Y&R’s Melissa Claire Egan Shares What She Would Have Said

The Young and the Restless star Melissa Claire Egan was one of three women nominated from the soap for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Ultimately, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy Forrester Finnegan, The Bold and the Beautiful) won the statue this year, but Egan gave some insight into what she would have said if she’d been the one who won.

Melissa Claire Egan: If She’d Won

The actress who portrays Chelsea Lawson submitted scenes from when her character nearly jumped to her death, and Billy (Jason Thompson) helped her. (Refresh your memory on the dark storyline here.) The moments were heavy and hit home for many viewers.

Egan took to her Instagram stories after the Daytime Emmys celebration was over. She said, “I truly feel so lucky to be a working actor, period. But being on The Young and the Restless for 12 years, I truly pinched myself.

“So it would have been nice to win,” she admitted. “But listen, Jacqueline’s amazing. I’m obsessed with her, so Godspeed to her because she’s fantastic. But, the God’s honest truth is what I really wanted to be able to say if I won was just that I felt very honored to be able to tell a story about mental health.

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“But the main thing I would have said if I had won, which I didn’t, is that truly being honored for any award or being nominated is fantastic,” Egan continued. “But the real reward is being able to tell a story that hopefully helps people, and that’s what we wanted to do with this story.

“So, the main thing I ever would have wanted to say if I had made it up on that stage is that…if you were out there hurting or suffering or struggling, which so many of us do and are especially around the holidays,” the actress noted. “Just please know that you are not alone and you are so loved, and you belong here, and please reach out to friends, please reach out to anybody if you’re hurting and struggling, and please know you’re not alone and you are so loved. So good night.”

If you are struggling with mental health this season, please know that there is help — text or Dial 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.