Hope for Young & Restless’ ‘Ashtoria’? He’s Throwing Her Off and Leaving Her ‘a Little Confused’
Monday, April 11th, 2022
Victoria is finding it harder and harder to stick a fork in her marriage.
Young & Restless spoilers for the week ahead reveal that Victoria will be setting in motion a revenge plan. But will she end up hitting the brakes on it sooner than later?
Despite the fact that Ashland betrayed his wife in pretty much the grossest way possible — you know, the big, awful cancer lie — she’s having a tough time admitting that they are T-H-R-O-U-G-H. And he’s only made it tougher for her by suggesting that they run away together instead of taking the bait and framing Adam for his misdeed. “That causes Victoria to wonder out loud if Ashland is really sincere” about his feelings for her, Amelia Heinle tells Soap Opera Digest. “Is it possible to be that ruthless, but he still genuinely loves her?
“That has her a little confused,” she adds.
It also has her family a lot worried. Victor, unaware of how much he sounds like the pot calling the kettle black, argues that Ashland only thinks of himself. He didn’t care about Victoria, much less love her. “She reminds [her father] how Nikki always loved [him] at his worst,” says Heinle, “so it’s not a stretch to understand where Victoria is coming from.”
The question now is, where is she going? Back to the spouse who thumbed his nose at their marriage vows… or all the way with her plot to banish him from her life forever?
Check out photos that revisit all of Victoria’s (many) past loves in the scrapbook below.
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)
1/18
<p>When Cupid first took aim at Victoria (then Heather Tom, now Katie Logan on <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>), she might not have been quite ready. Though she eagerly gave her hand in marriage to older man Ryan McNeil, she had trouble giving him her body. No portrait of maturity himself, Ryan wound up straying into the arms of Phillip Chancellor’s “widow,” Nina Webster.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)
2/18
<p>Victoria’s second turn on the marry-go-’round wasn’t much more successful than her first. Not only did she have her own mother, Nikki, as a formidable rival for the affections of novelist Cole Howard, she learned only after they had eloped that — d’oh — they might well be half siblings. (Spoiler alert: They weren’t.)</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
3/18
<p>Marriage No. 2 was no more successful for Victoria than marriage No. 1 had been. She kept leaving town, which gave Cole ample opportunity to fall for her sometime stepmother, Ashley Abbott. In response, Victoria passed off their ill-fated offspring as her child with newly-minted fiancé Neil Winters.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, Lisa Rose/JPI
4/18
<p>You would have sworn that Victoria was out to prove that she had abysmal taste in men when she became infatuated with marketing whiz Gary Dawson… who turned out to have made her his unwitting co-star in a two-person production of <em>Fatal Attraction.</em></p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
5/18
<p>Suspicious of sister-in-law Sharon Newman’s involvement with Diego Guittierez, Victoria pretended to be hot for the insanely sexy fella himself. Shocker: She fell for him. Of course, it was then that she learned that he and Sharon really had canoodled. Argh!</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
6/18
<p>When dad Victor’s (latest, we should add) illegal activities came to light, Victoria was thisclose to beginning a new life with Michael Baldwin. Too verklempt to hang around Genoa City with the scandal hanging over her head like a guillotine, Victoria went abroad, leaving her lawyer lover in the dust.</p>
Image: Brian Lowe/JPI
7/18
<p>When Victoria returned to Genoa City (now played by Amelia Heinle), she accepted a marriage proposal from Brad Carlton (Don Diamont, now Bill Spencer on<em> The Bold and the Beautiful</em>)… only because he had been shot down by his true love, Sharon. As you can imagine — if you gave Sharon a hundred pairs of scissors, she couldn’t cut ties with any of the men who’ve been fixated on her — it didn’t go well.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
8/18
<p>While Brad added to a bottomless list of excuses to hang with and mack on Sharon, Victoria succumbed to the charms of the private eye she hired to investigate them — one J.T. Hellstrom, with whom she ultimately tied the knot (as did Heinle and his portrayer, Thad Luckinbill).</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
9/18
<p>During a tough time in J.T. and Victoria’s marriage, she — as so many other women have before (and lived to regret it!) — fell prey to the charms of opportunistic Deacon Sharpe. No, Victoria. Just back the hell away from the hot, hot mistake. Back. Away.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
10/18
<p>Once J.T. was in the rearview mirror, Victoria threw sparks with her daddy’s worst nightmare, “Billy Boy” Abbott (then Billy Miller). In retaliation, Victor had her arrested on the day of the lovers’ wedding. When really, probably a subpar toaster would have sufficed as an adequate burn.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
11/18
<p>Victoria had a shot at a totally clean slate with Ben Rayburn but wound up once again vying with occasional stepmom Ashley for his attentions. Mind you, the real threat to their togetherness turned out to be Ashley’s daughter, Victoria’s half sister, Abby.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
12/18
<p>It wasn’t just the cocktails that Hank’s Bar drink slinger Travis Crawford mixed that Victoria found intoxicating. But, though there was more to him than met the hangover, their relationship was labeled “dead end.”</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
13/18
<p>Viewers saw a lot of potential is Victoria’s hookup with billionaire playboy Benjamin Hochman. The show? Not so much. So, despite the lovers’ off-the-charts chemistry — and the fact that he was putty in, or <em>on</em>, her hands — their fling remained just that: a fling.</p>
Image: XT Arroyo/JPI
14/18
<p>Scruffy musician Brandon Rose rocked and presumably also rolled Victoria’s world. But his opening number was also his swan song. After their Vegas tryst, he wasn’t invited to, ahem, perform an encore. </p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
15/18
<p>In 2021, Victoria seemed to think that she and Billy (now Jason Thompson) were endgame. His new squeeze, Lily Winters, thought otherwise. She didn’t say, “Been there, done that,” but c’mon, we were all thinking it.</p>
Image: CBS screenshot
16/18
<p>A supposedly dying Ashland Locke (originally Richard Burgi) resuscitated Victoria’s love life. But if he turned out to really deserve his ominous nickname — the Locke Ness Monster — she would come to regret mixing business and pleasure with the dashing older man.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
17/18
<p>Yep, Victoria <em>did</em> come to regret mixing business and pleasure with the dashing older man (later Robert Newman). At least after his epic lie was revealed, she couldn’t be bothered to get too choked up over his untimely demise. <em>Not</em> from cancer, we might add.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
18/18
