Despite The Young and the Restless sibling rivalry between Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Jack (Peter Bergman) looking like it would come to a peaceful resolution at the insistence of Traci (Beth Maitland) during the week of June 19, that positive outlook may quickly change with the jaw-dropping news that Jack is promoting Diane (Susan Walters) to Jabot’s chief talent officer.
In the episode airing on June 28, Jack defends his right as CEO of Jabot to make such a decision to Billy (Jason Thompson). However, as the youngest of the Abbott siblings wisely points out, Jack promoting his fiancé is only to anger Ashley, and moreover, it only fuels her claims that Diane is using Jack to further her career.
But in what is truly a surprise, Ashley hardly reacts to Diane’s promotion news. Even as the archrivals come face to face in the following scene, Ashley doesn’t raise her voice, hurl vicious insults or even declare to stop the promotion from going through. On the contrary, she even congratulates Diane. Diane is rightly suspicious of her future sister-in-law.
#yr🇨🇦spoiler #yr50 June27/2023 Tues 🇨🇦 Wed 🇺🇸 Ashley Diane pic.twitter.com/PDbTfllGS2June 27, 2023
Then in the same episode, Ashley has a chat with Billy, and he too is caught off-guard by his sister’s calm demeanor in light of the Diane news.
He senses that she has something planned, which she admits to, but coyly refuses to reveal what her next business move is. The only thing she confirms is that it’s not "nefarious."
#yr🇨🇦spoiler #yr50 June27/2023 Tues 🇨🇦 Wed 🇺🇸 Ashley Billy pic.twitter.com/m9Endd9AeKJune 27, 2023
Ashley being this unbothered by Jack’s bold move more than likely means she is going to counter with one of her own.
Longtime fans of The Young and the Restless will recall that back in 2018 during Ashley’s last big blowup with Jack, she left Genoa City and headed to Paris to start her own company with the Jabot patents that were left to her in a will. Her thriving business became known as Abbott Exchange.
Then as the matriarch of the Abbott clan Dina (Marla Adams) became increasingly more ill with Alzheimer's, Jack and Ashley decided to merge Jabot and Abbott Exchange, with Jack calling the shots of the day-to-day business of Jabot.
With all that said, in light of her constant frustrations with Jack and Diane, is Ashley plotting to separate her company from Jabot?
That certainly is possible, especially when you consider that Tucker (Trevor St. John) has been pushing her to start a business with him. Could a joint business venture with her husband-to-be become the next big thing in Genoa City and a rival to not only Jabot but Newman as well?
Should our suspicions prove true, you better believe Jack and Diane will be left reeling, Billy screaming I told you so and the entire Abbott family heading toward a major fallout.
On a side note, we have to wonder if Ashley would hire a certain Newman at a newly realized company. We’re talking about recently benched Nick (Joshua Morrow).
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air live on weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
