Jill Foster Abbott

Infobox soap character
name = Jill Abbott
series = The Young and the Restless
portrayer = Brenda Dickson
(1973-1980; 1983-1987)
Bond Gideon
(1980)
Deborah Adair
(1980-1983)
Jess Walton
(1987-)
first = 16 March 1973
last =
cause =
creator = William J. Bell



caption1 = Jess Walton as Jill Foster Abbott (2007)
image1_size = 220px



caption2 = Brenda Dickson as Jill Foster Abbott (1985)
nickname =
alias =
gender = Female
born = September 29, 1954
death =
age = 53
occupation = CEO of Chancellor Industries
Jabot Cosmetics Board Member/Former CEO of Jabot Cosmetics
Former Executive at Jabot Cosmetics; Head of Men's Line
Former Liaison to Photo Studio at Jabot Cosmetics
Former Management Trainee
Former Manicurist at Derek's Salon
Former Paid Companion of Katherine Chancellor
Former Shampoo Girl and Manicurist at Hazel's
title =
residence = 250 Foothill Rd. Genoa City, Wisconsin
parents = William Foster
(adoptive father)
Elizabeth Foster
(mother; via adoption)
Arthur Hendricks
(biological father)
Katherine Chancellor
(biological mother)
siblings = Greg Foster
(adoptive brother)
William "Snapper" Foster
(adoptive brother)
Brock Reynolds
(biological half-brother)
spouse = Brock Reynolds
(invalid; 1974)
Phillip Chancellor II
(invalid; deceased, 1976)
Derek Thurston
(invalid)
Stuart Brooks
(divorced; deceased, 1978)
John Abbott, Sr.
(divorced, first time; 1982-1986; deceased)
Rex Sterling
(annulled, 1990-1991)
John Abbott, Sr.
(divorced, second time; 1993-1996; deceased)
romances = Andy Richards
(engaged)
John "Jack" Abbott, Jr.
(dated)
Bradley "Brad" Carlton
(dated)
Alexander "Blade" Bladeson
(fling)
Victor Newman, Sr.
(fling)
Jed Sanders
(affair)
Sean Bridges
(dated)
Larry Warton
(affair)
Elliot Hampton
(engaged)
William Bardwell
(dated; deceased)
Ji Min Kim
(engaged; deceased)
Jeffrey Bardwell
(dated)
children = Phillip Chancellor III
(legal son, with Phillip; deceased)
Ethan "Cane" Ashby
(son, with Phillip)
William "Billy" Abbott
(son, with John)
grandchildren = Phillip Chancellor IV
(legal grandson, via Phillip)
Unnamed child
(sex unknown, via Cane: miscarried)
Unnamed child
(grandson, via Billy)
grandparents =
aunts/uncles = Bruce Henderson
(adoptive uncle)
cousins = Mark Henderson
(adoptive cousin)
Lorie Brooks

nieces/nephews = Mackenzie Browning
(niece)
Jennifer Foster
(adoptive niece)
Chuck Roulland
(adoptive nephew)
color = #C3B091
color text =

Jill Abbott (née Foster; previously Reynolds, Chancellor, Thurston, Brooks, and Sterling) is the only original fictional character remaining on the soap opera "The Young and the Restless" since the show debuted in March 1973. The role was originated by Brenda Dickson, who played the role for seven years. After she left in 1980, Bond Gideon played the role briefly, before Deborah Adair took over for three years. In 1983, Dickson reprised the role and played it until 1987, when she was replaced by Jess Walton, who continues to play the role to this day. Jill was also played by Judith Chapman (who now plays Gloria on the show) for a few days when Walton was ill in the late 1980s.

Character biography

Jill is the CEO of Chancellor Industries (formerly the head of Jabot's Men's Line and CEO), ex-wife of multi-billionaire John Abbott (Jerry Douglas) and mother of Billy Abbott (Billy Miller). For decades, Jill also believed that she was the biological mother of the now-deceased Phillip Chancellor III (Thom Bierdz), but she has recently learned that Phillip III was secretly given to her after her true son was stolen shortly after birth. Jill is an ambitious and driven woman who has taken herself from the wrong side of the tracks to the executive office of one of Genoa City's most prestigious corporations. Jill is worth 180 million dollars most of it came from her divorce from John Abbott Sr.

Jill, at times, has been a promiscuous woman and has had affairs with numerous male characters, notably Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman), Blade Bladeson (Michael Tylo), Rex Sterling (Quinn K. Redeker), Larry Warton (David "Shark" Fralick), Victor Newman (Eric Braeden), John Silva (John Castellanos), Keith Dennison (Granville Van Dusen), and Sean Bridges (David Lee Russek). Jill even married her mother's lover, Stuart Brooks.

