The cast of Step by Step recently reunited and spent some time remembering their late co-star, Suzanne Somers. PEOPLE reports that Patrick Duffy, Staci Keanan, Angela Watson, Christine Lakin, Christopher Castile, Jason Marsden, and Sasha Mitchell were present for a 90s Con over the weekend. During a panel, the group opened up and reflected on their time working with Somers.
“Suzanne gave the most beautiful, thoughtful gifts and she was a person of immense style and glamour in her real life, and I will never forget [that] and I still have them,” Keanan shared, with Lakin adding that, as a child, she watched reruns of Somers’ retro sitcom, Three’s Company. “Growing up with her and watching her as a woman, as a businesswoman, as someone who was a huge star who had a bright light, who was so gorgeous, who was also so down to Earth and someone I just really admired,” Lakin said.
“She was someone that made me think as a young female in Hollywood,” she continued, “you can be kind and you can be generous and you can be successful and all of those things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.” Lakin then added, “She was so sweet and loving. Her heart was so big, and we really miss her.”
Finally, Watson recalled “being able to do the mother-daughter reunion pageant where we tap dance together and sang.” She added, “That was so amazing. Like, the highlight of my career.”
Step by Step premiered in 1991 and ran for six seasons on ABC before moving to CBS for its seventh and final season in 1997. It follows Duffy and Somers’ characters, Frank Lambert and Carol Foster-Lambert, two single parents who get married and have to carefully navigate life as a blended family.
Somers passed away on Sunday, Oct. 15, after revealing earlier in 2023 that she was once again fighting breast cancer. “Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of October 15th. She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years,” Somers’ friend and publicist R. Couri Hay said in a statement announcing the sad news. “Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family.”