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Y&R stars share details on how they met their partners in real life | First Date Stories
Since its inception The Young and the Restless has hosted many marriages. A lot of stars have been married multiple times on screen. However, contrary to what we see on the soap’s canvas, the actors, in real life, live a much simpler life free from any kind of controversies or scandals. Keep reading to know the love life of some of your favorite Y&R stars and reveal how they met in the first place.
Kate Linder and Ron Linder
Kate Linder is one of the longest-serving Y&R cast members who plays the iconic role of Esther Valentine on the soap.
On Y&R, Kate has not been lucky enough to have a genuine partner. But in real life, she had a man who stayed by her side for his entire life – her late husband Dr. Ronald L. Linder.
Dr. Ron was a professor at San Francisco State University. It was the same place where Kate met Ron for the first time. Kate had just graduated from the institute when she first met her future husband.
Nevertheless, her part-time job at the same institute gave her ample time to get to know him better.
They became good friends, fell in love, and they eventually tied the knot on Valentine’s Day of 1976, in honor of which she picked “Valentine” as the surname for her alter-ego on Y&R as well.
“After graduating from San Francisco State University with a degree in theater, I was working in the student activities office. Our first date was my last performance of Promises Promises at Woodminster Theater in Oakland, California. We were married on Valentine’s Day three years later,” she told CBS.
Most of you may not know this but Kate was hired to play a “one-day, one-line” role on Y&R. Thus her character did not even have a name in the beginning. The name “Esther” was coined after late actress Jeanne Cooper called the name out of the blue during a taping, while the cameras were rolling.
A nation-wide contest was held to give the character a surname. “Valentine” and “Diamond” were two options that were the most picked by the public.
Daniel Goddard and Rachael Marcus Goddard
This February, Daniel Goddard and Rachael Marcus celebrated their 20th anniversary but that’s the only time they have been married. The pair have been together since long before.
Daniel was still a college student, studying Finance when he first met Rachael. It was at a restaurant where Daniel was working as a waiter.
“I was a waiter in Denzel Washington’s restaurant when Rachael came in with a client (she used to be a publicist),” he said. “We saw each other across a crowded room. It was a destiny moment. It took me 10 days to call her because I knew she was the one… and I was nervous.”
14 years later, Daniel got married to Rachael and since then, they have been together without a glitch.
The couple is currently living in Los Angeles, where Rachel has set up her interior/exterior designing studio, Rachel Goddard Design Studio.
The Goddard family includes two adorable kids as well.
Their first child, son Ford Goddard, was born on February 6, 2006, while another son, Sebastian William, was born on December 19, 2008.
READ MORE: Top 10 Greatest Soap Supercouples of the 80s
Jess Walton and John James
Jess Walton and John James were married for nearly four decades before John lost his life to cancer in August 2021. John passed away three months after Jess revealed on her Twitter that his cancer had returned.
Jess and John got married in 1980. For both, they were not each other’s firsts. Jess had an annulled marriage under her belt while John had a kid from a previous relationship. Nevertheless, they found their soulmate in each other.
“John and I met through mutual friends in Beverly Hills 35 years ago,” she said. “Our first date was to the circus, and he brought along his five-year-old daughter, because if she and I didn’t hit it off, it was over before it began. But, luckily, she and I got along great! Thirty five years later, he and I have a son and a daughter together and two baby grandsons!”
John fulfilled his daughter’s wish of being walked down the aisle by him shortly before passing away.
Melissa Ordway and Justin Gaston
On Y&R, Abby Newman happily entered married life with Chance Chancellor in December 2020. Less than a year later, she is raising a kid as a single mom.
Speaking of real life, Abby actress Melissa Ordway is spending a blissful life with her husband and two kids.
Melissa got married to actor Justin Gaston nine years ago in a private ceremony at a church in Atlanta.
The pair got married less than a year after they met on the set of a movie called Escapee. They auditioned for the movie together and had to read together in front of the producers as a chemistry test as well.
“When I hugged him in the scene, he smelled so good. We both booked the parts, and we’ve been inseparable ever since,” she told CBS.
Several years later, they got a chance to work together on the same set when Y&R hired Justin Gaston to play the part of Chance Chancellor for their onscreen wedding last year.
As of now, the pair is raising two beautiful daughters.
Melissa Claire Egan and Matt Katrosar
Melissa Claire Egan became engaged to Matt Katrosar in February 2013. Then on July 26th of the following year, they tied the knot in an interfaith service in Santa Barbara, California.
The romance between Melissa and Matt sparked after they were set up for a date by a mutual close friend named Josh.
From the first date, the two knew that they had something very special between them as it does not happen very often that your first date lasts six hours.
“Our first date was six hours long. I kissed him first—he likes to remind me of that,” Melissa told CBS.
“After date one, I knew that this relationship was something that was real,” Matt said in another interview. “I can’t buy a T-shirt without spending hours second-guessing, but when it came to Missy, there was no question in my mind.”
Matt is not a professional actor. However, last year, he appeared in Y&R on a couple of occasions to play scenes with Melissa as per the covid protocol. He once appeared as Chelsea’s kidnapper then the second time, he appeared as her paramedic.
The couple recently had an imminent addition to their family. After patiently waiting for several years, the pair finally became parents for the first time in August 2021 with the birth of their son, Caden Robert.
Joshua Morrow and Tobe Keeney
Joshua Morrow has romanced several actors including Sharon Case, Michelle Stafford, and Melissa Claire Egan on the Y&R canvas but in real life, he has been settled with a woman for more than twenty years.
Joshua began dating Tobe Keeney in 1996. Five years later, they got married in an intimate ceremony in Santa Barbara, California.
The pair celebrated their 20th anniversary on August 4 last year, but to this day, Morrow still remembers very clearly the day he met Tobe for the first time.
“It was in a rose garden in Santa Barbara, so I would like to go back to that day and see her in her light blue sundress and fall in love with her all over again,” Morrow said in his interview with Soap Opera Digest.
“I told her on the spot, ‘We’re getting married someday,’ and she said, ‘Shut up, you weirdo.’”
Turns out Joshua’s intuitions were indeed correct. The couple did get married and are now parents to four adorable children.