Things are heating up between The Young and the Restless‘ Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor) and Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle), who take their relationship to the next level on the Thursday, August 27 episode.
Heinle admits the pairing initially caught her off guard — although, in retrospect, there may have been some early signs that something was brewing.
“At one point a while back, I noticed Kyle was always coming to talk to Victoria or we’d run into each other and I told Michael, ‘I don’t think they would ever put us together, but this is kind of funny because it feels like they’re trying to test our chemistry, which would be really, really odd,’” she recalls. “But that memory passed quickly. And then I walked off set one day after finishing a scene with Michael and I got called up to our executive producer, Sally McDonald’s, office and she said, ‘We’re giving you a romance with him.’ And I’m like, ‘Who?’ And she said, ‘Him,’ and she pointed at the monitor because Michael was still on set. I was like, ‘Oh, OK. Are you sure?’ And she was like, ‘Uh-huh. Yup. You’ve got chemistry.’”
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Once McDonald filled Heinle in on where the story was headed, the actress embraced the idea. “I thought, ‘You know, it could be really interesting. It could cause a lot of drama in Genoa City, and I’ve never done anything like this before,’” Heinle recalls. “So, the more I sat there and thought about it, the more I was like, ‘I’m just going to throw myself into this because what an opportunity. I’m just going to do my best.’”
Heinle also wanted to make sure Mealor was on the same page about their new pairing. “I walked up to him one day on set when I found out and said, ‘Do you know about this yet?’” she relays. “And he was like, ‘Yeah,’ and then I said, ‘So, are you OK?’ And he said, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘I’m good. I think we could make something out of this,’ and he said, ‘I do, too. I plan on leaning into it all.’ So, we were in agreement. Michael and I have always gotten along. We’ve always liked each other.”
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Despite the age difference between Kyle and Victoria, Heinle sees plenty of common ground between the characters and several reasons why they would be drawn to one another. “They are both extremely invested in their families, very loyal to their fathers and both very ambitious in business,” she observes. “That’s what kind of brought them together in the first place, but I also think they’re both lonely. Kyle doesn’t really have anyone. Victoria lost Cole [Howard, who died in 2025]. Sometimes you meet someone, and for whatever reason, you’re put in their path, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I really like this person. There’s something here.’ So, I feel like what has happened between them.”
That connection has intensified, leading to their lovemaking this week. “When they almost kissed [a few weeks ago], they realized in that moment that there’s something there,” Heinle points out. “And then it kind of escalates quickly after that.”
Their newfound attraction, however, comes with a major complication: Kyle previously dated Victoria’s daughter, Claire Newman (Hayley Erin), and even proposed to her.
“I don’t think it really hits Victoria yet,” notes Heinle. “It happens so fast in the story, where they start connecting and then one thing leads to another. I think there are a couple of instances where Victoria talks to Claire and gets her to admit that she’s really over Kyle, in a very subtle way, just to make sure. And also, part of her, I’m sure, is feeling a little guilty, but she doesn’t quite want to admit that yet. They’re going to just keep it a secret, and it’s the furthest thing from their minds that anyone will ever find out. It’s still in the beginning, so they’re not talking about their feelings yet. They’re just having a lot of fun right now.”
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Erin, for her part, is relishing the potential chaos just as much as Heinle is. “She thinks it’s amazing,” Heinle reports. “She’s like, ‘Oh, my God. This is so great. It’s gonna be such a mess. It’s gonna cost so much. Everybody’s going to flip out.’ We’re hoping they drag it out so that the families don’t know for a while, because I think that adds to the drama, to really prolong the anticipation of when somebody is going to find out.”
For Heinle, it’s precisely those complications that make the new romance so intriguing. “I would think it would be fun to watch because this is something you would never have imagined happening to these two characters,” she says. “The things that we say to each other are fun and cute, and it’s a real love affair. It’s really, really cool. The age difference and the family dynamic add a juicy layer to it, and it’s just going to get worse and better and all the things all at once.”
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After more than two decades in Genoa City, Heinle appreciates the opportunity to take Victoria in a direction she never expected. “I didn’t see this coming,” she notes. “And sometimes, I’m doing the same thing, and it’s fine. I’m happy to be working. But I’m really grateful to Sally, our executive producer. She’s always giving me chances to do things, and I really feel like she sort of stuck her neck out for this story. Everybody in the studio likes it, and they’re laughing and excited about it.”
As for where Victoria and Kyle go from here, Heinle says the story is still taking shape, which could leave plenty of room for fireworks.
“It’s not going to be boring, that’s for sure,” she muses. “I feel like right now with the new writers coming in, it’s a work in progress. I feel like we’re seeing how it goes. They’re fully committed to it, but nothing is set in stone in terms of the story yet.”
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