What Happened to Victoria on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS
Victoria Newman is often in the middle of a crisis on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS, but looking back at her history, the character has always bounced back. Even when she’s down, she’s never out for long! The daughter of Victor Newman and Nikki Newman, Victoria has always been an integral part of the Newman family. Originally played by Ashley Nicole Millan as a child, the character was aged to a teenager in 1990 and portrayed by Heather Tom. Aside from a brief leave of absence in 1997 where she was temporarily replaced by Sarah Aldrich, Tom stayed with Y&R until 2003. In 2005, the soap brought Amelia Heinle in to take over the role and she continues to play Victoria to this day.
Even though Jack Abbott saved her from drowning as a child, Victoria wasn’t thrilled when Nikki married the guy. When she continued to act out, her parents sent her to a boarding school in Switzerland, but when she returned a teenager, she hadn’t changed much. She began working for Newman Enterprises in the mailroom and fell for the older Ryan McNeil. Victor attempted to pay the young man to leave town, but instead, he and Victoria eloped! Her family was furious, but the young marriage didn’t last long after Ryan cheated on her with Nina Webster. Victoria then found herself attracted to new stablehand Cole Howard, and they also married young, but that quickly ended when they feared they were brother and sister!
However, after Victor discovered evidence to the contrary, he ordered blood tests that proved he wasn’t Cole’s father. Victoria was delighted, and they remarried, but she continued to be jealous of other women. When she left town to sort herself out, Cole was left alone to spark an affair with Ashley Abbott. Victoria returned and battled Ashley for Cole’s affections, but when she learned she was pregnant, Neil stepped up and offered to claim the baby as his own. The truth came out, and Cole promised to help her with his child, but still planned to marry Ashley. Tragically, their baby girl, Eve, died shortly after being born. Devastated, Victoria broke up with Neil and then dated Gary Dawson, who turned out to be a psycho that kidnapped her! After Nick and Paul rescued her, Victoria rekindled things with Ryan, and they planned to remarry. But his ex, Tricia, had gone insane, and shot Ryan on his wedding day!
Victoria next dated ranch hand Diego Guttierez. Initially, she was just trying to find out if he was sleeping with Nick’s wife, Sharon Newman, but later developed feelings for him. However, she eventually dumped him over his dark and violent nature. She had a brief relationship with Michael Baldwin, but frustrated with her family’s actions during the ongoing Jabot/Newman feud, Victoria decided to leave town to study art history in Italy.
In 2005, Victoria returned hoping to pick up where she left off with Michael, but he had married Lauren Fenmore. She started dating her father’s business rival, Brad Carlton, and they eventually married, but she dumped him after learning he’d had an affair with Sharon. However, Victoria had also gotten close to J.T. Hellstrom herself, so after the end of her marriage, she found herself pregnant and the babydaddy was in question. After Reed’s premature birth, however, it was revealed that J.T. was his father.
Victoria and J.T. married, but then he kissed Colleen Carlton so she slept with Deacon Sharpe to retaliate. After divorcing him, Victoria left town to get her head together, during which time J.T. then grew close with Mackenzie Browning. Upon her return, Victoria then found herself drawn to Billy Abbott and they got drunk and tied the knot in Jamaica. But when that union was declared invalid, the couple remarried properly, so Victor had his daughter arrested on her wedding day to prevent the ceremony from taking place! J.T. won custody of Reed and took him away to Washington D.C. with Mac.
After Victoria miscarried his baby, Billy paid to purchase an infant on the black market. But it was really Daniel Romalotti’s daughter with Daisy Carter, and Phyllis helped her son fight for custody. After Billy left town for a while, Victoria tracked him down and they reconciled and remarried. Chelsea Lawson showed up pregnant with his child, but ultimately signed away parental rights to Johnny to Billy and Victoria. Returning to work at Newman, Victoria was kidnapped by Eddie G. who wanted Billy to repay his gambling debts!
When Billy’s daughter, Delia, was killed in a hit-and-run accident, he had an affair with Kelly Andrews, a woman from his grief support group. Victoria found herself growing closer to Dr. Ben “Stitch” Rayburn. She filed for divorce from Billy and slept with Stitch, but wasn’t entirely sure he was the father when she got pregnant and gave birth to Katherine Rose. The little girl turned out to be Billy’s but Victoria stayed with Stitch… at least until he left her for her sister, Abby!
