Exclusive: Matthew Ashford Reflects on His DAYS Return as Jack

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When Days of our Lives called and asked Matthew Ashford back for another stint as Jack Deveraux, a role he originally played from 1987-93 and has portrayed on and off for various runs since 2001, as always he was happy to oblige. The material, however, did throw him for a loop. Namely, the possible resurrection of his character’s brutally murdered daughter, Abigail Deveraux DiMera .

“Just like Jack, I was very hopeful about it,” says Ashford. “I also realized that in this world, in Salem, these crazy, crazy things could happen. I was open to the craziness and any possibility. When a daughter's still alive, it's good. And as an actor I was like, ‘Yeah, it sounds cool.’ I was surprised and excited.”

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Ashford hasn’t been disappointed as the storyline has played out. He’s particularly enjoyed sharing scenes with Billy Flynn , who plays Abigail’s widower, Chad, as Jack and his son-in-law have teamed up to investigate the question of whether Abigial might be alive. “It’s been fun,” enthuses Ashford, referring to the characters’ mission. “We're just laughing, obviously, through some of these things. We go off over that way and then come back into the scene, and it's a little bit like a Three Stooges episode. We’ve kept going, although sometimes I look at his eyes and think, 'How close are we to laughing?' Billy's a fun person to work with, that's for sure.”

Ashford notes that Chad “is the one DiMera that I've really had much to do with over all these years, although Jack really doesn't think of him as that so much. But Jack has his own dark, powerful family history, so why not? He was a part of a family like that oh so long ago. So in a way, it does make sense, and they both certainly miss Abigail. That's driving them on, trying to put back together this broken family.”

Since his last appearance on DAYS in March 2023, Ashford, who’s been residing in Northern Minnesota, has been keeping quite busy. “I’m raising kids and doing some homeschooling with my wife, Lana,” he shares. “We’ve got little Henry and Willa, and they're 11 and 8. We just have this beautiful land up here. In addition to doing that, I've been working with some film partners down in North Carolina and South Carolina. We have some material that we're hoping to maybe get to a new streamer that may be coming soon."

Then, of course, there’s been his role as the villainous Steve Jensen on The Bay . “It's kind of funny,” says Ashford. “I've had some people from the Corday office [DAYS's production company] who started tuning in and watching stuff recently, say, ‘Oh, I really enjoyed that. I had no idea how bad you could be.’ And these are people I've worked with and have been in the office forever. They've been there for 20, 30 years. I thought, 'Gosh, since I’m over at DAYS now, let do some of that stuff. I can do that stuff, too!' ”

While that hasn’t been the case, Ashford’s been intrigued by a few twists that have happened in Jack's storyline life this time around. “I’ve had some interesting things,” he acknowledges. “Like Xander saying, ‘Here. Take back my half of The Spectator .’ I was like, Well, that’s outrageous. But the fact that he took it in the first place was outrageous. So suddenly there was something right falling back into place. That's just good, and so I'm interested. There's some good things coming up.”

Ashford had been a fan of the Jack/Xander friendship from the get go. “Jack sees himself in Xander,” according to Ashford. “Xander has his differences, but he has a good heart, although he can't quite round that corner. He still has some basic nature issues.”

Between getting the paper back, making amends with Xander, and embarking on the search for a possibly alive Abigail, it’s been a great run for Ashford. “I’ve been enjoying all of it,” he says. “I’m just really glad to be back. I feel I'm very blessed to be part of this show.”