Will Horton and Sonny Kiriakis are fictional characters from the American daytime drama Days of Our Lives. They are notable for the first male-male wedding in US daytime drama history, and for being Days of Our Lives first same-sex supercouple. The couple was originally portrayed by Chandler Massey as Will and Freddie Smith as Sonny, who brought acclaimed popularity to the pairing.
Guy Wilson took over playing Will from January 2014 to October 2015 – with his tenure including the characters' engagement and wedding, and Will's death – and then Massey returned to the role in September 2017, when Will was found to be alive, after fan outrage of Will's death led to the show reversing the decision. Massey played Will again as a show regular for three years through to September 2020, when Will and Sonny exited the show together.
In September 2021, Will and Sonny featured in the spin-off show Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem, a one week limited series, in which the role of Sonny was recast with actor Zach Tinker, with Massey again as Will. Both actors re-appeared as the couple in the subsequent spin-off Days of Our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas in December 2021; and then Will and Sonny returned to the main show in March 2022, with Tinker debuting as Sonny on the parent show, and Massey appearing in a recurring capacity as Will. The pairing exited again in February 2023.
On internet message boards and in the soap media, the couple is sometimes referred to by the portmanteau "WilSon" (for Will and Sonny). Will is the son of Lucas and Sami and Sonny is the son of Justin and Adrienne.
Casting and development In 2010, Chandler Massey took over the role of legacy Days of Our Lives character Will Horton, and in June 2011 it was announced that actor Freddie Smith was joining the show as a gay character, and that the show was embarking on its first ever gay romance. By the Fall of 2011 rumors were going around that Will was gay and he was going to be in a relationship with Freddie Smith's character, Sonny Kiriakis. 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 August 2013, Days of Our Lives announced that Massey had left the show in order to pursue his education, and Days had found the "right recast" for Will This was revealed the following month to be Guy Wilson. Massey's last episode aired January 2, 2014 and Wilson's first episode aired January 8. Wilson played Will until the character was murdered, with his last appearance being October 13, 2015. Despite Days executive producer Ken Corday saying that characters who die "are dead", it was announced in May 2017 that Chandler Massey was returning to the role of Will. Massey's new episodes commenced September 15, 2017.
Storylines
2011–13 In June 2011, on the day of his high-school graduation, Will meets the openly gay Sonny through their mutual cousin, Abigail Deveraux. They become friends, and they form a business partnership with their friend Chad DiMera. Frustrated by Will's lack of intimacy, Will's girlfriend Gabi Hernandez breaks up with him, and he has an emotional breakdown. Will goes out with Sonny and his gay friends, and he ends up kissing one of Sonny's gay friends - Neil Hultgren; Sonny sees this, and he advises Will to talk to someone, and Will ultimately comes out as gay to his grandmother, Marlena. He comes out to the rest of his family, who are mostly supportive; Will is outed by the local media thanks to him being 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 DiMera is being framed for the shooting, Sonny admits to Will's dad 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.
Will's high-school friend Tad "T" Stevens, who had been hostile to Sonny because of his sexual orientation, returns to town and finds out Will has been outed as gay. T is horrible to Will about his sexuality, and blames Sonny for "turning" Will gay. Feeling rejected by his friend T, Will turns to Gabi, and they end up having sex. Straightaway Will and Gabi agree it was a mistake, and Will tells Gabi he is gay. 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; Sonny's mom Adrienne doesn't think Will is good enough for Sonny, while Will's dad Lucas is suspicious of Sonny's intentions with Will, thinking Will could be hurt by him. 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 tells Will that she is pregnant with his child. He supports her initial plan to have an abortion and he takes her to a clinic. Whilst waiting at the clinic for Gabi to have the procedure Will realizes that he really wants the baby, and asks to be allowed to see Gabi, but isn't allowed to. Happily, Gabi too, at the last minute, realizes she wants the child and decides not to have the procedure. Gabi is dating Will's cousin Nick Fallon. Nick is keen to start a family, and when he learns of the baby and its 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 Jonas'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 discovers an incriminating secret about Will – that Will had shot and nearly killed EJ years earlier when EJ had forced Will's mother Sami into marrying him after raping her – and Will's dad Lucas had made a false confession to the crime to protect Will, who was 15 at the time. With this information, Nick 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, with Sonny being a parent to Arianna along with Gabi and Will.
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 Will's grandma Kate Roberts 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.
2014–15 Sonny proposes to Will (now played by Guy Wilson); Will 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 Sonny's Uncle 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 town to oversee DiMera Enterprises, is a success.
Will and Sonny's relationship suffers a series of setbacks. When EJ is murdered, Will chooses to temporarily relocate to Los Angeles with Arianna, his mother Sami and his younger siblings, in order to be the screenwriter for a movie based on Sami's life, as well as to support Sami and his siblings during their grief for EJ (the father of Will's half-siblings Johnny and Sydney). 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.