Misunderstanding

In 1973, When Jill was just 18 years old, working as a manicurist, she had a customer named Gwen Sherman (Jennifer Leak). Gwen invited the youngest Foster child to visit the escort service where she worked, and Jill agreed; unfortunately, Gwen actually worked at a brothel. As soon as she realized where she was Jill turned to go, but bumped right into her brother, William "Snapper" Foster (played by William Gray Espy at the time).

Work for Katherine Chancellor

Jill started off as a hairdresser who became friends with Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper). Not long afterwards, Jill went to work for Mrs. Chancellor as her paid companion. Katherine, an alcoholic and heavy smoker, was in an unhappy marriage to Phillip Chancellor II (Donnelly Rhodes). Kindhearted Jill wanted desperately to help Katherine salvage her marriage, but her attempts merely drew Phillip's eye towards her. As Katherine grew worse, Jill and Phillip grew closer. Towards the end of 1974, Katherine's son from a previous marriage, Brock Reynolds (Beau Kazer), returned. He joined Jill's effort to sober-up his mother, but Katherine's pride thwarted their attempts again-and-again.

Jill Abbott and Phillip Chancellor II

The love between Jill and Phillip continued to blossom, and as the citizens of Genoa City were ringing in 1975, Phillip vowed to marry Jill before another year was through. It was during one of their embraces, which Katherine inadvertently saw, that Mrs. Chancellor realized how far away her drinking had driven Phillip. She recommitted herself to AA, surprising both her husband and paid companion. Once the toxins were out of her system, she decided to win back her estranged husband by being exceptionally kind to all, especially Jill--all the better to make her feel guilty! Unfortunately, the damage was done, and Phillip was happier than ever with his younger lover. Katherine's plan was working, however, and Jill was so inundated with guilt that she left the Chancellor Estate. To add fuel to the fire, Katherine even offered to pay for Jill's college education, which Jill refused.

Phillip, still very much in love with Jill, soon made love to her, which she didn't resist. This just served to confuse Jill even more, and further enraged Katherine, who secretly saw their affair. Katherine's next plan to keep Jill away from Phillip was to marry her off to Brock, who was also smitten with the young woman. The ceremony took place, but the marriage was never consummated, and it ended as soon as Jill realized she was pregnant with Phillip's child. The news thrilled Phillip, who was equally ecstatic to learn that her marriage to Brock was not legal, and he arranged to have a quickie-divorce via the Dominican Republic. This final act was enough to knock Katherine off of the wagon once more. She angrily signed the divorce papers, and in the way opened the door for a complicated living situation with Jill in the future.

Phillip made his way to the Dominican Republic to finalize the divorce, but Katherine was waiting for him at the airport upon his return. Sober once more, she offered to take him home, affording her a chance to beg him for a second chance. En route, however, when he turned her down, she slammed her foot down on the gas pedal and the car plunged off the road and over a cliff! Katherine was presumed dead at first, and Phillip was rushed to the hospital. On his deathbed, Phillip Chancellor II married Jill Foster.

Katherine eventually turned up alive-and-well, and thanks to a series of legal maneuvers Jill's marriage to Phillip was declared invalid. The restored Mrs. Chancellor kicked the Fosters out of the Chancellor Estate, and tried to pay Jill $1 Million in exchange for the baby she was carrying. Eventually, to ensure a better life for the child, Jill reluctantly accepted.

Phillip Chancellor III

Phillip Chancellor III was born in 1976, but a fever ensured that he remain in the hospital for several days. From the moment she held the baby in her arms, Jill realized she couldn't go through with the plan, and she took the child from the hospital while her family returned Katherine's money. Ultimately, Katherine's lawyers told her to leave the matter alone, and she returned to drinking once more. Jill, meanwhile, hired lawyers of her own to ensure that her baby received his rightful inheritance. As there was nothing in writing, however, her case was dismissed. This enraged Jill, who next decided that she would drive Katherine insane by creating the illusion that Phillip was still alive! This plan was thwarted as well, though, with help from Brock.

Derek Thurston and Stuart Brooks

Derek Thurston (originated by Jeff Cooper, and then taken over by Joe LaDue) arrived in Genoa City in 1977, and it wasn't long before he had attracted the attention of both Jill and Katherine. Once more they were vying for the attention of the same man, but this time it was Katherine who got the wedding ring...by getting Derek drunk and then marrying him. Derek eventually fell for Jill, though, which nearly drove Katherine to suicide. Katherine convinced Derek to stay with her, albeit platonically since that's all he was interested in, for one year. Determined not to waste a year waiting for Derek, Jill turned her sights on Stuart Brooks (Robert Colbert), who she felt could provide a secure future for her son.

