The Bold and the Beautiful recasts Hunter Tylo's iconic role of Dr. Taylor Hayes

Here comes your sweet relief, Forrester fans: Dr. Taylor Hayes is finally returning to The Bold and the Beautiful.

EW has learned exclusively that veteran TV actress Krista Allen will assume the iconic role starting on Dec. 10. She fills the very big stilettos left behind by Hunter Tylo, who played the part of the psychiatrist who stole Ridge Forrester's heart from 1990 to 2019. Taylor's romance with Ridge was constantly tested by Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang); the love triangle turned into one of the daytime drama's biggest story lines.

An insider tells EW that the show reached out to Tylo about reprising the role but was unsuccessful.

CBS Krista Allen

After Tylo (pictured below) left B&B in 2019, the show tried to explain Taylor's absence by saying she was doing missionary work in another country. But she missed huge moments in the lives of her children: her son Thomas (Matthew Atkinson) had brain surgery, and her daughter Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) was popping pills. More recently, Steffy got married to — and had a son with — Dr. John "Finn" Finnegan (Tanner Novlan). Fans were left wondering, where's ma?

Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images Hunter Tylo on 'The Bold and the Beautiful.'

Allen got her start in the soap world: From 1996 to 1999, she played Billie Reed on Days of Our Lives. She went on to appear in shows like CSI, The X-Files, and Baywatch, as well as Two and a Half Men and Monk. More recently, she costarred on 9-1-1 and in the TV movie I Almost Married a Serial Killer.

Allen is scheduled to start taping episodes of B&B in Los Angeles on Oct. 28. Her first scenes will be with her daughter and ex-husband Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), who's been with Brooke for some time now. Could it be time for a change?

The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS.

Related content:

• Meet Finn's parents on B&B

• B&B star Don Diamont looks back on 35 years at CBS

• Jackée Harry makes shocking debut on Days of Our Lives