Victoria threw herself back into work at Newman, even defending and lying for her father when Victor was accused of shooting Jack. She began seeing Billy again but broke it off after he swore vengeance against Victor and started drinking and gambling again. But after Billy was run over and nearly died, he swore he was a changed man so Victoria gave him another chance. Unfortunately, he was still plotting against Victor, so she split up with him again.
When Victor found himself on trial, Victoria joined the rest of the family in testifying against him, sending him to jail. To pay her back, Victor chose Nick to run Newman and sold Brash & Sassy out from under her. Victoria started a fling with Travis Crawford, and he urged her to leave all the family drama behind and sail away with him, but she declined. Victor was released from prison and took back control of Newman Enterprises, so Victoria found herself going back into business with Billy to run Brash & Sassy. Travis decided to stick around but Victoria dumped him when she found out he’d been keeping too many secrets from her.
Reed returned to Genoa City as a teenager and Victoria struggled to deal with his rebellious behavior. Billy and Victoria grew closer, but didn’t reunite as he entered into a relationship with Phyllis and she threw herself into work. When Brash & Sassy hit hard times, Victoria nearly accepted a loan from Ben Hochman (who she was also sleeping with for fun), but after learning he was working for Jack, she refused. Then, Billy cut corners which made some of their cosmetics dangerous, so Victoria fired him. Eventually, she let Newman buy Brash & Sassy, on the condition that it was a merger, and she becomes Victor’s heir apparent at the company. This led to numerous clashes with her sister, Abby, some quite ugly.
J.T. returned to Genoa City and rekindled his relationship with Victoria, but she was unaware that he was secretly working with Paul to investigate Newman. Meanwhile, she also clashed with Ashley when Victor brought her into the company and vowed to destroy her. But it was J.T.’s abusive behavior that turned everything upside down. When he attacked Victoria again, Nikki hit him in the head with a fireplace poker and killed him! Victoria joined her mother as well as Sharon and Phyllis in covering up the crime, but eventually, the truth came out and the women all found themselves on trial (minus Phyllis, who had struck a deal with Christine). And despite Michael’s best efforts, the judge found them guilty and sentenced Victoria to 10 years in prison!
In the end, however, J.T. turned out to be alive and out for revenge, so the women were ultimately set free once he was apprehended. Victoria got back together with Billy, but turned down his marriage proposal because she just wanted them to be together with no pressure. She also supported Billy while he had a breakdown and developed an alternate personality, and stepped in to run Newman Enterprises when Victor faked his own death. But when Adam set her up for their father’s “murder,” she found herself arrested and Victor had to reveal he was still alive. When Victor returned to Newman, Victoria once again felt pushed aside and undervalued, and when she stood up to her father, he awarded her with the CEO chair at Newman Enterprises!
As Billy’s behavior worsened and he began spending more and more time at the dive bar with Amanda Sinclair, Victoria felt him slipping away and believed he was cheating on her. When Billy walked out on her she found support from her family, who insisted Billy wasn’t worth the trouble. But when Victoria was stabbed by Ripley Turner at the Newman Enterprises anniversary party, it was Billy’s arms she fell into! Rushed to the hospital, Nate was able to stabilize her, and she soon emerged from her medically-induced coma, but remained troubled.
Victoria wanted to get back to work at Newman and put her life back together, but that proved difficult as she found herself feeling overwhelmed and terrified. Sharon attempted to counsel her, but Victoria didn’t feel like herself anymore. After being rushed to the hospital with chest pains, Victoria was glad it was just angina and not a heart attack. When Billy tried to talk to her, she informed him that she wouldn’t be dragged down by him and they were truly over this time. Mustering her strength, Victoria decided it was time to return to work and start living her life again.
After Adam confronted Victor about covering up A.J. Montalvo’s murder years ago, he was booted from the company and Victoria was named CEO of Newman Enterprises. Though Victor warned his daughter that her scheming got her the job but lost his respect. Victoria continued to be ruthless, selling off some of Newman’s divisions, buying up part of Phyllis’ hotel, and plotting with Billy to take Adam down. When Billy was accused of shooting Chance in an attempt to murder Adam, she defended him until the real culprit was revealed. Victoria’s jealousy began showing as she used the kids to try and throw a monkey wrench into Billy’s new relationship with Lily Winters. When Billy finally confronted her, she confessed that she was still in love with him!
Forced to move on, Victoria attempted to buy media company Cyaxares from Ashland Locke, but Victor stole the deal out from under his daughter. Furious, Victoria declared her intention to run Newman Enterprises without her father’s input. And in the end, she developed a relationship with Ashland that led to them merging their companies! When Ashland admitted he had cancer and only months to live, Victoria invited him to move in with her — sending the kids to stay at Lily and Billy’s — and continued urging him to seek treatment.
