The Young & the Restless Exclusive: Sally’s Pregnancy After Loss — Courtney Hope Opens Up

Sally Spectra was thrown for a major loop on The Young and the Restless when she discovered that she is pregnant. Sally has long dreamed of becoming a mom, but her last pregnancy resulted in a devastating loss when her daughter Ava passed away during childbirth in 2023. Soap Opera Digest chatted with her portrayer, Daytime Emmy winner Courtney Hope, about how she reacted to the twist and what it all means for her relationship with the baby’s father, Billy (Jason Thompson).

Fear Factor

When Hope learned that Y&R was scripting another pregnancy for Sally, “I was excited,” she says. “This time is so different, though it was obviously still unplanned. I was like, ‘Sally needs to do better with birth control!’ But I’m excited for the story and to see where it goes.”

Given the heartbreak of losing Ava, Sally reacted to the news of this pregnancy with some trepidation. “My first inkling was that the fear is coming more from being gun-shy because of last time as opposed to the fear of, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m pregnant, what does that look like, me being pregnant and being a mom?'”

Despite her anxiety, Hope believes that when Sally first took a pregnancy test, “She wanted it to be positive, but there’s so much there, because it wasn’t planned and she and Billy just got back together. And what does it look like if something goes wrong again? But I think that all in all, Sally really wants to be a mom and really wants to have a family. So, she wanted it to be positive, but she almost wasn’t allowing herself to be happy or excited or hopeful about it because she’s just scared right now.”

Sally’s trauma over Ava’s death is ever-present, Hope asserts, “especially because she feels like it was her fault. Yes, extenuating circumstances came into play, but I think in her mind, she truly believes that it was something that she did or didn’t do, or something that she could have done better. I think off the bat, there’s more fear than excitement — but as time goes on, I think the fear naturally starts to subside and the excitement rises.”

The More Things Change

Sally is in a very different place in her life than she was when Ava was conceived. “Before, she was like, ‘I’m pregnant, but I’m with someone else,'” notes Hope of when Sally was expecting a baby with Adam (Mark Grossman) while in a relationship with his brother, Nick (Joshua Morrow). “Both [pregnancies] came out of love, but I feel like there’s more stability in this one,” she muses.

Still, Sally told Audra (Zuleyka Silver) that she thought she might be pregnant before informing Billy. Says Hope, “The biggest thing between Billy and Sally is that there’s been secrets and trust is being rebuilt within their relationship, so I understood right off the bat why she didn’t tell him right away. I mean, at first I was like, ‘Oh wow, she’s telling Audra?!’  But then I realized, ‘You know, because of his past and him losing a child [daughter Delia], she just wanted to be sure before she even opened that can of worms.’ I respect that, but I am glad that she did tell him right away [after getting the positive test result] because I just don’t think it would have been been great for their relationship. They want to be honest with each other and they’re trying really hard to do that, so I’m glad that that’s how it played out.”

Billy taking the news in stride and reiterating his commitment to Sally and their baby-to-be helps put Sally’s mind at ease. “She loves and cares about him and feels supported by him,” the actress says. “I think [expecting a baby together] can only make their relationship stronger and more fulfilled. They love each other so much and they’ve fought a lot of odds to continue to make this work, and I think Sally really respects Billy. And she respects him as a father. During Christmas, she was really watching him and Victoria [Amelia Heinle] with [their kids] Katie [Sienna Mercuri] and Johnny [Paxton Mishkind] and I think she yearns for that [familial connection], and hopefully they’ll get the chance to see what that looks like for them.”

Billy is also in a different place in his life since he last became a father. “I think it will be really interesting for Sally to navigate being a mom while being a working woman, because that’s what she loves to do, and then Billy being a father at this point in life and navigating what that looks like with him being very focused on business,” Hope adds. “I think that they have a very interesting dynamic and throwing a kid into it would be beautiful but also very entertaining to watch. He could be, like, trying to take back Chancellor or something with a baby in one arm and a phone in the other! I think it’ll be fun to experience this with Billy and see what that looks like.”

As Sally continues to process her pregnancy, her thoughts will “absolutely” turn to Adam, Ava’s father. “That was an experience where the feelings of it are so unique to the person and the person you share it with,” Hope says. “[Grief] is such a universal experience, but each individual case is so different, and Sally and Adam had those shared moments, so of course, that’s one of the first things that come across her mind.”

Living Legacy

Presuming that Sally does carry the baby to term, the new addition would have unique ties to major families on two soaps, the Spectras of The Bold and the Beautiful, where Hope got her start playing Sally in 2017, and the Abbotts. “It would be such an honor” for Sally to be the bridge bringing those family trees together, Hope says. “I love the Abbotts so much — and the Newmans as well — and Sally Spectra [Darlene Conley], Sally’s great aunt, [was] an outsider in a lot of ways,” she points out. “Everyone was always shunning her. So to have worked through a family legacy of her own and [have a baby] with someone who has deep roots on the show is really cool. I think it would be a really beautiful thing for Sally and for the Spectras to finally be able to say, ‘Wow, I belong somewhere.’ To have her child be born into acceptance is something she would yearn for more than anything because she was not born into that.”

Sally’s due date is likely right around January 2027, which coincides with the 10th anniversary of Hope’s debut in the role of Sally. “That would be really cool!” she enthuses. “That would be really beautiful for Sally — and for me.”

That is just one of the many reasons that Hope has her fingers crossed for Sally to have a successful birth and to finally realize her dream of motherhood. “I hope her her heart doesn’t break again,” proclaims the Y&R star. “That would just be so sad.”