The Young and the Restless’s Patty Returns: Stacy Haiduk Teases Her ‘Unfinished Business’ (Excl)
On March 6, The Young and the Restless reintroduced one of the biggest havoc-wreakers in its history: Patty Williams, once again played by Stacy Haiduk (who is also currently airing as another infamous troublemaker, Kristen DiMera, on Days of Our Lives). The character, who has been nursing an obsession with Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) for decades, was revealed to be his captor, purring, “Nice to see you too, Jack,” as he gaped at her in horror. Soap Opera Digest chatted with Haiduk about her surprise comeback to Genoa City nearly 10 years after her last appearance, her status at DAYS and more.
Shock to the System
If you didn’t have Patty’s return on your 2026 bingo card, you’re not alone. “I didn’t, either,” chuckles Haiduk, who says that the call to slip back into the character’s skin came at “just the right time.”
When Y&R reached out to her, “It was January, and DAYS had basically put my characters [Kristen and Susan] to rest,” Haiduk recalls. (Because DAYS shoots so far in advance, she will continue to be seen in Salem until late 2026.) “They do that a lot on DAYS, which is always sad for me. I was getting a little depressed because I was like, ‘Oh, I miss it, I want to be working,’ and blah, blah, blah. But the beauty of it was that two weeks after [she wrapped her latest DAYS stint], Josh [Griffith, Y&R’s executive producer/head writer] texted me unexpectedly and was like, ‘Are you available to come back as Patty?’ It was just perfect timing.”
While coming back to Y&R was not on her radar, it was very much on her wish list. “Honestly, I had hoped through the years that it would come around again,” Haiduk admits. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t love DAYS — I love that, too — but because I missed Patty and missed playing her, I had hoped that they would come calling. I just had no idea that it was going to work out so perfectly.” When she got the offer, “I was so grateful, you have no idea,” she muses. “I mean, honestly, I was kind of in a slump. I remember that it was a Friday, and I was kind of like, ‘Oh God, what am I gonna do now?’ I remember sitting outside in my courtyard looking up at the sky when all of a sudden I got the text and I started reading it and I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ I ran to my husband and read the text to him and I was like, ‘Can you believe this?!’ He goes, ‘Oh, my God. Only you. Perfect!'”
History Repeats Itself
Haiduk was originally cast as Patty — who was then going by the name Mary Jane Benson — back in 2009. At the time, she had no clue that it would represent such a landmark moment in her career. She was coming off a brief run as the unstable Hannah Nichols on All My Children, which had given her a taste of daytime, but had yet to really find her footing in the genre. “I didn’t know where it was going to go when I was on Young and Restless that first time, when Patty came in as Mary Jane Benson. I had no clue,” she says. “It was a little journey for me, like, ‘Who is this character?’ They said, ‘You’re going to come in as this character [Mary Jane] first,’ and that’s all I knew. I didn’t even know who Patty was!”
But she embraced both the challenge and Patty’s outlandishness, and she looks back on that period as “the first time I was able to kind of take that leap off the cliff [creatively]. I remember working with Doug Davidson [who played Paul, Patty’s brother] and doing these long scenes and going, ‘I don’t know where I’m going with this character right now.’ Every week would be a new thing and I’d be like, ‘Oh, God, I don’t know if I can do this!’ And then you just do it. I just had to take a leap of faith, and that’s when I started finding the Mary Jane, the Patty, the Emily [Patty’s therapist, who Haiduk played from 2009-12], and the love that they had deep inside them. I think that I always bring a lot of heart and love to my characters — they might be bad, and they might do bad things, but they’re coming from the right place.”
Ten years later, she couldn’t be more delighted to get another crack at Patty. “I always felt that Patty never got her fair shot,” she says. “I’m sure she did, but I don’t think she did, stuck in an insane asylum, you know? I’m just happy to be back in Genoa City. I know Patty is so thrilled, and so am I! Bringing her back is delicious, is all I can say. It has a deliciousness to it and I’m really, really looking forward to seeing where that goes for me as an actress, and where Patty’s going to take it.”
While Patty is not exactly welcomed back with open arms, it was a different scenario for Haiduk behind the scenes. When she first reunited with Peter Bergman, she reports, “I remember just walking into the makeup room and he came up and it felt like just yesterday that [we’d last worked together]. I mean, it felt like I was just there with Peter and all the friendly faces at Y&R. I just love Peter. He’s fabulous and I’m so excited to work with him again. I love working with him.”
For Haiduk, discovering Patty again “was a process — getting into wardrobe and them picking the outfits for Patty, and then you go into hair and makeup and all of a sudden, the character starts coming back into your body again, and then running lines with Peter and seeing where that’s going. But I know she’s in there; you kind of read it on a page and then it starts coming alive again once all the pieces are together on the set.”
Here Comes Trouble
As for what fans can expect of the Patty of 2026, Haiduk hints, “She’s not going to be the same Patty that we’ve seen before. She’s grown up a bit, as have I. She’s a little bit more together, but you’ve got to keep your eye on her and see what she does. Patty has some unfinished business that she needs to take care of and who knows who she’s gonna run into, right? It’s not going to be boring.”
One juicy possibility is for some big drama between Patty and Diane. Their lore stretches back years, given that Jack slept with Diane on the day of his wedding to Patty in 1982 and continued their affair into their doomed marriage — and now, Diane is Mrs. Jack Abbott. “I think that could be very intriguing to Patty,” Haiduk winks. And since Haiduk took over the DAYS roles formerly played by Eileen Davidson (Ashley), she would love some Patty/Ashley action, too. “I think that would be hilarious,” she enthuses. “That would be a kind of a fun little moment if they do something like that.”
All in all, Haiduk declares, “Patty is going to bring a little excitement to the party. She gets to walk into town as a new woman — with new power behind her. I’m really excited to be back, and I hope the fans are ready for Patty to wreak some havoc!”
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