Jess Walton Sends Her Gratitude And Thanks To Those Who Helped Her In Difficult Times To Light Up Her Life
Young & Restless’ Jess Walton Shines a Spotlight on a Beloved Castmate: ‘You Light Up My Life’
The Young and the Restless’ Jill and son Billy may not always see eye to eye — or even eye to clavicle — but she loves him with whatever comes after all her heart. The businesswoman’s portrayer has similarly fond feelings for the fellow Emmy winner who plays her pride and joy. And on a special day, she made sure to let him know it.
“Happy birthday to Jason Thompson, my TV son,” Walton cheered. “You light up my life…. always have, right from the beginning!”
The dynamic on-screen duo has been working together since 2016, when Thompson moved from General Hospital, where he’d originated the role of Dr. Patrick Drake, to The Young and the Restless, to become the soap’s fifth Billy. Burgess Jenkins was Thompson’s direct predecessor as Jill and John Abbott’s son. But in the wake of Billy Miller’s passing, Thompson has eloquently reflected on the stamp his fellow Emmy winner put on the legacy character.
“Knowing that it was his role, that he’s the one that really made that character, he kept me honest for the last eight years, I think he would’ve been really, really, surprised how much I thought about him,” Thompson Instagrammed after Miller died. “I did all the time. I was almost fearful of my job to a certain extent, because I thought that he was always going to be able to come back whenever he wanted to because he was that good, and people loved him that much.
“And now that he’s not around anymore, it’s been really weird to think about [the high bar that Miller set],” he added. “And the truth is, now, for as long as I’m blessed to play that character — because he [bleep]-ing built an amazing character there, along with a lot of other writers and everything else — but it was so much of Billy. I’m just going to be so dedicated to making sure that I can do right by it.”
