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B.D. Made A Big Life Decision On 'Feud'

by Megan Walsh

Bette Davis' relationship with her eldest daughter B.D. has been a part of Feud since the first episode, and "Abandoned!" saw the ties begin to sever more permanently between mother and daughter. Their relationship had been both contentious and loving, as one might expect from some teenage girls and their mothers regardless of decade or star power, and both sides of their bond were showcased in Episode 7. Despite being only 16 years old, B.D. decided she wanted to get married to her 29-year-old boyfriend, something Davis reluctantly gave permission for after initially refusing. But who is B.D.'s husband on Feud?

Jeremy Hyman met B.D. at the Cannes film festival in 1963 when she was accompanying her mother during the promotion for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Jeremy was Eliot Hyman's nephew; Eliot was the head of the production company Seven Arts, which was presumably how Jeremy found himself at Cannes. Jeremy and B.D. married a year after they first met (just to spell that out: a man in his late 20s began to seriously date a 15 year old girl) and they are still married today. They have two sons, Ashley and Justin. They now work together as evangelical preachers, spreading their particular message via sermons and books.

Later, Davis said that taking B.D. along to Cannes was "one of the greatest mistakes in my life." She felt that B.D.'s marriage to Jeremy damaged their relationship irreparably, even though Davis had given her permission for the marriage to take place. B.D. would eventually go on to write a book about her mom called My Mother's Keeper that painted Davis in a less than flattering light; Davis attributed the book to B.D.'s relationship with Jeremy.

After their marriage, B.D. and Jeremy relocated to a farm in Pennsylvania to raise their family. While living there in the mid-1980s, a door-to-door Christian salesman came to stay for a brief time and they credited this mystery man for sparking their initial interest in Christianity. B.D. converted first, but it took Jeremy a little bit longer; according to an interview with B.D. on the Forerunner in 1989, Jeremy was convinced of the existence of God after an episode of The 700 Club cured B.D.'s chronic back issues. Yep.

When not collaborating on books with B.D., Jeremy worked as a children's book illustrator. However, he doesn't seem to have much of a public presence; B.D. appears to be the face and voice of their ministry, with Jeremy helping her out behind-the-scenes.