Victoria’s relationship with Ashland deepened and when he proposed, she happily accepted. However, her family wasn’t as keen on the union, suspecting her beau of hiding some secrets in his dark past. She wasn’t so bothered when Ashland confessed he had changed his name, but when he later admitted he’d taken the identity of his friend who had died in a car crash, Victoria was shaken. She was also furious at Nick for forcing his confession.
Ultimately, however, Victoria tied the knot with Ashland at a villa in Italy and despite some meddling from the family, the ceremony went off almost without a hitch. With her new husband by her side, Victoria made a move to acquire ChanceComm, but when she discovered Billy was only pretending to unravel to trap Adam, she wanted in on his scheme in the hopes of taking over Newman Media instead. Victor agreed to sell it to her as long as Victoria agreed to keep Adam on, so she struck the deal and rubbed it in her brother’s face. Despite not always seeing eye-to-eye when it came to business matters, Victoria remained determined to make Ashland co-CEO of Newman Locke. But shortly after the papers were signed, Victoria began having doubts as evidence came to light that Ashland had been faking his cancer diagnosis and miraculous recovery!
Heartbroken and betrayed, Victoria played along with Ashland as her family plotted to drive him out of town. He insisted his feelings for her were real, but she refused to listen. However, after Victoria was in a terrible car crash driving out of town, Ashland saved her life, and she began to soften towards him, ultimately admitting that she also genuinely loved him. But this meant turning her back on her family, which Victoria was more than happy to do!
But as Victoria and Ashland celebrated their new life in New York and began creating a new company to run together, her true motives were revealed. After Victor got their investors to pull out, Victoria convinced Ashland to invest his own money so she could then steal his millions and walk out on him! Victoria returned to Genoa City triumphant and even convinced Nick to return to the family business. But Ashland came looking for revenge and when he angrily confronted Victoria, Nick came to her rescue and in the ensuing fight, Ashland died when he hit his head! Victor stepped in to cover up the crime by staging a car accident so Victoria was free to move on with her life.
Victoria wanted to take over Chancellor-Winters when it went public and enlisted Nate Hastings to be her inside man to help make it happen. She was upset when the guilt proved too much and Nate confessed his duplicity to his family, but then offered him a job at Newman, installing him as CEO. The chemistry between the pair led to a kiss and while Victoria was eager to see where this could lead, Nate chose to remain faithful to Elena.
Victoria continued to pursue Nate and he eventually gave in. They tried to keep their affair secret but Elena found out and angrily confronted the pair. Nick and Victoria tried to warn her that Nate was taking advantage of her, but Victor gave the relationship his blessing. Victoria forced Nick to take a leave of absence and made Nate COO. But as things at Newman grew tense, Victor stepped back in to retake control. Victoria was upset when her father took the CEO job back from her and begrudgingly accepted her demotion. As Victor began showing signs of memory loss and dementia, she feared the worst, but learned it was all a plan to smoke out the traitor in the family. Victoria assumed it would be Adam, but Victor declared it was Nate and fired him!
Victor ordered the siblings to work together, but Victoria threatened to quit if Adam was given a position of power. She tried to reconnect with Nate, but he was still too angry with the Newmans. When Nikki’s new assistant, Claire Grace, revealed she’d suffered a seizure while at her Aunt Jordan’s lake house, Victoria joined Nick and Victor on the jet to fly to her in Oregon. But it was a trap so that Jordan could poison the Newmans as revenge for how they’d treated her late sister Eve Howard! Things grew even more complicated when Claire produced Cole and declared that he and Victoria were her parents, accusing them of abandoning her at birth! Victoria insisted that Baby Eve had died, and Jordan revealed that she’d stolen the infant from the hospital and raised it herself! Victoria managed to convince Claire to give them the antidote to the poison and they were all taken to the hospital, Claire was arrested, and Jordan gave everyone the slip.
Returning to Genoa City, Victoria and Cole needed to get to the truth and visited Claire to ask her to submit to a DNA test. She agreed under the condition they find her a good lawyer, so they hired Michael. The test results proved that Claire really was Baby Eve, and they had her transferred to Genoa City to undergo psychiatric treatment. Victoria even took a leave of absence from Newman to focus on her daughter. After reluctantly agreeing to help Claire visit Jordan in prison to get some closure, Victoria and her daughter finally made an emotional connection.
Stay tuned to see how her story continues!
