Hayley Erin is officially back in Genoa City — but this time, she’s playing a completely new character.
The actress originally starred in The Young and the Restless as Abby Newman — the daughter of Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson) and Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) — from 2008 to 2010. Because Melissa Ordway took over as Abby in 2013, Erin is returning to the long-running soap opera as Claire Grace, a Newman Media employee.
“I love the rules, or lack of rules, in the soap opera universe,” Erin told Soap Opera Digest. “I had never expected to come back, and I didn’t think it would happen, but I had hoped! I always thought, ‘Maybe they’d let me.’ And I’m really happy that the soap opera universe is so fluid and these kinds of things can happen.”
According to Erin — who went on to star in General Hospital and win the 2019 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series — a lot has changed since she first starred on Y&R.
“I was a kid,” she said. “I was 14 when I started and 15 when I left. I was there for my freshman and sophomore years of high school. That was half my lifetime ago! And what’s so amazing about my relationship with the soap world is that it always seems to come around for me in times of change and growth in my life.”
She continued, “The first time I was on the show, I was so young and I’d really only done comedy before, so walking into Y&R was really intimidating to me and challenging in so many ways. I wasn’t prepared for the emotional nature of the material.”
Now that she’s coming back, she’s “excited” to use the life experience she’s gained over the last 15 years to “create a really dynamic and interesting character.”
“I’m not gonna lie: I think I might have manifested this role for myself, because I think I’ve matured and grown as a person and I feel ready to meet the challenge of stepping back into this world,” she said.
Plus, Erin gets to play a character that’s far different than she’s ever played before.
“What I love about Claire is that she is a fantastic businesswoman, which is something so different than what I’ve gotten to play before,” she said. “She’s smart and driven — and a lot more put together than I am! My dad saw a picture of me as Claire and said, ‘That really doesn’t look like you!’ I said, ‘Well, that’s because I look professional — not a band T-shirt in sight.'”
The Young and the Restless airs weekdays at 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS.