The Young and the Restless Character Recap: Adam Newman

The Young and the Restless‘ Adam Newman is a wolf in very attractive sheep’s clothing. And no matter what schemes this bad boy pulls in Genoa City, the ladies who love him always grant him forgiveness.

Who Is Adam Newman?

Born Victor Adam Newman, Jr, Adam is the only son of Victor Newman and Hope Adams and the half-brother of Victoria, Nicholas, and Abby Newman. Though his parents were wed at the time of his birth, Adam never knew Victor as a father, owing to Hope’s request for a divorce and subsequent marriage to Cliff Wilson.

Adam stayed on the farm until he left to attend Harvard Business School. When Hope was diagnosed with end-stage pancreatic cancer, she summoned father and son and insisted on revealing their true familial bond.

Bad, Bad Boy

Adam’s unfounded assumption that Victor had callously abandoned him and his mother, coupled with an inferiority complex, led him to seek unnecessary vengeance. He accepted an offer to join Newman Enterprises and used his position to usurp the CEO position when his father was presumed dead.

When Victor returned alive and well, Adam schemed with Jack Abbott to frame him for murder, but it was Adam who was eventually imprisoned for forgery. Upon being freed, Adam gained sympathy by purposefully damaging his eyesight and allowing everyone to believe he had inherited the same disease that rendered his mother blind.

He also took the opportunity to gaslight a mentally fragile Ashley Abbott, arguing that causing her harm punished both Jack (Ashley’s brother) and Victor (her on-again, off-again lover and the father of the child she was carrying).

When his actions resulted in Ashley’s unborn child dying in utero, a guilt-riddled Adam swapped the babe for one delivered by Sharon Newman! When his scheme was exposed, Adam faked his death and fled the country. When he was caught, he faked a mental breakdown and worked with fellow asylum patient Patty Williams to cause more chaos.

In a stunning reversal of fortune, Adam found himself framed for back-to-back murders. First, he stood accused of murdering his longtime lover – and current wife – Skye Lockhart. However, she was alive and well and working with Victor to set her husband up.

Then it appeared that he had killed Diane Jenkins, yet another partner-in-crime, but his stepmother, Nikki Newman, was the actual culprit. And though he may have been innocent of those crimes, it was indeed Adam who was responsible for the hit and run that cost young Delia Abbott her life.

Adam’s further machinations include perjury, violating a restraining order, impersonating Gabriel Bingham (the man whose visage and inheritance he stole), and tampering with Victor’s much-needed medication.

Ladies Man

Adam’s first significant relationship was with lawyer Heather Stevens, but his penchant for crime and her adherence to the law made for an impossible pairing. He then took back up with the aforementioned Skye—a former business school paramour—, but she eventually met an untimely end after falling into a volcano!

Subsequently, Adam fell for Sharon, once the object of his ire and the woman whose baby he substituted for Ashley’s. And despite the rather unsavory origins, the two actually spent time together as an inseparable twosome.

But it was reformed con-woman Chelsea Lawson who truly won Adam’s heart. He supported her decisions to search for her biological father and sign away her parental rights to the child that she shared with Billy Abbott. She accepted him for the man he was while also encouraging him to be the best version of himself.

They married in a private ceremony held inside Adam’s childhood home, started a business venture together, and weathered the loss of an unborn child, as well as Adam’s insistence on covering up Sharon’s burning down the Newman Ranch.

But love wasn’t enough. A divorce was eventually initiated, and once it was granted, a heavily pregnant Chelsea married Dylan McAvoy and insisted that he was her child’s father, despite knowing that it was actually Adam.

When Adam uncovered the truth, he forced Chelsea to collect Connor and move into his penthouse, rather than breed contempt. The proximity that Adam and Chelsea shared reignited the long-dormant spark that existed between them.

The two eventually reunited, but Delia’s death marred their happiness, Adam’s presumed death, and his return under the guise of Gabriel Bingham. The couple agreed to leave Genoa City for good, but Adam was presumed dead yet again, thanks to an explosion arranged by Chloe Fisher.

Adam Newman – Moving Forward

Adam survived the fiery inferno but suffered total amnesia. For years, he lived the life of Riley in Las Vegas under the name Spyder, but he was eventually located and talked into returning home.

Adam regained his memories and won back Chelsea’s affection. But the problems between Adam and his extended family still exist and he and Chelsea were embroiled in a scheme to blackmail Adam’s way into the CEO position at Newman Enterprises. Ultimately, Chelsea got upset, and she tried to frame Adam for killing Rey (Jordi Vilasuso), but it didn’t work.

Later, Adam ran Newman Media and hired Sally (Courtney Hope). The two got together, but he eventually broke up with her to save her from him. After she started dating his brother, Nick, Adam and Sally slept together. Sally got pregnant, and Adam was the father. She had a stillborn baby, leaving them grieving.

Eventually, Sally broke up with Nick, and she and Adam got back together. Shortly after she moved in with Adam, he slept with Chelsea as they worried over Connor’s (Judah Mackey) OCD diagnosis.