Young & Restless’ Abbotts (and More!) Reunite to Celebrate Their Patriarch, Jerry Douglas: The Show ‘Was and Still Is His Family’ — Plus, a Brand-New Photo Album Full of Abbott-Clan Scandals and Secrets
Wednesday, October 13th, 2021
A month before the actor’s 89th birthday, some of his former co-stars gathered for a very special lunch.
After Young & Restless’ Lauralee Bell (Christine) shared photos from an early birthday get-together in honor of Jerry Douglas (ex-John), the veteran actor’s wife Kym couldn’t contain her gratitude. “This group, this show, this family!” she exclaimed. “There will never be another like it.”
Among those pictured were Douglas’ on-screen nearest and dearest — Peter Bergman (Jack), Eileen Davidson (Ashley) and Beth Maitland (Traci) — as well as castmates Bell and Tracey E. Bregman (Lauren). “Thank you for being so kind and loving to my hubby,” Mrs. Douglas wrote. “He adores all of you and loved playing your father and the patriarch of The Young and the Restless.
“It was and still his his family,” she added. “We love you very much.”
The feeling was clearly mutual. “[I] feel so lucky to have been included in this unbelievably special birthday lunch for Jerry Douglas!” cheered Bell. “Thank you, Peter and Eileen, so much! I will cherish this afternoon always.”
More: The life and loves of Jack Abbott [PHOTOS]
Longtime Young & Restless viewers will recall that Douglas was the third actor to play John. He presided over Jabot Cosmetics and the Abbott mansion for a quarter of a century until the beloved character was killed off in 2006 (after which his portrayer occasionally appeared as John’s ghost and/or lookalike).
On your way to the comments to wish Douglas a happy pre-birthday, stop off at the below photo gallery, which climbs the Abbott family tree, revealing how each branch is connected to the next — no matter how much the relatives may have occasionally wanted to saw one another’s off!
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
1/22
<p>Though <em>Young & Restless</em> viewers only met the Abbotts in 1980, patriarch John was already well known around Genoa City since he’d gone to high school with everyone from Katherine Chancellor to Neil Fenmore. He was also the founder of Jabot Cosmetics, the rare makeup empire that chose as its base of operations Wisconsin instead of… well, anywhere else.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
2/22
<p>From the outside, it appeared that wealthy, successful John had it all. But a bitterness festered inside him owing to the fact that wife Dina had abandoned not only him but their three children. Needless to say, three words that the gadabout could never utter around any of them were…</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Howard Wise/JPI
3/22
<p>It took <span style="text-decoration: line-through">years</span> decades for mantrap Dina to mend fences with the now-grown kids she’d left behind. Yet before she passed away in 2020, the lot of them were able to achieve closure — and, when the eggnog was strong enough, even have the occasional laugh.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
4/22
<p>In Dina’s absence, the Abbott children were raised by John’s salt-of-the-earth housekeeper, Mamie Johnson. And don’t you <em>dare</em> try to tell us that she wasn’t a member of the family; in every way that counts, you bet your <em>ass</em> she was! She also loved John as much as any of his wives ever did — and <em>more</em> than some!</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, John Paschal/JPI
5/22
<p>Whether played by the late Terry Lester or by Peter Bergman, John’s firstborn, son Jack, has always had a way with the ladies that’s made him the envy of would-be Casanovas far and wide. It’s also made him a long, <em>long</em> list of ticked-off and resentful exes.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)
6/22
<p>Jack would just as soon forget that during the Vietnam War, his romance with Luan Volien resulted in the birth of his older son, Keemo. In fact, for all practical purposes, Jack <em>has</em> forgotten — and the CBS soap would appreciate it if you would, too.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
7/22
<p>Picking up where Dad left off, Jack’s son with the late Diane Jenkins redefined the word “incorrigible.” Also like Pop, Kyle grew up fast when he was informed that…</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
8/22
<p>Years after Kyle knocked up married minx Tara Locke, he discovered that he, not her husband Ashland, was little Harrison’s father. As if the moppet’s luxurious head of hair hadn’t been, ahem, a “dad giveaway.”</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
9/22
