Will Horton and Sonny Kiriakis

William Robert "Will" Horton and Jackson Steven "Sonny" Kiriakis are fictional characters and a supercouple from the American daytime drama Days of Our Lives.^[1][2][3][4] The couple was originally portrayed by actors Chandler Massey as Will and Freddie Smith as Sonny. Actor Guy Wilson took over the role of Will in January 2014, shortly before the characters became engaged. On internet message boards, the couple is sometimes referred to by the portmanteau "WilSon" (for Will and Sonny). Will is the son of the supercouple Lucas and Sami and Sonny is the son of the supercouple Justin and Adrienne. They are notable for being Days of Our Lives first same-sex supercouple.

Writing and Casting

In 2010, Chandler Massey was cast to play Will Horton. It was announced in 2011, that Days of Our Lives was adding its first gay steamy sex scene, when Freddie Smith was cast in the role of Sonny Kiriakis. By the Fall of 2011 rumors were going around that Will was gay and he was going to be in a relationship with Sonny. Before, rumors were already going around that Sonny was going to get a love interest. At the end of 2011, it was confirmed that Will was going to be gay.

Will and Sonny were soon confirmed to going to be in a relationship. Chandler Massey said, "Will admires Sonny for being comfortable in who he is and seem like he has it all together." Will and Sonny were soon put in a relationship and critics and audience liked it. Many critics have admired it for treating this couple like any other heterosexual couple.

Chandler Massey commented on the relationship of Will and Sonny and said, "As far as Sonny and Will go, I get the power couple thing between them and they have the healthiest relationship on the show, believe it or not. But life throws all these things at them and basically the only way Will can get through it is by leaning on Sonny so they’ll be staying together and only grow deeper in love."

In 2013, it was announced that Chandler Massey would vacate the role of Will Horton, and that Days had found the right recast for the role.^[5] Guy Wilson was recast in the role of Will.^[6]

Storylines

In June of 2011, around the time of his high-school graduation, Will meets the openly gay Sonny through their mutual cousin, Abigail. They become friends, and form a business partnership with Chad. After Gabi breaks up with Will, he spirals into depression and Sonny sees him kissing Neil Hultgren; he advises Will to talk to someone, and Will ultimately comes out as gay to his therapist and grandmother, Marlena. He comes out to the rest of his family, who are mostly supportive; Will then comes out publicly when he is a suspect in the shooting of Stefano DiMera, because his alibi is a date with Neil at a gay bar. While working with Will in an effort to prove that Will's boss EJ is being framed for the shooting, Sonny admits to Lucas that he has feelings for Will. In the aftermath of a series of explosions, Sonny frantically searches for Will and, finding him uninjured, kisses him; Will rejects Sonny and they argue, but Will soon realizes he does have feelings for Sonny. However, when Will sees Sonny's friend Brian flirt with him, he believes he has missed his chance; after also arguing with his father, he ends up having sex with Gabi.

Will's high-school friend T, who had been hostile to Sonny because of his sexual orientation, returns to town and blames Sonny for "turning" Will gay; but T eventually has a change of heart and is instrumental in helping Will and Sonny acknowledge their feelings for each other, and they agree to start dating. Early in their relationship, Will and Sonny struggle with their families; Adrienne doesn't think Will is good enough for Sonny, while Lucas struggles to be supportive while finding it difficult to see Will actually in a relationship with another man. Will feels insecure because Sonny has had past relationships while he hasn't; they overcome this issue and make love for the first time on November 14, 2012.

Gabi informs Will that she is pregnant with his child. He supports her initial plan to have an abortion and he takes her to a clinic, but she decides not to go through with it. Gabi and Nick are dating; knowing the truth of the baby's paternity, he offers to marry Gabi and claim to be the baby's father, to which Gabi and Will agree. Chad confides in Sonny that Gabi had a role in Melanie's kidnapping, leading to tension between Sonny and Gabi. At Nick and Gabi's wedding, Chad reveals that Nick is not the baby's father; Will then confesses that he is (a fact unknown to Chad), and Sonny breaks up with him over the deception. Brian continues to pursue Sonny, but ultimately Sonny and Will reconcile after Will receives a Valentine's Day gift Sonny had arranged before the breakup, leading to a heartfelt talk.

