The Young and the Restless Exclusive: Camryn Grimes Thinks There’s Still Hope for ‘Teriah’
Tessa (Cait Fairbanks) wants to know if there’s any hope of repairing her marriage on Young and Restless, but Mariah is more focused on punishing herself for all of the hurt that she’s caused her family, first by running away and then by kidnapping little Dominic (Ethan Ray Clark). Camryn Grimes muses to Soap Opera Digest of Mariah’s state of mind, “I think healing is going to be a step-by-step process for her, and it’s going to have to come slowly and intentionally.”
Work in Progress
It was almost a year ago when Mariah returned from a business trip harboring a dark secret. Eventually, she confessed that she’d tried to kill someone, asked Tessa for a separation, then went to Boston to seek treatment. From there, Mariah checked herself out of the mental health facility and dropped off the radar. She was plagued by visions of Ian Ward (Ray Wise), which ultimately persuaded her to abduct Dominic, the baby she had given birth to as Devon (Bryton James) and Abby’s (Melissa Ordway) surrogate in 2021. Finally returning home to face the music, Mariah learned not only that Tessa had filed for divorce, but she had developed feelings for Daniel (Michael Graziadei).
However, Daniel got the strong sense that Tessa and Mariah have unfinished business. After getting Mariah to admit that she still loves Tessa and misses their family unit, he encouraged Tessa to get clarity on her true feelings for her wife. While she appears to be open to reconciling, the situation is more complex for Mariah, and Grimes says that before Mariah can even consider working on her marriage, she knows she has to work on herself.
“Speaking to who Mariah has become in the past 10 years of being in Genoa City, I think it’s safe to say that there’s going to be a fair amount of self-punishment and reckoning,” the actress explains. “I don’t think she’s a person who lets herself off easy and forgives herself very easily. Which is, I think, one of the reasons why [the events of the past year have] re-triggered her in the first place.
“There are deep, deep wounds there,” the actress continues. “I think she thought she healed them, and she didn’t. So this is going to be another thing that she’s going to have to contend with. And if she’s going to have any real healing, she’s going to have to get to the root of, honestly, her opinion of herself and who she really, really is.”
Don’t Give Up
Since Mariah and Tessa first met back in 2017, the two have been drawn to each other, and Grimes believes those feelings still exist. “Obviously, I’m never going to say no to these characters,” she declares. “I think they have a really, really special connection. You know, I’ll say this: If Nikki [Melody Thomas Scott] and Victor [Eric Braeden] can keep coming back to each other — not to compare the two; Nikki and Victor are iconic — just saying, if they can keep going back to each other, I think there’s absolutely a world in which these characters can heal and reconcile.”
Asked if she has any message for the loyal “Teriah” fans out there, Grimes laughs and jokes, “I’m sorry? Not my fault? I love you?” On a more serious note, she says, “I know it’s hard in moments like this to hold on. Just know that I love you. I’m always thinking about you guys, and I really, really deeply appreciate your care and love for both of these characters.”
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