Young & Restless Exclusive: Melissa Ordway Previews Chance and Abby’s Next Big Challenge, Plus the Advice She Gave Her New ‘Husband’
“It’s definitely a difficult situation!”
One might think that The Young and the Restless‘ Abby Newman has an enviable life… but in some ways, hers is more a cautionary tale. Despite being born into a life of privilege — what with her mom being an Abbott and her dad being not just a Newman but the Victor Newman — hers has not always been an easy existence. This has especially proven true over the past year, when she went from joyously exchanging vows with her true love to… well, crying an awful lot.
“Yeah, things went south pretty quickly after the wedding,” concedes portrayer Melissa Ordway with a laugh. “She and Chance really didn’t have an opportunity to get to know one another as man and wife before the trouble started.”
More: Soaps’ best weddings of all time [PHOTOS]
What a Difference a Year Makes
The “trouble” she refers to began with the newly-wed pair’s discovery that having a baby would prove far more difficult than either could have imagined. And no sooner had they settled on the notion of surrogacy than Chance was summoned out of town on a mysterious mission which kept him from communicating with his wife even as she — with an assist from Devon and Mariah — brought baby Dominic into the world.
Despite everything, one thing never changed, and that was Abby’s unwavering love for her new husband… to the point that when everyone else believed him dead, she refused to accept that he’d been taken away from her. Now, they’ve been reunited and everything is hunky dory… right?
Erm, not so fast.
“A lot has changed over the past year,” muses Ordway. “Abby kind of had a break from being married. Chance was gone for almost a year, and she’s not the same person she was when he left. She’s been through a lot, and what she’s been through had a big impact on her. And of course, everything that he went through changed him as well. So it’s almost as if the two of them have to figure out who they are together after everything that happened while they were apart.”
More: Chance’s life — lives? — in photos
‘Nothing Is the Same Now’
Interestingly, viewers are also having to get reacquainted with the couple, especially given that newcomer Conner Floyd is now walking in Chance’s shoes. “He definitely brings his own energy to the part, which is fantastic,” raves Ordway. “I’m a recast, too, so I told him that the last thing you want to do is come in and try to do a copycat version of what the previous person did. You’re just not going to be successful at it, so don’t try. Everyone is different in the way that they speak and the way that they move, so you have to find your own rhythm with the character.”
Floyd is no doubt helped by the fact that Chance has, in some ways, come home a different man. “Abby being the optimist that she is imagined that the three of them would live happily ever after in their mansion and, because they are so in love, everything would be perfect,” says Ordway. “But she’s finding out that’s not the case. He suffered the loss of many of his team mebers in the explosion. And he wasn’t there when Abby was dealing with Mariah’s pregnancy and her kidnapping and having to be a single mom. It’s not like Chance just walks back in and they pick things up where they left off, because nothing is the same now!”
Do you think Chance and Abby will be able to find their way back to the happiness they once shared, or might everything that’s happened find them drifting apart? Perhaps by taking them on a stroll down Memory Lane via the photo gallery below, we can remind them of not only how they fell in love but what they’ve managed to overcome in the past!
