Michelle Stafford Teases ‘Many Things to Come’ as Roger Howarth Joins Her Orbit on Y&R
The recent revelation that Matt Clark is suffering from amnesia on Young and Restless creates new storyline possibilities for portrayer Roger Howarth, and in a recent Instagram video, co-star Michelle Stafford (Phyllis) teased that something could be brewing between their alter egos.
Reunited and It Feels So Good
The actress shared a selfie video she took while sitting in the hair and makeup chair at Y&R, with Howarth sitting in another chair across the room, also being made camera-ready. “Me and the GOAT 🙌🙌🙌” she wrote in the caption, referring to her castmate as the “Greatest of All Time.” “Let the games begin.”
The clip begins with the end of their conversation, and Stafford looks into the camera to declare, “Here I am with the great…” She pans the camera over to Howarth, who gestures towards the camera, before turning it back on herself as she whispers, “Roger Howarth,” and then puts her finger to her lips as she playfully adds, “Shhhhh.”
The actress then teases, “Many, many things to come,” before panning back over to Roger, who gives the camera a wave. When she laughs that “he’s a man of few words,” Howarth gestures to his ear to joke that he can’t hear anything she’s saying from the other side of the room.
Before Howarth made his debut in the October 31, 2025, episode of Y&R, Stafford was already expressing her excitement at the Daytime Emmy winner joining the cast alongside fellow Genoa City newcomer Tamara Braun (Sienna). “Not only because these two are extraordinary actors, but because they are my friends!” she enthused in another Instagram post.
Stafford previously worked with Howarth on General Hospital. He was playing Franco Baldwin when she joined the ABC soap in 2014 for a five-year run as Nina Reeves. Their characters were involved in a rather unconventional love story that kicked off when the characters were fugitives. In the storyline, Franco ran away to Canada with Nina to raise the baby she’d stolen from Ava (Maura West) at birth. After being apprehended, the characters were committed to a mental institution, where their bond deepened and they shared their first kiss.
“I’ll be honest — that storyline is definitely in the top two storylines that I’ve done in daytime,” Stafford told Soap Opera Digest in 2023 of the unorthodox Franco/Nina pairing. “I know it was riddled with traps. I know that we were away from the rest of the canvas. I know that, but to me a love story told in a psych ward was really cool and interesting.” She also praised Howarth as a “very inventive and complex” actor.
Ironically, during a rough patch in Franco and Nina’s relationship in 2015, she impulsively ran off and married scheming Ric Lansing, played by Rick Hearst. Hearst was the last actor to play Matt Clark, with his own Y&R stint lasting from 2000-01.
Now that Matt has no memories of his identity or the horrible crimes he’s committed in the past, he’s hoping to find some answers in Genoa City. But what might happen if Matt and Phyllis find themselves in each other’s orbits? Share your predictions in the comments below!
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