The Young and the Restless News Update: Beth Maitland On Traci and Brad’s Love Story

No one on The Young and the Restless has racked up more frequent flier miles than Traci Abbott. As viewers are seeing in this week’s episodes dedicated to the Abbott clan, Traci, who moved to New York, often returned to Genoa City for family gatherings, which is always a treat for Beth Maitland fans.

Beth Maitland Looks Back

She’s already been back to celebrate her family regaining control of Jabot Cosmetics. On Wednesday, she comes back to check on her daughter Colleen (Lyndsy Fonseca), who’s staying with her father, Brad (Don Diamont, now Bill on The Bold and the Beautiful), who has now moved on romantically to Traci’s sister Ashley (Eileen Davidson).

“[Colleen] was trying to be independent and she was becoming reckless,” Maitland recently explained to TV Insider. “She was acting out and was being defiant. The tension [in this episode] comes from Traci seeing her daughter in Brad’s home.”

Years later, Brad tragically died while saving Noah (Kevin Schmidt) from drowning in an icy lake. Prior to that, Brad and Traci shared some final scenes at the Genoa City Athletic Club in which he told his ex that she was the one who got away.

“That scene was so revelatory,” Beth Maitland recalled. “To have the opportunity — decades after we first started working together – to do a scene like that and bring things full circle? That doesn’t get to happen anywhere else but on daytime.”

Longtime Brad and Traci fans were hoping that the couple would someday reunite and that they were each other’s soulmates. Maitland feels that Brad was Traci’s but can’t definitively say it was a two-way street. “I’m not sure about Brad as he had many other pairings – Ashley, Lauren (Tracey Bregman), Cassandra Rawlins (Nina Arvesen) – but Traci definitely saw him as the one who got away,” Maitland notes.

“After they split up, she went on with her life and tried to find some sort of happiness,” the actress adds. “I’ve learned in my own life that you can only be responsible for yourself. You cannot control anybody else’s choices, feelings, or decisions. You can only be true to yourself. This is what defines us – how we deal with circumstances over which we have no control!”

YR is devoting this entire week to episodes highlighting the Abbott clan. The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. Check local listings for air times.