HAYLEY ERIN ON HER Y&R COMEBACK

Hayley Erin, who began her soap career playing Abby from 2018-10, and went on to win a Daytime Emmy for her run as GH’s Kiki (2015-18, 2019), will be back in Genoa City beginning this October in a new role: Newman Media employee Claire Grace. “It’s like the greatest surprise ever,” says Erin of her return trip to Y&R. “Especially in the middle of the [writers’ and actors’] strikes! Like, how did I get so lucky?”

The actress was in Ireland, where she now resides with her husband, actor Adam Fergus, and their two-year-old daughters, Maude and Juno, when she learned of the opportunity. She explains, “Basically, during Covid, we picked up and moved overseas — accidentally, kind of. My husband was doing a show in Norway and he’s Irish, so we were going to just spend eight months in Ireland so I could get to know his family and friends really well. But while we were over there, I got pregnant with twins, and once we had the girls, it was kind of like, ‘Well, what are we going to do, move back with newborns?’ Circumstances just kept us there and I fell in love with the place and I was so  happy to be there with my little babies and my husband, so it just kind of made sense [to stay].”

While her parents were in Ireland for a visit, Erin reports, “I got an email from my manager asking if I would be interested in a role on Y&R. I was like, ‘Heck, yeah!’ I wound up reading for the role of Claire, then I found out on a Friday that I had gotten the role and by the following Sunday, I was on an airplane! I started that Thursday, so it was all a very quick turnaround. It was great that my parents were there because we had a couple of extra hands!”