Days of our Lives star Suzanne Rogers reveals the soap she didn't get as DAYS celebrates 60 years 

Days of our Lives is celebrating 60 years on the air. Suzanne Rogers has played Maggie Simmons Horton Kiriakis since 1973. There have been a few breaks here and there, but mostly, it’s been a continuous run. Now, the actress is looking back on how lucky she is to be a part of this beloved series and the show she had a meeting with that led her to Salem!

Days of our Lives, Suzanne Rogers, celebrating 60 years

Rogers recently sat down with TV Insider and confessed to never having seen a soap opera before she was cast on DAYS. She’d done theater, which had matinees during the day, and this was in the era before VCRs and DVRs. She remembers that DAYS offered her a seven-year contract when she signed with the program.

Maggie was introduced as a crippled orphaned farm girl who encountered Mickey Horton (John Clarke) when he had amnesia. He was wearing a belt buckle with his initials on it and used the name “Marty Hansen,” as he didn’t know who he was.

Before being cast as Maggie, Rogers was under consideration for a role on The Young and the Restless when the top-rated drama was still in pre-production. (It debuted in 1973.) She was being thought of for one of the Brooks sisters. The actress recalls then-producer John Conboy being curious as to why she’d been brought in at Y&R since all the Brooks girls, according to him, were going to be blonde.

The meeting with Y&R led to an opportunity at DAYS. Rogers read for the part of Maggie with Betty Corday, executive producer, and Clarke. She remembers that her future leading man pulled his car up to Rogers’s when she was leaving the reading. He told her that she had done a great job. The following week, Rogers was told by her agent to go over to DAYS and pick up Maggie’s crutches – she had won the role!

Life after Mickey

Following Mickey’s death in 2010, Maggie found love again with Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston). Victor offered support to Maggie. Rogers says the audience responded, and then the two were paired together on-screen, romantically.

Following Aniston’s death, Victor’s passing was written into the show. And while Julie (Susan Seaforth Hayes) reminded her aunt this week that once a Horton, always a Horton, Maggie is also a Kiriakis. She’s involved in the family business, trying to keep Titan alive and peace among Victor’s sons, Xander (Paul Telfer) and Philip (John-Paul Lavoisier).

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“I can’t believe that I’m still on the show,” a grateful Rogers acknowledges. “And I am so thrilled the show is still on the air. I’m the luckiest girl around.”

Catch all-new episodes of Days of our Lives weekdays on Peacock

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