughter, Caroline, wasn’t happy about keeping the secret and about having to pretend Danielle wasn’t her mother, and told the truth to her boyfriend Thomas.

Eventually Karen and Danielle were caught kissing by Karen’s sister in law, who said she was not surprised and had been waiting for them to come out as a couple. Danielle grew weary of being confined to their house all the time so Karen finally decided to come out to her brother, who accepted Karen and welcomed Danielle into the family. After the couple revealed the truth they were not seen on the show very often, besides a few brief appearances, and they eventually moved back to New York together.

Appearances:

• 18 episodes.

Female love interests:

• Karen Spencer (Joanna Johnson, lesbian, recurring, wife)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

No male love interests

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Recurring)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.