Young & Restless Exclusive: Jess Walton Warns Things Are Gonna Get Ugly Between Jill and Mamie — ‘She’s On the Warpath!’

Get ready, because the moment Young & Restless fans have waited decades for is finally here… and nobody is more excited about the Mamie/Jill showdown that Jess Walton. Heck, it’s the reason the actress — whose Jill has mostly appeared via Zoom calls of late — agreed to leave her comfy home in Oregon and head back to the L.A. studio in which the soap tapes!

“I love the scenes and the storyline I’m sharing with Veronica Reed,” Walton gushes of Mamie’s portrayer. “There’s so much history there! I remember when we were filming Jill and Mamie’s confrontations years ago realizing that Jill hated her more than Katherine!”

Sure, the Katherine/Jill rivalry was legendary, but Walton points out that it was her predecessor in the part, Brenda Dickson, who had played out much of the more antagonistic phases of that story. “With the Mamie/Jill rivalry, Veronica and I created that. I’ve always loved Veronica as a person, but Mamie infuriates Jill! So when this storyline came up, I jumped at the opportunity.”

In many ways, it feels like old times for both Walton and the audience, who are thrilled to see Jill’s fiesty side come roaring back. “She’s on the warpath,” laughs Walton. And while one might think that Jill — a former manicurist from the wrong side of the tracks — would appreciate Mamie’s success, Walton scoffs at that notion. “Oh, that’s so not Jill,” she chuckles.

“She does not take a mirror and look at herself,” Walton elaborates. “She would have to do away with herself if she really reflected on and acknowledged some of the things she’s done! But when she left the beauty salon and began running companies, she never looked back. She’s not the most introspective of people.”

And then there’s the fact that Mamie is the one thing Jill will never be: a teller of hard truths. “She revealed to John that Jill had an affair with Jed Saunders,” reminds Walton. “And she tried to steal Jill’s husband!”

Put another way, “Everybody loved Mamie,” sighs Walton, “and everybody hated Jill.”

As for what’s coming next, Walton is tight-lipped. She does, however, share that Jill will be sticking around Genoa City for a while. “All I can say is I’m really enjoying it,” she teases. “I’m loving every minute of it!”