Laura was involved in a car wreck and delivered a premature but healthy baby boy via Cesarean section. The child was named Michael William Horton. Bill knew that he was the father of Laura's baby and he struggled with the ramifications of the situation. He knew that revealing the baby's paternity would only hurt Mickey. For the good of everyone involved, Bill decided to maintain his silence.

By 1971, Mickey had had an affair with Linda Patterson, Melissa's mother, and Laura had turned to Bill. Mickey was willing to grant Laura a divorce, but she wanted them to try and save their marriage, if only to provide Mike with a stable home.

Years went by, and Mike grew into a teenager. As it happened, one day he overheard a conversation that revealed to him that Mickey had had an affair with his one-time secretary Linda. Mike confronted Mickey with the information in such a violent fashion that Mickey suffered a massive coronary.

While Bill performed triple bypass surgery on Mickey, Laura and Mike sat in the waiting room. It was there that the young man confessed to his mother the events that had led up to Mickey's heart attack.

Alone in his hospital room one day, Mickey experienced a blinding pain in his head. When the pain left, it took with it his memory. Disoriented, he found his clothes, dressed, and just walked out of the hospital. After many months, the Hortons located Mickey, who had been living as Marty Hanson on the farm of Maggie Simmons in nearby Brookville. When he came face to face with his family, he recognized no one. Mike in particular was devastated.

Having no feelings at all for Laura, and wanting her to know the same love and happiness he had found with Maggie, Mickey was more than willing to give her a divorce. By the end of 1974, Laura and Bill were married.

Mike was still in the hospital in critical condition when he learned that Mickey had been institutionalized. In hopes that a visit from Mickey would lift Mike's spirits and speed his recovery, Mickey was brought in to see Mike. In an irrational moment, he blurted out the truth of Mike's paternity. Mike was enraged with Bill and Laura.

Linda visited Mike in the hospital frequently, in hopes that by getting close to Mike she could get closer to Mickey. After he was discharged, Mike was disheartened when he found himself unable to make love to Trish. He went to Linda and told her that although he was attracted to Trish, the idea of sex with her made him uncomfortable. He confided in her his concern that he might be homosexual. Linda took Mike to bed, erasing any doubts he had about his sexual orientation. Although it was nothing more than quick physical gratification for Linda, Mike became obsessed with her. She managed to dissuade him only when she finally told him that she had only fantasized about Mickey when they had had sex.

He took a job at a garage as a mechanic. Soon he realized that he was still in love with Trish, but then she learned that as the result of a one-night stand, she was pregnant by David Banning. Mike decided to put aside his feelings for Trish and start dating other women. Soon thereafter, he met Margo Anderman.

The next year, Margo was diagnosed with leukemia, but Mike was in denial about the serious nature of her illness. He proposed to her and the two were married in July of 1978. By the end of the year, the newlyweds had reason to be optimistic: Margo's leukemia was in remission.

Mike borrowed money from his parents and bought a house, but then he was fired from his job at the garage. Luckily, he got another job, but then immediately went out and purchased a new car, even though he was already in debt to various friends and relatives. Mike turned to a loan shark, Earl Roscoe. He borrowed enough money to repay his loans and to buy Margo a fur coat as well.

Trish had some diamonds she had stolen from the Blue Cat nightclub, where she sang. She asked Margo to hide them for her. Margo, unaware of how Trish had gotten her hands on the stones, agreed. When Mike fell behind in his payments to Earl, Trish secretly borrowed one of Trish's diamonds and gave it to Earl as collateral against Mike's debt. When Margo got enough money to buy the diamond back from Earl, he tricked her by giving her a fake instead of the real one. Earl began threatening Mike and Margo and made several attempts on Margo's life. Mike told Mickey all about his involvement with the loan shark, and then left with Margo to hide out for a while at the farmhouse in Brookville. Trish figured out that Earl had tricked Margo. She confronted him. He feared being arrested, so he left Salem in a hurry. Tragically, Margo died just short of their second wedding anniversary, after her leukemia resurfaced and chemotherapy failed. Not long after his wife's death Mike decided to leave town to go to medical school.

