Don Diamont was feeling emotional the day Soaps.com interviewed him on the set of The Bold and the Beautiful in honor of his 40 years in daytime television. His co-stars and executive producer and headwriter Bradley Bell had just stood before a crowd and shared the impact Diamont had on them — not only professionally but also personally. By the time we headed back to a quiet area for the interview, he admitted that he “didn’t anticipate that level of emotion at all.”

But that’s who Diamont is at the core and it’s why Bill Spencer has had such a chokehold on viewers for the last 20 years “right out of the gate.” “Dollar Bill” lives big and loves big but not always in the way his business partners and romantic interests want. “Billionaire, misogynistic playboy” was how Diamont described his character to us. “And ultimately, somebody with that level of disrespect for women has mommy issues. I came up with my own story for him that you can’t sleep with enough women, you can’t own enough companies, you can’t acquire enough things. There’s nothing that can fill that black hole that exists in him, and he is forever battling his worst inclinations.”

While Diamont has his own backstory for Bill, he admits that there’s one thing he would like to see happen with his character in the future: a do-over with former wife Katie Logan (Heather Tom). “Obviously, conflict is how we make our living, and no romance stays for too long, you’re in and out of it… but I would like to see him reunite with Katie,” he says. “I think at this point in his life, it’s appropriate, and he’s ready for it.”

He points out that he never pushes a storyline, but this might be a little nudge now that he spoke it out loud. “I’m not an actor who is always calling my headwriter, ‘What’s going on? What’s next? What are we doing? What’s going on?’ I trust Brad, and I wait for what’s coming down the pike, but I would like to see Bill and Katie” try again.

“I hope that there’s a reunification on the landscape and then some kind of trouble,” Diamont adds. “Well, not necessarily trouble that breaks them up but some kind of trouble that they have to deal with together.” The reason he would love to see Bill and Katie back together? Well, the answer is pretty simple. “I love working with Heather so much,” he says with admiration in his voice.

The feeling is completely mutual, too. Tom gave a tearful speech to Diamont just minutes earlier in which she recalled encouraging Bell to put Katie and Bill together when he first joined the show. She shared how she does her “best work” with him because she “trusts [him] implicitly” and “owes” most of her Daytime Emmys to him. But it was the personal side of their friendship that resonates the most.“I can count on one hand the people in my life that, if this stuff really hits the fan, I know they will be there for me,” Tom said to Diamont while her voice cracked. “And you are one of those people, and I am so grateful for you, and I am so grateful to work with you and know you all these years. I love you very much.”