Susan Walters and Linden Ashby are happy to not only be husband and wife but also coworkers.
“It is a dream come true,” Ashby, 64, exclusively told Us Weekly of getting to work alongside Walters, 61, on set of The Young & The Restless while celebrating the soap’s milestone 13,000th episode.
Walters added that it has been nothing but “rainbows and sunshine” for her and Ashby since they initially joined the cast more than two decades ago.
The couple, who have been married since 1986 and share two daughters, currently star on the soap as Diane Jenkins and Cameron Kirsten. Walters got her start on the program in 2001 and left the show in 2004. She briefly returned in 2010 before permanently rejoining the main cast in 2022. Ashby, meanwhile, joined The Young & The Restless in 2003 and left the following year. He reprised his role in 2023.
When Walters first returned to the show, she shared that her husband was very supportive and helped her prepare.
“Since I came back on the show a couple of years ago, Linden has helped me with my lines every single day,” the actress told Us.
While Walters credits Ashby for helping her with her performance, he shared that his wife also returns the favor for him — especially when he’s struggling.
Susan Walters and Linden Ashby Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
“There were days that I would not literally, would not have made it through without her help,” he explained. “Running lines and then just being there and because it’s so fast and it’s so unlike anything I’ve ever done before, and this is the hardest job for an actor in the entire industry.”
Walters acknowledged that soaps are “dialogue-heavy” which can be difficult compared to a lot of the “single camera” work she and Ashby have done in the past. However, she did admit the extra challenge can make the job “really fun.”
The Young and the Restless, like most soap operas, is known for its shocking plot twists that fans don’t see coming — and sometimes they are equally surprising to the cast members. For instance, Nick, Sharon and Phyllis’ love triangle — following the tragic death of Sharon’s daughter Cassie — takes the cake for most […]
“It’s kind of like you catch this lightning in a bottle that’s very difficult with multi-cameras and multi-takes and stuff,” she told Us. “You can overlap. There’s a spontaneity that can happen here that’s pretty amazing.”
The Young and the Restless isn’t the only project where Walters and Ashby have been costars. The duo met in 1983 on the set of the soap Loving, where Walters was a regular cast member and Ashby started off as a guest before joining the cast full time. After Loving ended in 1995, the couple got to work together again on Teen Wolf for six seasons. Ashby played the father of Stiles Stilinski (Dylan O’Brien) while Walters’ character was mom to Stiles’ love interest, Lydia Martin (Holland Roden).
The Young and the Restless airs on CBS weekdays at 12:30 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Lanae Brody
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