What Happened to Lucas on DAYS OF OUR LIVES
Since his introduction 25 years ago, Lucas Horton has been a major part of DAYS OF OUR LIVES. And no matter what happens in the future, he always will be. The character first appeared in April 1993, and has always been played by actor Bryan Dattilo as he’s come and gone over the years. Because even if he’s been gone for quite some time, Lucas usually comes home again!
Lucas arrived in Salem with his mother, Kate Roberts, after attending military school and quickly befriended Sami Brady. Together they worked to split up Carrie Brady and Austin Reed so Sami could be with Austin and Lucas could be with Carrie. Lucas was stunned to learn that his father was Dr. Bill Horton, making Austin his half-sibling. Rejected by Carrie, Lucas found comfort with Sami, and they slept together. However, Sami also drugged Austin and tricked him into sex, and when she got pregnant, she claimed Austin as the babydaddy.
After a lot of romantic complications, Austin and Carrie were finally married, and Lucas was revealed as the father of Sami’s son, Will Horton. Sami got engaged to Franco Kelly, and Lucas shot him to save his mother’s life. Kate framed Sami for the crime and she was nearly executed. Lucas then turned his attention to Nicole Walker, and Kate paid her five million dollars to marry Lucas so he could get custody of Will. It worked, but after Sami got out of prison, she and Nicole schemed to get her son back. Nicole got Lucas drunk and made him think he beat her. They were divorced, and after being burned in a fire set by his mother in the Kiriakis mansion, Lucas left Salem to go to rehab for his drinking.
When Lucas returned to Salem, he was determined to get custody of Will and began working for Tony DiMera. His aunt, Maggie Horton, was his AA sponsor and did her best to keep Lucas on the wagon. After the Salem Stalker murders, Lucas and Sami got engaged, but Kate vowed not to let them tie the knot. She brought Sami’s ex, Brandon Walker, to town and arranged for the pair to be drugged and found in bed together by Lucas the morning of the wedding! Eventually, Lucas and Sami reconciled and once again made it to the church, but Kate made sure to ruin that ceremony, too.
Lucas then gave Carrie another try, and they married when she thought she was pregnant, but when it turned out not to be true, the couple quickly fizzled out and divorced. With Will’s help, Lucas reunited with Sami, but during a ski trip, Lucas’ life was in danger and EJ DiMera only agreed to help Sami save him if she had sex with him. So even as Sami and Lucas were finally married, she confessed she didn’t know who was the father of her baby. After Sami gave birth to twins, it was discovered that Lucas was the father of Allie, and EJ had fathered Johnny.
Stefano DiMera blackmailed Sami to split up with Lucas and marry EJ, and the groom was shot and nearly killed on their wedding day. Lucas confessed to the crime, although it was later revealed that Will was the guilty party. Feeling betrayed by Sami, Lucas sparked a romance with Chloe Lane and they eventually eloped. But after he learned that Chloe had an affair with Daniel, he filed for an annulment and left town.
A couple of years later, Lucas came home to Salem engaged to a woman named Autumn, but she soon broke it off and he found himself working with Sami at Countess Wilhelmina. Lucas was stunned when Will confessed he is gay, but eventually came to accept his son. Lucas also started having an affair with Adrienne Kiriakis while her husband, Justin, was overseas. After they broke up so she could work on her marriage, Lucas was devastated by Will’s death at the hands of Ben Weston, and she comforted him. Adrienne and Lucas were to be married, but she fell ill and discovered she had breast cancer.
Later, Bonnie Lockhart switched places with Adrienne and broke up with Lucas, sending him back into the bottle. After Bonnie was exposed, Adrienne returned to Justin and broke up with Lucas for real. He began drinking heavily and had hallucinations of Will, but then Ben revealed that Will was really alive, and he was discovered living with amnesia in Memphis. Lucas finally agreed to enter rehab and get his drinking under control. He also rekindled his relationship with Chloe. Although things took a turn when Bonnie revealed that she’d given birth to a daughter after they’d had sex while she was impersonating Adrienne. Lucas immediately wanted to take custody of the child away from Bonnie, but then the truth was revealed that the baby was really the child of her daughter, Mimi Lockhart!
Lucas was crushed and decided to leave town to get his head together, but when he returned around the holidays, it was only to break things off with Chloe so he could return to Europe because his daughter, Allie, needed him. After saying goodbye to his friends and family, Lucas promised to return someday. And that day turned out to be the spring of 2019 when he came home to be with Will as his son was dying of a brain tumor.
In September, Lucas resurfaced as Kate lingered in a coma and he reluctantly agreed to allow Kate’s heart to be donated to Julie Williams to save her life. But Kate woke up in time and Julie received Stefan’s heart instead. Lucas came back to Salem again in the spring of 2020 when his daughter Allie arrived there pregnant. He’d hoped to keep Sami from finding out about the baby, but that was never going to happen! Learning the child was the product of rape, Lucas first threatened Tripp Dalton then Charlie Dale, when the rapist’s true identity was finally revealed.
When Charlie was murdered, Lucas supported Sami, who had confessed to the crime to protect Allie (who turned out to be innocent anyway). Lucas and Sami rekindled their feelings and she turned to him for help when she was blackmailed by Kristen to get Chloe away from Brady. Pressured to seduce Chloe, Lucas instead claimed he had a fatal brain tumor! Naturally, the lie was soon exposed, and Lucas focused his attention back on Sami. He asked her to leave EJ but instead, she broke off her affair when her husband returned to Salem.
When Sami was kidnapped, Lucas came running to her rescue, but it was all a setup to make him able to play the hero and he framed EJ for the abduction. The guilt grew inside of him and he went on a bender, waking up in the morning with no memory of the night before and a cut on his hand. Since that was the night that Abigail Horton was murdered, Lucas admitted he couldn’t be sure he was innocent. Although Sami initially turned down his proposal, the pair announced their engagement. Suspecting Lucas could be Abigal’s killer, Chad (who knew about the abduction) confronted him at the wedding and when Lucas confessed the truth about the kidnapping, Sami naturally dumped him at the altar!
Marlena hypnotized Lucas, and he recalled seeing Sarah leaving the scene of Abigail’s murder that night. But while he was cleared of murder, Lucas still had to face justice for Sami’s kidnapping. After pleading guilty, he went to prison and wasn’t seen again until January 2023 when he called Rex and learned of Kate’s death.
Stay tuned to DAYS to see how Lucas’ story continues!
