RECOVERY Zone

After Battling The Coronavirus And Returning To Work At Y&R, Life Is Almost Back To Normal For Greg Rikaart

- DEVIN OWENS

After a two-year absence from Y&R, Greg Rikaart was elated to return last November to reprise the role of Kevin Fisher. “When I left the show in 2017, it ended for me in a really unceremonious way,” the actor reflects. “I’m especially grateful that wasn’t the last chapter for me. I was just thrilled to be back and getting to see all the people that I’ve spent years with, and being part of the canvas of this show that has been such an important part of my life.”

With Kevin and a pregnant Chloe taking up residency in the Chancellor mansion with their daughter, Bella, the couple was poised for bigger story, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down production. As the virus was causing problems all over the world, Rikaart became another statistic when he contracted the disease in March. “Thank God it was just me and not the rest of my family, but this illness was brutal,” Rikaart relays. “It wasn’t like a flu. I think even a bad flu, you sort of feel unwell prior to having a rough two or three days and then you start recovering. With the virus, I developed pneumonia and had a fever of 103 that went on for 12 days straight. It was just a nightmare. The other hardest part about being sick was never knowing if I was at the peak of how bad it was going to get or if it was still getting worse. Any worse would have meant a trip to the hospital. It was really just brutal.”