The Bold and the Beautiful: Is Ridge the Right Person to Give Relationship Advice?

On The Bold and the Beautiful, Ridge has never been shy about offering opinions to the people he cares about — and even those he doesn’t. As a father, son, friend, and co-CEO of Forrester Creations, he’s often stepped in when he believes someone is making a mistake.

That’s exactly what happened when he urged Electra to end her relationship with Will, calling it “toxic” and insisting she deserved better.

Whether viewers agreed with Ridge or not, his warning carried an undeniable irony. For longtime B&B fans, Ridge’s own romantic history has been one of the defining stories of the series.

Ridge Has Spent Decades Following His Heart

For years, Ridge Forrester (Thorsten Kaye) has been infamously known for having his heart divided between Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang) and Dr. Taylor Hayes (Rebecca Budig). Their love triangle has survived (and caused) marriages, divorces, presumed deaths, reunions, heartbreak (literally), and countless fresh starts. 

Depending on the chapter, Ridge has sincerely believed Brooke was the love of his life… ahem, ‘destiny… only to later recommit to Taylor, and then find his way back to Brooke again.

That history doesn’t automatically make Ridge wrong, but it does make his advice more questionable.

Sure, Ridge’s concern for Electra appeared genuine, but so did the contrast between the certainty of his advice and the uncertainty that has defined many of his own relationships over the years.

When a character with one of daytime’s most famous romantic histories becomes the authority on what makes a healthy relationship, viewers are bound to look at the messenger as closely as the message.

Is This About Will — or About Logan?

Ridge framed his concerns around Electra’s (Laneya Grace) happiness, but much of what he pointed to centered on Logan’s rivalry with Forrester rather than Will’s (Crew Morrow) treatment of Electra. He himself linked them to his self-proclaimed, or at least, Forrester-proclaimed, war with the Spencers. 

Most of the reasons Ridge gave for ending the relationship centered on Will’s job, his loyalty, and the impact Logan has had on Forrester. Those are legitimate business concerns, but they aren’t the same as evidence that Will has treated Electra poorly.

If the corporate battle weren’t happening, would Ridge see the relationship differently? His own recent behavior suggests the answer may be yes. Just weeks ago, Ridge was telling everyone to stop obsessing over Will and Electra’s relationship and get back to work. Ironically, he’s now the one taking the day off to urge Electra to end that very relationship. That’s quite a shift for someone who previously wanted the office to stay out of their personal lives.

But his instructions were ignored. Everyone from the interns to Brooke couldn’t stop talking about it. The models wanted Will to be single, and Brooke tried encouraging the idea of RJ and Electra, even as Electra made it clear she wanted to be with Will. The chatter was endless — but none of it was about Electra’s safety or what she wanted.

But for Ridge, Electra’s superior at work, to tell her that she was in some sort of danger and insist that she move out and stay out of her home with Will — how is it so different than what her Aunt Ivy (Ashleigh Brewer) did a few months ago that got her put on leave and shipped back to Australia?

Ivy’s attempt to interfere in Electra’s personal life was treated as crossing a professional boundary. Now Ivy’s boss is offering similarly forceful advice about where she should live and who she should date. The circumstances are different, but the question is similar: when does concern become interference?

Electra had finally begun making decisions for herself, choosing both her career and her relationship despite the opinions swirling around her. Now Ridge has stepped in with advice that feels less like a conversation and more like a directive. 

Ridge may be co-CEO of Forrester Creations, but whether he should also be the CEO of Electra’s love life is another question entirely.