Mike returned to Salem just in time to keep his younger sister Jennifer out of trouble. Before long, though, he had trouble of his own. Mike fell under suspicion as the prime suspect in a series of rapes. Eventually he was cleared. He then met the new head of surgery at University Hospital, Dr. Robin Jacobs. The two clashed initially, but before long, they fell in love. She was Jewish, and their religious differences created an obstacle to their relationship. On the rebound, Robin began dating a man within her faith, Mitch Kaufman. When she learned that she was pregnant, she didnt know which of the two men was the baby's father. When Mitch proposed marriage, Robin thought that she would be doing the right thing by marrying him.

Mickey and Maggie's now-grown foster child Janice Barnes returned to Salem and soon began an affair with Bill Horton. He couldn't get past his feelings of guilt however and broke it off with her. She soon dated Mike, but he still loved Robin. When her marriage to Mitch was annulled, Mike decided to convert to Judaism. He and Robin were then engaged. Robin came to realize that Mike would never be able to completely embrace Judaism because his conversion was motivated by his desire to marry her, and she abruptly broke off the engagement and left town.

Mike and Bill hadn't really bonded, but they were drawn together by mutual grief when Janice fell victim to the Riverfront Knifer. To ease his heartache, Mike briefly dated Eve's mother Gabrielle Pascal. He threw himself into his work, volunteering his time at Kayla's Emergency Center. Two hoodlums, April and Emilio Ramirez, tried to rob the clinic. When they were apprehended, April confided to Mike that they needed the medication for their mother Rosa who had cancer. Mike found himself attracted to April. He helped her land a job at the hospital, provided treatment for Rosa, and supported her as she battled to overcome alcoholism.

It was at about this time that Robin returned to Salem, with the intention of reuniting with Mike. When she learned that he had proposed to April, Robin informed April that Mike was the father of her son Jeremy. April decided to bow out of the picture so that Mike could be with Robin and the baby. Things didn't work out for Mike and Robin; she left Salem with Jeremy and moved to Israel. Mike and April got engaged in the Caribbean.

Tom Horton approached Mike and told him about an urgent need for medical volunteers overseas. Mike felt compelled to go and postponed the wedding. When his volunteer work kept him in Israel near Robin and Jeremy, April gave up on him. When Mike returned to Salem several years later, April was long gone.

After he returned to town, Mike was blackmailed by Stefano Dimera into providing him with the access code to Marlena's security system in her penthouse.

Mike had a brief relationship with a psychotic nurse, Ali McIntyre,

who ultimately tried to kill him and the woman he truly loved, Carrie Reed.

Carrie and Mike had known one another for years, and as a girl, Carrie had a secret crush on Mike. As adults, the two of them worked closely together at University Hospital, Mike as a doctor and Carrie as the Director of Public Relations. When the Chief of Staff position became available, Mike seemed to be a shoe-in for the spot, until a rival came on the scene: Dr. Craig Wesley, Mike's old medical school nemesis.

Through a series of events orchestrated by Craig and his scheming wife Nancy, a medical mishap is made to look like negligence and malpractice on the part of Mike, dashing his hopes for the Chief of Staff position. Graciously, Mike congratulates Craig on his impending appointment to Chief of Staff. Nancy and Craig worry that Carrie might uncover their plot. She'll take care of Carrie, Nancy vows...

Marlena and Carrie join forces and do some investigating into the alleged malpractice incident, which involved a woman named Shelly and her asthmatic young son. They spy Shelly and follow her. When they confront her, Shelly denies having anything to do with the charges against Mike. Suddenly, Shelly's son has an asthma attack. Marlena helps him. Carrie urges Shelly to clear Mike's name, but she refuses. Carrie arrives at the annual Brady/Horton 4th of July barbecue, dismayed that she was unable to clear Mike. To her great relief, Mike reveals that Shelly did come forward after all, and Mike has been named the new Chief of Staff, continuing the Horton tradition at University Hospital. As the fireworks explode around them, an overwhelmed Carrie and Mike move into a kiss, marking the change in their relationship from good friends to a man and woman in love.

After years of keeping their feelings for one another stifled, Mike and Carrie finally got engaged and left Salem together. They are currently in Israel with Mike's son Jeremy.

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