<p>Prior to his death, John never had to worry about getting his steps in — he was always walking older daughter Ashley down the aisle. (And no, it doesn’t matter that she turned out not to be his biological child; no quantity or quality of DNA could have made him love her any more than he did.)</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
10/22
<p>Though Ashley twice married brother Jack’s archenemy Victor Newman, she conceived the tycoon’s daughter Abby the new-fashioned way: by stealing a specimen of his spunk and having herself impregnated.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI, Chris D/JPI
11/22
<p>After learning that she couldn’t have children with husband Chance Chancellor (or at all), Abby recruited pals Mariah Copeland and Devon Hamilton to make her a baby. Which they did — welcome to the world, Dominic — albeit not at all like in the photo above. (Of note: People <em>do</em> still have sex in Genoa City sometimes.)</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
12/22
<p>It wasn’t easy for John’s younger daughter Traci to grow up in glamtastic Ashley’s shadow. And making it even harder were the times — so… many… times — when her husband, gardener-turned-exec Brad Carlton, got it in his head, among other parts of his anatomy, that Ashley was the sister that he really wanted.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
13/22
<p>At least Traci’s on-again/off-again relationship with Brad left her with a lovely parting gift: their daughter Colleen, who sadly was reunited with her late father after getting caught in the crosshairs of one of Victor’s more fiendishly harebrained schemes against Jack.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)
14/22
<p>John’s kids were fit to be tied when he decided to put a ring on the finger of much-younger gold digger Jill Foster (Deborah Adair on the left, current portrayer Jess Walton on the right). But if they thought that he couldn’t choose a more objectionable wife, boy, did they have another think coming. The fates were all like…</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
15/22
<p>John’s fourth and final wife, Gloria Fisher, was probably the only person in history that Jack detested as much as he did Victor. But at least he waited until his old man was dead to have an affair with her. (He hadn’t been nearly so thoughtful where Jill was concerned!)</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
16/22
<p>Sure, maybe Jill <em>did</em> rain down upon the Abbotts an amount of heartache that could rival Dina’s. On the plus side, though, she added to the family tree a branch for her and John’s son, Billy… which now that we type it, we realize is probably at best a mixed blessing, considering his penchant for troublemaking.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
17/22
<p>Billy (then Billy Miller) was probably never going to lose his boyish impetuousness. (Spoiler alert: He still hasn’t.) But he made great strides, you have to admit, while he had in his life Delia, his ill-fated daughter with Chloe Mitchell. Now can you please scroll down to the next photo; we don’t want you to see us cry.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
18/22
<p>Origin stories don’t get much more convoluted than Johnny’s. You ready for this? Here we go. While Chelsea Lawson was being paid by Victor to stick a fork in his daughter’s relationship du jour, the conwoman raped Victoria’s significant other Billy, then gave her parental rights to the resulting tyke to the couple she was intended to break up.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
19/22
<p>Oh, Katie, you’re gonna have to try a lot harder if you want to top Johnny’s origin story. Mom Victoria simply didn’t know when her daughter was born whether Billy or Stitch Rayburn should be handing out cigars. But since Katie’s included in this Abbott family gallery, you can probably do the math on how that question was answered.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
20/22
<p>You could blame Theo Vanderway for a lotta things — the guy never met a pot he wouldn’t stir — but <em>not</em> the fact that he turned out to be the son of Dina’s illegitimate son with Stuart Brooks. Mind you, that did <span style="text-decoration: line-through">little</span> nothing to prevent Kyle from constantly telling his cousin that wasn’t an Abbott. We got it, Kyle; you didn’t like anyone in the family having hair as remarkably thick as yours.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
21/22
<p>For whom will a new Christmas stocking need to be hung first at the Abbotts’ holiday parties? Our money’s on a baby for Kyle and the love of his life, Summer Newman. But we wouldn’t count out the possibility of Jack having a late-in-life child, either. That is, after all, how John wound up offering parental guidance to a teenage Billy when he was in his 60s!</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
22/22
