The Young and the Restless’ Jason Thompson on Adam Delivering Billy’s Baby and What’s Ahead (Exclusive)

Adam (Mark Grossman) delivered Sally (Courtney Hope) and Billy’s (Jason Thompson) daughter on the October 20 episode of The Young and the Restless — a wedding-night twist that will have major implications for the interconnected trio moving forward. Jason Thompson sat down with Soap Opera Digest to unpack all the drama.

Adam Delivering the Baby is Billy’s ‘Worst-Case Scenario’

Thompson, who will mark 21 years in soaps in December, says that the drama swirling around Billy and Sally’s wedding and the baby’s birth made for “a dream week,” he smiles. “I consider myself very lucky to be in the middle of a storm like this because I know how much it means to future story — not only to the story we’re telling right now, but to the ones The Young and the Restless will continue to tell for the next 10, 20 years.”

Having just received the news that his mother, Jill (Jess Walton), is in need of life-saving heart surgery, Billy was on what Thompson calls “an emotional roller coaster” even before finding out Adam delivered his child. And as happy as he is to have a healthy baby girl, “Billy knows what a big moment this is,” the actor says. “The fact that Adam is the first one to see his daughter and to lay hands on her… It’s kind of the worst-case scenario. He didn’t want Adam at the wedding, let alone delivering his baby!”

A big reason why, of course, is Delia (Sophie Pollono), Billy’s late daughter. “People could argue about who was responsible back and forth, as we have done on the show and as audience members have done, but Billy is always going to see Adam as the reason why Delia is no longer here,” points out Thompson. “That’s why he is never, ever really going to be okay with Adam and why Adam is the last person he would want to be a part of this moment.”

The actor thinks Billy will be haunted for years by the starring role Adam played in his baby’s arrival. “He doesn’t want Adam to have any connection with his daughter whatsoever, but he was the first person to hold her,” he says. “That will just keep replaying in Billy’s head over and over. That will always be there for Billy, whether Adam plays that card or not. He really felt like he was starting a new life with Sally and this baby and they were going to leave everything else out of it. But this changes every beautiful idea he had.”

But, Thompson allows, “For fans of Adam and Sally, it’s kind of a beautiful moment for them, too. And that’s not lost on me.”

Jason Thompson Teases What’s Ahead for Billy and Adam

Thompson is thrilled with how Y&R’s writers crafted the birth. “It’s perfect soap!” he declares. “It’s one of those profound moments that changes the characters. It also doubles down on this rivalry and the animosity between Billy and Adam. This is one little moment that we can play for the next 10, 20 years!”

He saw the storytelling possibilities even in the moment of filming. Thompson shares, “I remember saying to Mark, ‘This is crazy, because there’s gonna be a time in the future where this baby is going to go to you instead of me because she feels a connection with you — and that’s gonna kill Billy!'”

As quickly as soap babies are known to grow up, it’ll likely be at least a few years before the newest Abbott is seeking out advice from Adam. But in the near future, Thompson teases, “Adam does everything he can to stay in the picture — and obviously, that is the exact opposite of the situation Billy wanted to find himself in. Billy just wants Adam to go away, but he continues to show up and it really starts to affect Billy.”

What affects Billy even sooner is the very real prospect that he might lose his mother. Jill’s health crisis, Thompson notes, “is very serious, and [her brother] Snapper is very clear that she could be gone by the morning. So for Billy, it’s, ‘What am I gonna do? Do I go to London right now? Do I stay because of the baby?’ The idea of losing his mom is just too much for him, but so is the idea of leaving his new baby and his new wife.”

Billy ultimately decides, with Sally’s full support, that he needs to make the trip overseas. “He ends up going the next morning, and he’s on the plane, potentially going to say good-bye to his mom,” reports Thompson. “And we’ll see how that turns out.”