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While Hope was busy sharing her first kiss with Carter on Bold and Beautiful , her ex-husband, Liam, was chatting about their history — and possible future — with his kid brother Will, and Liam is now putting feelers out to Hope about them possibly reuniting (again). Soap Opera Digest got the inside scoop on where this leaves Hope from her portrayer, Annika Noelle.
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When Carter comes upon Hope sharing some family time with Liam and their daughter, Beth, says Noelle, "I think it's just a reality check for Carter that if he is going to be involved with Hope, that means that he is also going to be involved with her family and Liam," the actress points out. "I think it's a reality check that she doesn't come with baggage unchecked! She comes with history, and a very deep, long relationship with Liam. And I think Carter is coming face to face with the recognition that Liam is going to be a part of the picture. Carter is going to have to find out where he fits in all that."
Noelle maintains that Hope has not been holding out, well, hope, of getting back together with Liam. "They have finally established a great co-parenting kind of rapport. They're in a really good place. They're always going to mean so much to each other, given everything that they've been through in the past. And she loves Beth and is really trying to make her family and Beth's health and happiness a priority in her life right now."
But, notes Hope, "Liam is starting to wax nostalgic. Maybe he is starting to idealize the past. I think we are going to see Liam also trying to figure out what role he wants to play in Hope's future, as well. So it is just this very interesting dynamic of all these different characters trying to figure out this jigsaw puzzle of, like, 'Okay, how do we work together now? What is the dynamic?' "
This becomes especially critical as a topic once Hope catches on to the fact that Liam is, indeed, interested in the two of them trying again to make their relationship work. "He's pretty open [about that], eventually," chuckles Noelle. "And, I mean, it's shocking to her! She's like, 'What do you mean? We finally reached a good place as co-parents and have this rhythm and have this stable thing for Beth going.' It's a little shocking because it's like, 'Wait, wait, wait — we want to try disrupting that kind of peace that we're finally found now?' After all the years of that toxic cycle they were in?!"
Points out Noelle, "Liam does make a good point where he's arguing, 'You know, I don't want to replicate what was in the past. I've done a lot of soul searching. I want to create something new or us in the future. But, you know, that's easier said than done! So, yeah, Hope is absolutely taken aback. She thought, 'Oh, we're doing really well as friends, we're doing a really great job co-parenting. She didn't actually think that Liam was starting to kind of wax poetic again! So, obviously, she's in for a pretty big surprise [when Liam makes his intentions known]."
But according to the actress, Liam won't have to wait long to find out whether Hope is game to try, try again — or if she's more interested in exploring the less baggage-heavy new romance she's got going with Carter. "[Liam's words] bring even more clarity to her," Noelle hints. "It does technically complicate things, but for Hope, I do think it brings her some clarity about what she wants ... and what she doesn't."
And Liam may want to cross his fingers that his former mother-in-law doesn't advocate too loudly for a Liam/Hope reunion. Laughs Noelle, "I mean, we saw what happened when Brooke started pressuring her about not being involved with Thomas! It's like [telling a child], 'Don't touch the hot stove!' Any time a parent kind of gets involved in their kid's love life like that, I feel sometimes it has the opposite of the desired effect. So I'm not sure that [Brooke being Team Liam] wouldn't just encourage her the other way!"
As she ponders which direction to take her romantic life in, Noelle has her own wish for Hope. "I think it has been very clear that Hope has been floundering to find herself ever since Thomas left," she says. "And I'm hoping she finally makes some healthy decisions for herself and her family and keeps her head up high — not because she's depending on a man's strength, but because she's finding her own again."
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