When Hannah Swensen isn’t busy baking or solving murders, she’s stumbling into one love triangle after the next — and Alison Sweeney is OK with that.
“I’m really hopeful that we can really stretch out this triangle and enjoy the development of it and see what happens,” Sweeney, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting her newest Hallmark Mystery, One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery. “I do think it was sort of fun to keep the audience on their toes.”
When viewers first met baker and amateur sleuth Hannah (Sweeney) in the Murder, She Baked Mysteries in 2015, Detective Mike Kingston (Cameron Mathison) and dentist Norman Rhodes (Gabriel Hogan) were competing for her affection.
While Hannah eventually accepted a proposal from Mike in the revived Hannah Swensen Mysteries franchise, which began in 2021, the twosome later called off their nuptials.
News broke in February that Mathison, 54, would not be returning as Mike in One Bad Apple, which premieres on Friday, April 5. However, Sweeney exclusively revealed to Us that he might not be gone for good.
“I was on Days of Our Lives for 25 years plus,” she said with a laugh, noting, “You never say never” to a character comeback. Sweeney teased, “I have seen so many characters come and go, and I loved it every time.”
Although Mike is out of the picture for now, Hannah will be thrust into not one, but two love triangles in One Bad Apple. First Norman, who is technically dating someone else, will butt heads with Professor Bradford Ramsay (Oliver Rice) for Hannah’s attention as Hannah begins teaching at the local college.
Once a murder transpires, Hannah meets prosecutor Chad Norton (Victor Webster). Although Chad claims he doesn’t like sweets, his chemistry with Hannah is undeniable. Norman, meanwhile, has never faltered in his support of Hannah, leaving some fans wanting the pair to end up together.
“It’s tough, right? Because Norman’s such a good guy, and now he is in this committed relationship with Diana,” Sweeney told Us of Norman possibly dating Hannah. “He’s not the kind of guy that’s going to just drop his girlfriend because you wouldn’t want him to be that guy.”
She teased that “Chad is available,” but pondered whether he is “interested” in romancing Hannah. “And that’s just the very beginning of a spark,” Sweeney explained, hinting that their connection will continue to grow.
“I want the audience to know that I don’t take them for granted,” Sweeney, who wrote the script for One Bad Apple, said, noting that she is aware of the love triangle allure. “I worked really hard on the script to keep them interested, to challenge them, to keep them invested in what’s happening with Hannah and our friends and family.”
The actress noted that “with the changeup of Mike,” she purposely designed a subtle rival between Bradford and Norman before Chad even entered the picture.
“I just thought I wanted the audience to know I wasn’t just going to flip it to Bradford and Norman right away and just shove another triangle in their face,” Sweeney shared, adding that fans will have to “earn” another full-blown love triangle that will most likely feature Norman and Chad.
One Bad Apple will also have another relationship element to it: Hannah and her sisters, Andrea (Lisa Durupt) and Michelle (Tess Atkins).
“You are definitely going to see more of the sisters for sure. They’re her backup, so they’re like the Scooby-Doo troop,” Sweeney told Us of Hannah’s two siblings. “They’re the band of crime solvers. They each have their own skill sets, so it’s really fun to think of ways to incorporate the sisters and [their mom] Dolores of course, in different ways.”
One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery premieres on Hallmark Mystery Friday, April 5, at 9 p.m. ET.