Nick, aware that Will shot EJ years earlier, blackmails Will into signing away his parental rights. Sonny stands by Will, as Will had already confided in him about this misdeed. Sonny confronts Nick, who admits that he is motivated by anti-gay bias, and they come to blows. It emerges that Nick's bigotry is a result of having been raped in prison by his cellmate Jensen, who abducts Nick and Gabi upon his release. Will is shot while saving Nick, and Sonny delivers Will and Gabi's daughter, Arianna; Jensen is shot and killed by the police. Nick admits to Gabi that he was blackmailing Will, and agrees to return Will's parental rights; Nick and Gabi end their relationship, and Gabi and Arianna move in with Will and Sonny.

Will and Sonny become embroiled in Sami's trial for the murder of Joe Bernardi, after they discover that Bernardi was the dirty cop who stole evidence of Will shooting EJ, and Sonny discovers that he possesses a video of an earlier fight between Sami and Bernardi. Sami is ultimately exonerated after unrelated evidence shows that Bernardi was corrupt.

Nick tries to win back Gabi, working without her knowledge to secure her a modeling job in New York City, where he is also planning to move. Upon receiving the offer, she initially plans to take the job and Sonny and Will decide to move with her in order to continue raising Arianna together. Gabi ultimately turns down the job, at which point Nick accidentally reveals his involvement; Gabi is outraged and, when Nick tries to rape her, strikes him in the head with a rock and seemingly kills him. Sami and Kate witness the fight and convince Gabi to dispose of the body in the river. Sonny and later Will become involved in the cover-up, unaware that Nick has survived.

Sonny proposes to Will; he initially declines in favor of waiting for the right time, but he soon accepts. Marlena officiates their wedding on April 3, 2014 at the Kiriakis mansion.

Nick returns; using his knowledge of Gabi's crimes against Melanie and himself, he blackmails her into a relationship. Unaware of the blackmail, Will and Sonny express their disapproval and Gabi nearly moves out with Arianna. Will suggests they formalize a custody arrangement; at Nick's direction, Aiden Jennings draws up an agreement that would severely limit Will's parental rights, and sets up an immediate hearing. But Nick is shot and killed, at which point Gabi cancels the hearing and instead hires EJ to write up a new agreement that is fair to everyone involved in raising Arianna. Will confesses to killing Nick, because he believes Sonny committed the murder to prevent Arianna from being taken from him. This prompts the real murderer, Gabi, to turn herself in. She also confesses to her involvement in Melanie's kidnapping; Will learns Sonny knew of this, but understands his reasons for keeping the secret. Gabi is jailed, so Arianna remains in Will and Sonny's custody.

Will completes his degree and is hired to work for TruVista magazine, unaware that Victor owns it and that Sonny arranged the job for him. His first assignment is to cover Sami's takeover of DiMera Enterprises. He learns that she is methodically destroying EJ's and Abigail's lives after discovering their affair; outraged by his mother's behavior, he writes the article as a hit piece against her. Sonny is troubled by Will's ruthlessness. Will's personal life is also rocked by the article, after his editor Zoe adds Abigail's name, obtained from Sami, to the published version. Will is initially furious to learn of Sonny's interference in his career, but soon forgives him. Zoe goes to work for a different magazine, Sonix, and Will accepts a new job with her there, where he is guaranteed final editorial approval. His first assignment, an article about Chad, who has returned to Salem to oversee DiMera Enterprises, is a success.

Will and Sonny's relationship suffers a series of setbacks. When EJ is murdered, Will chooses to relocate to Los Angeles with Arianna, following Sami and his younger siblings, in order to be the screenwriter for a movie based on Sami's life. While in LA, he fails to correspond regularly with Sonny. Meanwhile, Sonny loses most of his and Will's personal savings in a bad business deal without having discussed the investment with Will.

