Eric Forrester - Backstory

Backstory

Eric and his wife, Stephanie, are co-founders of the Los Angeles-based fashion house, Forrester Creations, with Eric as its lead designer. They have five children: Ridge, Thorne, Kristen, Felicia and Angela. Two different retcons have taken away two of his children. The microcephalic Angela viewers meet (and Eric himself meets) in 1988 proves to be an imposter who replaced the real Angela when she died in an accident years before. A 2001 storyline reveals that the real father of his supposed firstborn, Ridge, is the shipping magnate, Massimo Marone.

The backstory involving Stephanie and her college-days rival, Beth Logan, has changed somewhat over the years. Eric and Beth were in love, but a drunken one-night stand with Stephanie gets her pregnant, and eventually she wins Eric from Beth. The 2001 retcon added Massimo, Stephanie's first college boyfriend, to the mix. She had slept with Massimo once and then met Eric and she assumed that Eric was the father until over 40 years later a blood test proved that it was impossible for Eric to be Ridge's father.

The backstory of Forrester Creations makes Eric the one with the talent and Stephanie the one with the business sense. It is Stephanie's father, John Douglas, who, despite disapproving of their marriage, loans Eric $50,000 to start their business, which proves a great success, both in prestige and profits. But those profits are eaten away by a far less prestigious rival, Spectra Fashions, which makes knock-off fashions all too similar to Forrester designs. Spectra was part of the backstory from the beginning, but it wasn't until early 1989 that viewers finally met the outrageous and flamboyant Sally Spectra, who founded and runs the company.