When her death attracted criticism, writer Richard Culliton decided to bring the actress back as the character's identical twin sister, Maggie Stone.

[6] Star-crossed true loves, the pairing was planned to have various ups and downs; they sought friendship and security in their need for solidarity, and dealt with sexual confusion and ambiguity in their struggle to remain platonic.

Though the series paced Bianca and Maggie's relationship for three and a half years before making the couple's romance official, the pairing consistently intrigued the All My Children audience, as well as soap opera critics and LGBT outlets such as The Advocate and AfterEllen.com.

[8][10] Eventually, Culliton came up with the idea to bring back the popular actress who had portrayed Frankie, Elizabeth Hendrickson, as the character's identical twin sister.

[11] Television executive Brian Frons held a six-year position with SBS Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, where he worked on a number of popular reality shows.

[2] With Jean Dadario Burke as executive producer, Frons had ABC begin adding more depth to All My Children's Bianca Montgomery, the lesbian daughter of Susan Lucci's Erica Kane.

This second love triangle developed slowly,[9] but included an aspect that kept viewers invested: Jonathan is presented as an abuser, and Bianca feels she must fight to free Maggie of his control.

[15] After a few years of struggling to acquire a steady acting job, however, she decided to give the daytime genre a chance and agreed to a contract role with the show.

[15] When later queried on the viewer demand for a romance between Bianca and Maggie, the actresses relayed their support for gay and lesbian representation in television, with Riegel stating: "I think Liz [Hendrickson] will agree that it would be an amazing storyline.

In a less hectic time for the characters, an original song titled "All I Ever Wanted Was You" was played during a scene where Bianca and Maggie discussed their feelings for each other, but decided to remain best friends.

Maggie reconnects with her family, Vanessa Cortlandt (Marj Dusay), Leo du Pres (Josh Duhamel) and David Hayward (Vincent Irizarry), whom she barely knows.

Fearing that her mother, Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), will resent her baby due to having been raped before as well, Bianca decides that she is going to leave town to give birth to the child and inform everyone on her return that she adopted.

[40] According to their website, BAMFan members are a diverse group of all ages, economic, and cultural backgrounds, and sexual orientations and "want to ensure the story – the romance of Bianca Montgomery and Maggie Stone – is brought to the forefront of All My Children".

[6] To enable others, particularly new viewers to the series, with easy access to the Bianca and Maggie storyline, BAM fans launched what they call "BAMChannel" on the video sharing site YouTube.

"When our lesbian protagonist finally gets her groove on, it won't be with Maggie, who flirted with Bianca for months, [spawning a devoted fan club named BAM]...

"[47] The assessment made by Frons differed from a previous article earlier in the year which cited the Bianca and Maggie fanbase as growing bigger and at an unprecedented level in American daytime soap opera history for a homosexual pairing.

TV Guide soap opera columnist Michael Logan dubbed the non-relationship as "Rip-Off of the Year" in his January 4, 2003, roundup of "The Worst of 2002".

[6] He stated:AMC teased and titillated us mercilessly with the flirtatious sparks between openly gay Bianca (Eden Riegel) and her buddy Maggie (Elizabeth Hendrickson), but the show — once famous for its boldness — didn't have the guts to put them in a real romance, even though the fans are begging for it.

"The two characters have exchanged intimate gazes and frolicked provocatively in countless scenes, the tension becoming so unbearable that frustrated fans formed BAM.

"[15] Hendrickson captured, in the unaffected and eminently relatable fashion so typical of her AMC work, Maggie's mixture of certainty (of her love for and attraction to Bianca) and confusion (what does it all mean?).

[56][58] "It's the moment BAM fans have been waiting for on All My Children, but thought would never come: Maggie finally 'fesses up to Bianca about her true feelings for her 'best friend'," announced Soap Opera Digest.

In response to the rape storyline, fans of the Bianca and Maggie relationship organized a charity auction on eBay that ran throughout the month of July 2003 with all proceeds having gone to RAINN.

[62]In December 2008, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which raises funds for HIV/AIDS-related causes, started contest Battle of the ABC Daytime "Power Couples" for the 2009 year.

[63][64] Though no longer a couple and not on the Broadway Cares official list for the competition,[63] Team BAM was created in honor of Bianca and Maggie and for the organization's cause.

She cited Bianca and Maggie's progression toward romance only after leaving television screens, but detailed positive aspects of the story in an article entitled "The End of a Lesbian Era on All My Children".

Soap Opera Weekly magazine's January 23, 2007, issue quoted Hendrickson as saying that she found out about Maggie cheating on Bianca by watching the show (since her character had not returned to Pine Valley at the time).

[70] Victoria A. Brownworth of the San Francisco Bay Area Reporter, Inc., a free weekly newspaper serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, called the storyline a mess.

Riegel and Hendrickson found humor in the topic and agreed as McManus read a letter asking "Maggie" how she felt about her breakup with Bianca.

[75][76] Reese Williams would allow Bianca the type of physical onscreen intimacy she had not had before on the series, and their romance would also include the first same-sex marriage proposal and wedding on an American soap opera.

[52] There were a number of message board postings from people who were scared or angered by the possibility of a Bianca and Maggie romance due to the fact that it caused unpleasant memories to resurface for them in real life.