LOCKE OUT

Robert Newman Weighs In On Ending His Y&R Run As Ashland.

- Mara Levinsky

Soap Opera Digest: You’re back in Connecticut! Are you happy to be home?

Robert Newman: Oh, God, yes. It’s really good to be home. Six months in L.A. was about all I could stand, and the added thing of being away from my family for that amount of time just really took its toll. I thought it would be easier because I travel so much for theater now, but that’s anywhere from six weeks to 12 weeks, which I think is the longest that I’ve been away to do stage work. Six months was past my expiration date for how long I could be away from my family. Digest: Which has a new member since we last spoke!

Newman: Yes, we now have [second grandson] Rocky Joseph, who was born about three months ago. When I left L.A. two weeks ago, I flew directly to Hilton Head, SC, where we all met — [grandson] Leo, Rocky, their parents, [son] Connor and Caroline, our daughter, Kendal, and Britt [Newman, his wife, ex-Lily, LOVING] and I. We spent a week by the beach and in the pool in Hilton Head, which was just fantastic.

Digest: You told me when you first joined Y&R that it was for a certain amount of time with the possibility that it might go on further. At what point did it become clear to you that extending your stay wasn’t in the cards?