The Young & the Restless’ Michael Mealor on Kyle and Victoria’s Affair: ‘Things Get Messy!’ (Excl)
Kyle Abbott and Victoria Newman’s brewing attraction on The Young and the Restless led to the duo’s impulsive lovemaking session — in Jack’s (Peter Bergman) office, no less! Soap Opera Digest caught up with Michael Mealor (Kyle) for an exclusive chat about his character’s dangerous liaison, working with Amelia Heinle (Victoria) and where the duo’s torrid affair is headed.
Kyle and Victoria Give In to Their Attraction
According to Mealor, sleeping with Victoria — the mother of his former girlfriend Claire (Hayley Erin), his brother Billy’s (Jason Thompson) ex-wife and his own former stepsister — was not a decision Kyle made with his head or his heart. “It’s pure lust,” the actor tells Digest.
Kyle and Victoria’s attraction grew out of their unexpected connection while dealing with turmoil in their families, including Jack’s stabbing and Nikki Newman’s hospitalization. As they spent more time together, they discovered that they had misjudged each other.
“They realized, ‘Oh, you’re different than I expected. There’s a whole person here that I don’t know,’” Mealor explains. “‘You’re smart, you’re kind-hearted, you’re capable, you’re attractive.’”
They also discovered that they enjoyed sparring with each other.
“They developed this kind of seductive competition between them,” Mealor says. “Oh, you’re fun to spar with. You can take it on the chin and give it right back to me. I finally found someone that can kind of match my freak, if you will.’”
Victoria Awakens Kyle’s Dark Side
That attraction finally boiled over in Jack’s office. For Kyle, though, the significance of what happened goes beyond Victoria — by awakening what Mealor calls “the darker side of Kyle that loves the danger. I think that at the moment he’s enjoying that dark side and being like, ‘Wow, this feels good to have this piece of me active again,’” Mealor muses.
And Kyle isn’t stopping to consider the consequences of leaning into that — at least not yet.
“I don’t think at this point Kyle has any guilt,” Mealor says. “He’s just purely enjoying this, and he hasn’t even thought about the repercussions yet. Not that he’s actively pushing it down, but he’s choosing himself in this moment.”
And that could have implications beyond the bedroom, as the part of Kyle that is enjoying danger again doesn’t necessarily disappear when he’s away from Victoria. “It can come out in his business life,” Mealor points out. “It can come out in his family life whenever there’s issues there.”
Kyle and Victoria Can’t Resist Temptation
For now, Kyle and Victoria have agreed that no one can know about what happened between them — and have also agreed that they can’t repeat their romp. “They’re like, ‘This can’t be a thing. This too messy. This was a one-time thing.’”
But as the story continues, Mealor previews, Kyle and Victoria won’t be able to resist temptation. “It becomes, ‘Okay, maybe we’ll do it one more time. Just one more time, to make sure it was a total fluke.’”
Before they know it, the actor winks, “They’re running out places in the Jabot office to ‘get work done,’ if you catch my drift!”
As the affair progresses, so too does the pair’s determination that no one finds out. “They’re trying to figure out, ‘How can we do this and keep it a secret?’ Because the one rule is, if this is going to happen, no one can ever find out. And isn’t that the kiss of death on soaps?” chuckles Mealor.
The secrecy is part of the attraction. Mealor says, “It’s the danger of being caught and sneaking around and seeing each other in public and having this secret that no one else knows — having a conversation in public, where it’s like, ‘Oh, I know what you’re actually saying. I’m reading between the lines,’ but no one else can because we have this secret that no one else would understand.”
And while the characters’ pull to one another is physical, that could change. “At the moment, there isn’t love in the forecast, but you never know,” Mealor says. “I mean these things get messy and then, you know, people catch feelings.”
Bringing the new dynamic between Kyle and Victoria to life alongside Heinle has been a thrill for the actor. “Amelia is one of the most talented actresses we have on our show,” he declares. “She comes in and has ideas and approaches it in a completely different way than I do and the best way possible. It makes it so much fun to have these surprises and really find it together.”
And while the actor “doesn’t fully know” where Y&R is taking the story, what he has already filmed has him excited about the drama ahead for Kyle and Victoria.
“What we’ve been doing over the last month or so or however long, it only gets better and it gets more intriguing,” Mealor promises. “And it’s really gonna have the viewers really pick sides.”
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