Days of Our Lives Bids a Shocking Farewell to Not Just One But *Two* Legacy Characters

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There were so many places we thought Joy’s pregnancy on Days of Our Lives could go. Would she come clean and spoil Alex and Stephanie’s rekindled relationship? Would she keep it a secret until Alex noticed she was pregnant while working together at Titan? Would she enlist Philip to play baby-daddy so she wouldn’t have to face Alex and Steph? It turns out, none of the above.

Rather than admit she was pregnant with Alex’s kid, Joy quit her brand new job at Titan — that Philip said she was phenomenal at — packed her bags, said goodbye to Alex, called her mom and told her she was coming home to New York. She’d really just come to Salem to be a soap star, and now that Body and Soul was gone, there was no point in sticking around. Or letting anyone know she was pregnant, we guess!

That didn’t seem like it could be it for Chloe’s little sister after all she’d gotten mixed up in, from her and Johnny’s near infidelity to moving on with Alex only to get dumped for Stephanie. But, it looks like it is. TV Insider shares that Days of Our Lives has confirmed that this is it for Joy and portrayer AlexAnn Hopkins. Per the site, a show spokesperson shared, “We enjoyed having AlexAnn bring the character of Joy to life, it was a short yet important story arc, and we hope the fans enjoyed watching it unfold.”

The actress has been with the show since November of 2024, when Nancy brought her youngest to Salem to get her into showbusiness. And while Joy’s exit seemed to come out of nowhere, we’d be surprised if this was the last we’ve seen of her. After all, she is carrying Alex’s baby and the next generation of Kiriakises.

Sarah pulled something similar when she was pregnant with Victoria and didn’t want Xander to know. She ran off to Chicago and was off-screen for awhile, until inevitably coming back home to have the baby and reunite with Xander.

Whether something similar happens, or Joy reappears years later with Alex’s child remains to be seen, but unless she decides to end the pregnancy off-screen, it can not be the last of Joy. And even if that does happen, she’s still Chloe’s sister and Nancy and Craig’s daughter, so she’s got too many Salem connections to be gone forever.

For now, we wish Hopkins the best on whatever her next endeavor is and hope we find out someday what happens to Joy and her and Alex’s baby!