‘Y&R’ Star Christel Khalil Dishes on Cane’s Dumas Reveal and the End of Lily’s ‘Dry Spell’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Daytime Emmy-winner talks summer drama, ‘Days’ alum Billy Flynn and love stories
With Cane revealed to be Aristotle Dumas and Lily going on the defensive in Nice on The Young and the Restless, Daytime Emmy-winner Christel Khalil talks to Woman’s World about what this means for her character and how Days or Our Lives ex-pat Billy Flynn is making the role created by Daniel Goddard his own.
The 37 years young soap opera beauty who’s spent over half her life on The Young and the Restless also reflects on growing up in daytime alongside former teen scene costars Bryton James and Daniel Grazeidei.
Plus, with summer upon us, Khalil gets candid about the challenges of traveling with a toddler.
‘Y&R’ star Christel Khalil talks that kiss with Damian—‘Lily’s finally got some action!’
We’re not sure what kind of response Billy Flynn’s Cane Ashby expected when he finally revealed himself to be Dumas on The Young and the Restless… but he sure wasn’t expecting Lily to plant a kiss on someone else!
“Lily’s finally got some action after—what has it been? My God, a two-year dry spell,” cracks Christel Khalil. “This is a facet of Lily that we haven’t gotten to see in a long time. It’s just been a lot of focusing on business stuff, so it’s nice to have that personal connection again.”
That personal connection is, of course, with returned Cane, not Damian! While that kiss may confuse the confidant who’s clearly caught feeling for her, Lily’s hoping it also sent her ex a very clear message.
“She’s on the defensive, trying to protect herself, her company, and the kids from Cane,” Khalil explains. “He keeps telling her that there’s no threat to Winters, that she’s safe, that he wants to be with her, and she’s like, ‘That’s not happening. Ever!’ She just doesn’t trust him—and for good reason, right? He’s been lying to everybody for the past six years, including their kids and her. Why would she believe anything he says?”
‘Y&R’ star Christel Khalil is ‘super excited’ to reboot Lily and Cane’s relationship
For months, The Young and the Restless viewers and Genoa City locals were trying to figure out who this mysterious Dumas would be—and it turns out, for much of that time, the cast was playing the same game.
“We were all guessing, and I would say Tucker was probably the front runner,” Khalil reveals. “Lily thought that, too. Even I thought that, myself.”
Unlike Lily, however, the actress was not sorry to learn she was wrong and that one of Lily’s great loves was returning to canvas.
“I was super excited, because Cane was such a big character and obviously, huge for my storyline,” she says. “Theirs was just a real love story. We came together, were torn apart, and then came back together. It’s kind of like Carrie and Big in Sex and the City, right? It’s that relationship where you’re always rooting for them, even when they’re not together.
“I’m excited to be able to play that again,” she adds. “It should be good!”
‘Y&R’ star Christel Khalil talks Billy Flynn’s ‘new’ Cane
As viewers have already seen, however, this Cane is a bit different—and not just because he’s being played by Days of Our Lives favorite Billy Flynn, who left the role of Chad to take on the role Daniel Goddard played by for over a decade.
“Even though the history is there, Cane is kind of a revamped character,” Khalil says. “I think that makes it easier, because it’s not like we’re trying to recreate something that was. Instead, we’re picking up where these characters are at the present moment, so I can build my own chemistry with Billy, instead of trying to recreate what Daniel Goddard and I had.”
Meanwhile, as Cane tries to win Lily back, Lily recently joked to Damian that she’s lucky in cards because she’s not so lucky in love. Despite having gotten to play some epic love stories, Khalil can’t disagree with that.
“Daniel, Cane, Kevin and Billy have been big loves in her life, and it’s always ended in some betrayal,” she says. “Even her dad and her uncle were a betrayal. Finding out that Neil wasn’t her dad, but Malcolm was? That was huge, so it’s been just one betrayal after another she’s had to deal with.”
‘Y&R’ star Christel Khalil gets nostalgic about her teen scene days
Having spent over half her life on the show, Khalil first appeared as Drucilla and Neil Winters rebellious daughter at only 14.
“It was a lot of drama that was all about family, which is always much deeper and more fun to play,” she recalls. “All of that relationship stuff, like finding out my dad was not my dad, was great.
“I like the stories where I get to really sink my teeth into something and there’s a big emotional risk,” she adds. “So I loved the cancer storyline, later, too. That was amazing because it was something new for me, and I know it touched a lot of people.”
While there was plenty of Winters’ family drama during those early years, Khalil was also swept into the risky emotional world of the Genoa City teen scene storylines—like the one that saw young Lily get Chlamydia from Greg Rikaart’s creepy older Kevin and that time Lily and Michael Graziadei’s Daniel went on the run.
“I remember during the summer, we all got to come together and be kind of the frontrunners of the show for a couple months,” Khalil recalls. “Those were really, really good times!”
Why ‘Y&R’ star Christel Khalil wants to see siblings Lily and Devon squabble
While Khalil has had some lovely leading men, the one who’s lasted by her side the longest is Bryton James—who is her character’s adopted brother and in the real world, her eldest son’s godfather.
“Bryton and I feel like brother and sister in real life,” she shares. “We’ve been there for each other since the beginning and seen each other through everything in our lives, on screen and off screen. It’s been really special to be able to build those types of relationships on the show.
“It’s also always nice when Lily and Devon are at odds with each other,” she adds. “We never get to play that and when you’re that close with somebody, it’s always fun to play the opposite.”
‘Y&R’s star and boy mom Christel Khalil talks traveling with a toddler
While she’s grown up in Genoa City, over the decades, Khalil has gone for laughs in That’s So Raven, 2 Broke Girls and the indie We Need to Talk, popped up on Lifetime in Sorority Stalker, and lent her voice to the animated series W.I.T.C.H. Right now, however, Khalil has no side projects in the works.
“Oh no, just my children—that’s work enough,” laughs the actress, who has a 15-year-old and a baby at home.
The working mom who’s shared epic travel pics via Instagram over the years reveals she’s also staying local these days, for the most part.
“Seeing family during Christmas and in the summer, that’s unavoidable,” she says. “I just have to plug my nose and get on the plane, but it’s tough! My youngest is a year and a half, so at that age, you can’t really bribe them. They’re not really interested in TV or watching a movie. He just wants to get up, walk around and move, so I can’t be on a plane that long with him. I think it’s just hard before the age of three…”
‘Y&R’ Christel Khalil talks summering in “Nice” with Cane Ashby and friends
Luckily, Khalil didn’t have to wait a year and a half to get on a plan and summer in Nice this year—Cane and The Young and the Restless have whisked us all there for an extended stay!
“The weather’s amazing,” Khalil deadpans to Woman’s World, before letting out a laugh. “Honestly, it’s been a nice change of pace to have a different environment on the show. The maze stuff has been really fun and the way the set decorators did the train car, it’s so beautiful and the lighting is amazing. It really does feel like you are somewhere else.”
That must be part of Cane’s grand plan… whatever that plan is!
And while Khalil isn’t getting to tussle with her big brother Bryton James these days, she is having a blast rumbling with newcomer Billy Flynn and getting into it with another onset pal—Mishael Morgan, who’s character Amanda helped Cane pull one over on Lily and everyone else in Genoa City.
Lily’s summer on the Young and the Restless is just cheating up!
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