Tracey E. Bregman Looks Back at Three Decades on ‘The Young & The Restless’

"Michael and I did a music video together and the first concert [on Y&R]. After that, Patty [Weaver, ex-Gina] and Beth were in our concerts,” Bregman recalled. While her childhood was musical — her father, the late Buddy Bregman, was a producer/arranger/composer — “I grew up singing show tunes. So to suddenly sing popular music wasn’t as comfortable for me.”

The romance between Paul and Lauren began with a twist. “Lauren’s father hired Paul for security,” said her portrayer. “Neil [Fenmore] had cut off Lauren’s funds, and she was shoplifting in his store. Paul arrested Lauren!” Bregman says Doug Davidson always got her into trouble on the set. “He would say something hilarious and I would laugh, and [the crew] would start screaming at me! He was always the golden boy, and I was always the bad one. I was like, ‘If he wasn’t so funny, I would be concentrating!’”

Bregman revealed that she and Christian Jules LeBlanc (Michael) were the ones who begged the powers that be to put their characters together. “We always clicked and were so sure Lauren and Michael would work on screen,” she remembers with a smile. “So we decided that every scene that we did together, we’d play sex! We were doing the storyline where Kevin was infatuated with Lauren... After watching Christian and I on screen, [Y&R] finally agreed to pair us, [and now] we dance between scenes!” Or do yoga!

“Brad had a heart attack while having sex with Lauren!” Bregman recalled with a laugh. “They had a full-on massive sexual affair where I had to wear all sorts of lingerie and he was taking my clothes off. We rolled over everything!” Brad’s portrayer, Don Diamont, now plays Bill Spencer Jr. on B&B. “We catch up in the hall. He is so funny and so sweet!” she shares. “Strangely enough, Don plays the son of Bill Spencer, who [was portrayed by Jim Storm] who played my father, Neil Fenmore!”

"I was so confused as to who was who in this story!” Bregman laughed, noting that Michelle Stafford (ex-Phyllis; now GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Nina) was playing Sheila, who’d had plastic surgery to look like Phyllis. “In this scene, I had to get a fire extinguisher off the wall, break down a door, run in and use the gun like I know what I’m doing! And my hair is doing a CHARLIE’S ANGELS thing, where it kept getting stuck in my lipgloss!”

I’m not a bridesmaid — I’m just in a puffy, pink dress,” Bregman admitted, looking at this pic of her character at the grand wedding between Nikki and Victor. “It’s always fun to be with everybody, but it’s never fun to do these [big event] shoots in heels! I think Uggs would hurt at the end of a wedding scene!”

While Lauren/Michael fans might have been upset when she found herself under the spell of sexy Carmine, Bregman confided that she and LeBlanc enjoyed the intense storyline. “It was based on the Diane Lane/Richard Gere movie Unfaithful. It was about, ‘How far would you go to protect your family?’ Christian and I were so excited to play such an emotionally rich story."

As the Lauren/Sheila feud raged on, Bregman said that she and Sheila’s portrayer, Kimberlin Brown, became so good at doing their fight scenes that they could forego using stunt doubles. “We were working with real fire pokers and knives, and I was always in heels and bugle beads!” she laughs. “I would slide off things! Thank God Kimberlin was great in those scenes and helped me through!”

“I can’t believe the world still turns without Jeanne Cooper (Katherine),” Bregman lamented of her co-star, who passed away in 2013. “My dressing room was above hers, so I would put my stuff down every morning and go say hi to her.” The flame-haired beauty added that Peter Bergman (Jack) has been “my lunch buddy for years and also my parental sounding board. His kids were older than mine, and he was the one who literally held my hand through my son going to college because I cried every day!”

“I was the original mean girl,” remembered Bregman. “And it was so hard to be mean to Beth Maitland (Traci)! Our characters fought over Michael Damian (ex-Danny). It was a huge love triangle.”

Fans were skeptical over the twist that suddenly had Lauren and Jill discovering that they were sisters. However, the actresses managed to create a wonderful sibling dynamic that few question today. “I think because [Jess Walton and I] love each other so much off camera, it comes across on camera,” mused Bregman. “We have so much fun working together. I call her ‘Sissy,’ and she calls me ‘Little Sis.’"

“Peter [Barton, ex-Scott] and I were very close, although I used to say that it was very disconcerting doing scenes with a man whose hips were smaller than mine!” laughs Bregman. “During our storyline, my character was having an affair with Paul.” When the actress became pregnant, “Peter could always make [son] Austin move, and Doug had just had his first baby, so he was better to talk to than my doctor!

Bregman’s alter ego has been involved in countless love affairs throughout the years, but she confided that when Y&R had Lauren and Cane circling in the same romantic orbit for a nanosecond, Lane fans were ready to tar and feather her! “I couldn’t believe it!” she laughs. “But I understood. They were very protective of Lily and Cane, just like Michael and Lauren fans are protective of Christian and me!”

“I loved working with John [McCook, Eric, B&B] except he is so hilariously
funny, by the time we shot the scene, my face would be squidgy from laughing so hard!” confessed the Emmy winner, who shared the screen with McCook when she brought Lauren to B&B. “My character was best friends with Susan Flannery’s character [Stephanie], and she was remarrying John’s character when he and Lauren ended up having an affair,” she recounts. “Stephanie and Eric opened the bible, and there was a picture of him and Lauren in bed together!” Last year, McCook crossed over to Y&R for an episode, with Eric helping Lauren out financially. “I loved that they did that because we have so much history together, and we had so much fun!”

“I love every single person in this shot,” Bregman proclaimed of the Baldwin-Fisher clan, which includes co-stars Greg Rikaart (ex-Kevin), Judith Chapman (Gloria), LeBlanc and Max Ehrich (ex-Fenmore). “I have an annual Christmas party that I call the Grifters’ Christmas, which is for my TV family. I love that they put all the bad characters in one family — that’s what made it so fun!” While Ehrich hasn’t popped into Genoa City for a while, Bregman actually sees her TV son all the time. “Max lives in the apartment over my garage!” she revealed with a laugh. “I have breakfast with Max almost every day! My youngest son moved out, and I was like, ‘I have no kids here...’ then Max moved in! It’s fun!”

“She’s one in a million!” declared Bregman of Susan Seaforth Hayes, who played Lauren’s mother, Joanna. “We worked together on DAYS OF OUR LIVES when I was 14, although we weren’t in the same storyline.” (Bregman was Donna; Hayes is still Julie.) Y&R’s co-creator, the late William J. Bell, introduced the Joanna character to “explain why Lauren was a bully,” explained Bregman. “It was those scenes where Lauren talks about growing up without a mother that I won the Emmy for. I wish they’d bring [Susan] back more!”