Why Y&R’s Victor Newman Is Really So Hostile Towards Sally Spectra

Victor Newman has always hated whomever his respective children are dating on The Young and the Restless. There’s his distaste for Phyllis Summers, his taunting of “Billy Boy” Abbott, his wanting to commit Chelsea Lawson. But his hostility towards Sally Spectra puts them all to shame.

Victor Newman: Over the Top

He won’t use her name. He refers to her as “That Spectra Woman,” and “Your Seamstress.” Nicholas Newman (Joshua Morrow) called his dad out on it, but Victor (Eric Braeden) blustered a defense. We, however, suspect that something completely different is in play.

Young & Restless: Like Looking In a Mirror

Nick pointed out that Sally (Courtney Hope) is an ambitious, intelligent, self-made woman. That she came from nothing and succeeded based on pure determination and chutzpah. Just like Victor himself did. Doesn’t dear old dad usually admire folks like that?

Victor wasn’t swayed and, instead, told Nick that Sally once faked a terminal illness to hang onto a man who’d lost interest in her. Nick changed the subject — and politely didn’t remind Victor that his mother, Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott), did the exact same thing to keep Victor from leaving her for Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson).

Victor Newman: Second Edition

And therein lies the rub. Sally is very, very, very similar to the love of Victor’s life. Sally may be a “seamstress.” But Nikki was a stripper. One Victor fell in…some word that starts with an L…after seeing her in action, moved into his mansion, then turned the common girl into a lady of the manor.

Could all of Victor’s disproportionate distaste for Sally be coming from his unspoken attraction to her? After all, she is everything Nikki was…but younger. And Victor does like them young. Nikki was younger than him. Ashley was even younger. And, at one point, Victor was even married to a schoolmate of Victoria’s. Oh, and to Nick’s high school girlfriend, Sharon Rosales (Sharon Case).

Like Matthew McConaughey’s character in Dazed and Confused, Victor gets older…his conquests stay the same. Sally is next in line. And Victor hates himself for it. Except that he expresses it by hating her.

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

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