Sonny's ex-boyfriend, closeted Major League Baseball player Paul Narita, comes to town for surgery. He initially tries to pursue Sonny, but relents upon learning he is married. Will brings Arianna back to Salem, only later admitting that he was fired as screenwriter rather than having actively chosen to return to Sonny. Will is assigned to write a story about Paul for Sonix; due to confidentiality, Sonny doesn't know whom Will is interviewing, while Sonny's discretion means that neither Will nor Paul knows about the other's relationship with Sonny. Will convinces Paul to come out in the article, which will also cover the fact that Paul's injury has proven to be career-ending. Will and Paul engage in a brief affair; Sonny then pieces together the truth after discussing matters with Derrick, a bellhop who has flirted with Paul, Will, and Sonny throughout Paul's hotel stay. Before he can confront Will at the hotel, Sonny is stabbed as a result of Clyde's vendetta against Victor, and his life is saved by multiple blood transfusions from Paul, who only later learns that the patient was Sonny. Sonny suffers short-term memory loss, but soon remembers his knowledge of the affair; he lashes out at Paul and Will, leaving all three men devastated. Will is also stunned to learn that Paul had rejected Sonny's marriage proposal just before Sonny returned to Salem. When Sonny is released from the hospital, he leaves town to visit his brother for a few weeks.

When Sonny returns to Salem, Will feels insecure about Sonny's commitment to him in light of his previous relationship with Paul. Will's affair with Paul is not initially common knowledge; Adrienne slaps Will when she learns of it, and a tabloid later publicizes the affair. Paul's mother, Tori, visits. Will discovers that Tori once had a connection to Salem and the DiMera family and has lied to Paul about it; using this information, he tries to blackmail Tori into getting Paul out of Salem and drafts an article identifying Paul as a DiMera. But then the actual truth comes out: Paul is John Black's son. Sonny and Will share a tender moment after Paul punches Will in the face, but then Sonny learns that Will had called Tori a whore. Will and Sonny enter marriage counseling, but Will tries to influence their therapist by secretly offering to publish a flattering profile of him. Will tries to set Paul up with Derrick; the plan succeeds until Paul realizes Will has given Derrick private information he learned in their interview. In light of Will's continued deceptions, as well as his revelation that he also cheated on Sonny with a man in LA, Sonny decides to take a job at Titan's Paris office.

In Sonny's absence, Will's interactions with Paul are tense. Gabi is released from prison and comforts Will over his troubles. Will eventually calls Sonny and leaves a message apologizing unreservedly for his misdeeds, asking for a reconciliation. Immediately thereafter, Will is murdered by Ben Weston because Will has inadvertently discovered evidence that Ben is the "Necktie Killer" who committed two recent murders. Sonny receives Will's message and decides to return to Salem; he learns of Will's death and, distraught, returns to town only long enough to attend Will's funeral and eulogize him.

Sonny returns to Salem in July 2016, and to some degree re-commences co-parenting Arianna with Gabi.

Reception and Impact

TV Guide said that "while it took 45 years for the show to introduce its first openly gay character (Sonny) and another year and a half to have him find a male partner (Will), the wait was well worth it. This steamy, star-crossed saga has had drama to spare (Paranoia! Blackmail! Impossible parents!), but its real success lies in the fresh, easy charm of these two young men."^[8] TV Source Magazine named Will and Sonny Best Couple of 2012 in the Days of Our Lives series, saying "One of the most refreshing things about Will and Sonny’s relationship is it's portrayed just as any heterosexual couple would be. Watching them grow from friends to being in love was one of the highlights of the year for DAYS."^[9] Will and Sonny placed ninth on Daytime Confidential's list of Summer's Best Soap Couples.^[10]

See also

• Supercouple
• List of fictional supercouples

References

External links

• William "Will" Horton @ SoapCentral.com
• Sonny Kiriakis @ SoapCentral.com