Stephanie Forrester is a fictional character from The Bold and the Beautiful, an American soap opera on the CBS network. Stephanie is known for her marriages to the famed fashion designer, Eric Forrester, and for her rivalries with Brooke Logan, who has been involved with Eric and her sons, Ridge and Thorne, and with competing designer Sally Spectra. Both of these rivals later became two of her closest friends. She has been portrayed since the show's inception in 1987 by Emmy-winning actress Susan Flannery. Stephanie's lung cancer diagnosis played a central role in the series, and the character died of the disease on November 26, 2012.