Longtime fans of The Young and the Restless know that Diane (Susan Walters) has garnered a reputation in Genoa City as a person that is ruthless about going after what she wants and being able to outmaneuver almost anyone in town. Given her extensive history of scheming against Victor (Eric Braeden), Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and even framing Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) for murder, you can even say that Diane knows how to spot someone cut from the same cloth — enter Audra (Zuleyka Silver).
Since arriving on the canvas, Audra has proved capable of manipulating with the best of them. Remember, she was first introduced as a Tucker (Trevor St. John) planted spy at Chancellor-Winters, and later viewers learned that she was someone that broke the heart of Noah (Roy Gibson).
Fast forward a bit, and thanks to her plotting with Nate (Sean Dominic), Audra has managed to become the CEO of Newman Media. Always looking for more, she’s also worked her charm on Kyle (Michael Mealor).
She was all too happy to start a romance with him during his separation from Summer (Allison Lanier) and even offered him a job when he found himself on the outs at Jabot. Now with Summer determined to move on from her marriage officially, the only obstacle preventing Audra from further cementing things with Kyle appears to be his mother.
In the episode airing on August 10, Diane and Audra have a chance encounter at Crimson Lights and their conversation quickly gets contentious. After they exchange pleasantries, Diane mentions, "Kyle belongs at Marchetti with his wife. He may not show it, but he’s still in love with Summer." Audra seems to take offense to the sentiment and responds with a slight jab of her own.
Audra tells Diane, "Well to me, he seems ready to move on. You know, maybe not just his marriage, but maybe his whole life." Obviously, the subtle shade doesn’t go unnoticed by Mrs. Jack Abbottt. Take a look at their exchange in this brief clip.
#yr🇨🇦spoiler Wed🇨🇦Thurs🇺🇸 #yr50 pic.twitter.com/KfBxN4LqfGAugust 9, 2023
Considering Diane now questions Audra’s motives and sees the Newman Media exec for who she is, will Diane launch an attack to get her son away from Audra? Perhaps.
Diane may be locked into a war with Ashley and Tucker, but she’s not above starting another one given it involves her son. We can easily see a situation in which she plots to undermine Audra’s relationship with Kyle, whether that be going to Kyle directly and warning him about her, or going to Summer and trying to convince the Newman heiress to fight for her failed marriage.
Although, with this Audra/Tucker secret floating around, perhaps Diane gets her hands on the info and uses it to drive a wedge between Audra and Kyle. It’s hard to imagine Kyle will be okay with what Audra helped cover-up.
With that being said, we can’t imagine Audra will just sit back and let Diane tank her blossoming relationship. Audra may argue to Kyle that his mother is overbearing and purposefully trying to destroy their new romance. It’s even possible that Audra catches Summer and Chance (Conner Floyd) in a moment and shares that information with Kyle to make sure he and Summer never reunite.
Then we’d be remiss not to offer the classic soap opera solution to Audra’s growing Diane problem, and that’s for Audra to attempt to get pregnant with Kyle’s baby. Ironically, Young and the Restless historians know that Diane once purposefully thought she was getting pregnant with Victor’s baby in an effort to gain a strong foothold in the Newman family. To her surprise, the child wound up being Jack's (Peter Bergman) baby, who we know today as Kyle.
You’ll want to make sure you stay tuned to the brewing tension between Audra and Diane.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air on weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
