After weeks of speculation about who The Young and the Restless’ Claire (Hayley Erin) is and what she’s up to with her mysterious Aunt Jordan (Colleen Zenk), in the episode from November 27, some major revelations come to light. Not only is Claire the presumed-dead daughter of Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Cole (J. Eddie Peck), but she’s working with Aunt Jordan to exact revenge against the Newmans because of Eve Howard (Margaret Mason), Aunt Jordan’s sister.
Just to recap, Eve Howard is the mother of Cole and former mother-in-law of Victoria, making the matriarch the grandmother of Claire (who at birth was actually named after her grandmother). Eve is Aunt Jordan’s sister, but at the time of Eve’s death, the siblings were estranged.
Given Eve’s familial connection doesn’t truly begin to paint the picture of why Aunt Jordan would feel the need to go after the Newmans, allow us to unpack more of Eve’s story below.
Who is Eve Howard?
In the early 80s, Victor (Eric Braeden) hired an assistant to help him really get his company, Newman Enterprises, off the ground. The assistant in question was Eve, who was from Washington state. Although Victor was married to Julia ((Meg Bennett), he eventually had an affair with Eve, who was madly in love with him. Victor was adamant that their romantic encounter was a one-night stand and nothing more, leaving an obsessed Eve crushed.
Later, Eve would give birth to her son Cole, who she alleged was Victor’s child. The Mustache initially refused to believe her claims about Cole’s paternity and he continued to deny her romantic advances. In fact, after Victor and Julia officially split, he carried on romances with Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and Lorie Brooks (Jaime Lyn Bauer). Victor wound up convincing Eve to leave town and work for his company elsewhere in exchange for him acknowledging that Cole is his son and financially providing for him. The Newman Enterprises CEO even put Cole in his will.
It wouldn’t be long before Eve returned, involved with Max Siebalt, an allegedly wealthy count. When Eve discovered that Max was not as well-off as she believed, she worked on a plot with Max to get Victor’s money.
After convincing Victor to hire her back as his assistant, she slowly began poisoning his food to kill him. She believed with him dead, Cole stood the chance of inheriting millions, and therefore she would have access to the wealth.
When Victor caught wind of the plot, he worked to get Eve to confess, even proposing to her and faking his death. After Victor got incriminating proof that Eve tried to murder him, he revealed to her that he wasn’t dead. Feeling duped, she tried to stab him before she was committed to a mental institution.
While spending some time in the facility, Eve discovered that Victor was planning to marry Nikki. Although Eve didn’t make it to the nuptials on time to stop the wedding, she later tried to stab Nikki in a failed attempt. Eventually, she managed to steal some money from Victor and run off with Rick Daros (Randy Holland).
Fast forward to 1993, when Eve again resurfaced in Genoa City and met with Victor. Although she wanted to take a stroll down memory lane and discuss their son, he wasn’t welcoming of the conversation and didn’t profess an interest in getting to know Cole who was by then a young adult.
Cole would eventually go on to become romantically involved with Victoria (Heather Tom), would he didn’t know was believed to be his half-sister. When Eve found out the two were to be married, she rushed to stop the union. Sadly, she was never able to do so as she was bitten by a mosquito and subsequently died from an illness related to the bite.
In her death, Victor proved that Cole was not his son after all. Cole’s father is ironically, Rick Daros.
What happened between Nikki and Eve?
The rivalry between Nikki and Eve was rather lopsided. Eve seemingly was just jealous of Nikki as she is the love of Victor’s life. Remember, Eve tried to murder Nikki.
Now there is a small chance that Eve was infuriated with Nikki for once carrying on a romance with Cole prior to Victoria; however, even if that were the case, Nikki never set on a quest to necessarily destroy Eve. With all of that being said, Aunt Jordan’s torture of Nikki is quite unwarranted and misguided.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