Stuart gave Jill a job at his newspaper, where she managed the Classifieds section. She wasn't going to be able to win Stuart over easily, though, as he was also seeing her mother, Liz Foster (Julianna McCarthy). Jill managed to seduce him, but interference from the Brooks children, who saw Jill as a gold-digger (specifically Lorie Brooks), nearly ruined the relationship. To save it, Jill lied to Stuart and told him she was pregnant. As Jill was trying desperately to save her relationship with Stewart, Derek was finally ending his marriage to Katherine in hopes of wooing Jill once more. Before she would agree to run off with Derek, though, she said she needed more assurances. She even made plans to marry both Derek and Stuart on the same night, lest Derek fail. But Katherine wasn't ready to let her third marriage end yet, so she found a way to draw Derek out of town long enough for Jill to go through with marrying Stuart instead. Once Derek returned, he decided to go back to Katherine.

Not long after, Jill traveled to New York, where she hoped to become artificially inseminated in an effort to keep up her ruse. Stuart, however, thought that Jill had gone to New York for an abortion, which infuriated her. They fought, and she fell down the stairs. At the hospital, Stuart asked how the baby was, and was shocked to learn that Jill had never been pregnant to begin with. He demanded a divorce immediately. While Jill fought for a large chunk of the Brooks' fortune, she was also encouraging Derek to be with her--after all, Katherine was assumed to be dead thanks to a series of events sparked by Derek's ex-wife Suzanne Lynch (Ellen Weston). As Katherine watched the shenanigans from afar, she decided to push Derek and Jill together for the sake of Liz and Stuart.

Jill eventually signed the divorce papers from Stuart, leaving her free to become the third Mrs. Derek Thurston. That's when Katherine revealed herself to be alive-and-well (a second time), leaving Jill penniless again and Derek still a married man. Following Stuart and Jill's divorce, Mr. Brooks had taken up once again with Jill's mother, Liz. For a short while Jill continued to try and undermine her mother, but eventually gave up and started trying to repair the relationship she'd nearly ruined with the woman who had raised her.

Jabot Cosmetics

In 1980 Jill went to work for Jabot Cosmetics. Jabot's owner, John Bartholomew Abbott, Sr., was impressed by Jill's abilities, and quickly promoted her to Head of Merchandising. It was around that time that she met John "Jack" Abbott, Jr., John's son, who had never shown any interest in working for the family business until he met Jill. John soon developed feelings for Jill, and vice-versa. Unfortunately, upset that John had not taken her on a business trip with him, Jill spent a night with Jack. John saw them together, and wanted nothing more to do with Jill, forcing her to quit Jabot.

She soon drove Jack away, as well, as she felt that he was moving too fast, but wanted him back before too long. When Jack shot down her attempts, she decided to file a sexual harassment suit against Jabot with the help of her brother Greg Foster. Jack denied the claim, but eventually paid a $10,000 settlement. During the course of the lawsuit, Jill had been seeing Andy Richards (Steven Ford), and they were eventually engaged; unfortunately for Andy, he didn't have the kind of money Jill was always looking for. Eventually, she ended their engagement to start anew with John Abbott. John "Jack" Abbott, Jr. tried to ruin his father's relationship with Jill, but eventually John proposed to her. With Liz Foster as her Matron of Honor, Jill became Mrs. John Bartholomew Abbott, Sr..

Blackmail

As part of her ongoing efforts to make Jack's life miserable, Jill had his office at Jabot Cosmetics bugged, and encouraged his wife, Patty Williams, to surprise him there--in hopes that Patty would learn of Jack's affair with Diane Jenkins (Alex Donnelley). Her plan worked, and Jack was caught; in the process, though, Patty fell and miscarried their child. In 1983, Jill had a furious argument with Mamie Johnston (Margueritte Ray), the Abbotts' maid and family friend. She accused Mamie of being responsible for Traci Abbott's eating disorder, an accusation that drove Mamie to pack her bags and leave. John was enraged when he found out, and demanded that Jill go find Mamie--even if it meant going out in a snowstorm!

It wasn't long before Jill became stranded in the blizzard, and it was Jack Abbott who came to her rescue. Safe, but unable to go anywhere, they found a place to wait-out the storm...and they passed the time locked in each other's arms. Soon, photos from the night started showing up at the Abbott's door, and Jack and Jill realized they were to be blackmailed. Jack discovered the identity of their blackmailer--an old family friend--but Jill was convinced that Katherine was behind it all. She wasn't, but before too long the photographic negatives were in her possession (for a sum of $150,000). While Katherine had no interest in hurting John, she made it clear that she wanted Jill's marriage ruined, just as hers had been.

Among the methods Jill employed for getting the negatives back was to pay-off Katherine's maid, Esther Valentine (Kate Linder)--that plan was foiled as well, though. And then Katherine started trying in earnest to show John the pictures: First, she invited the Abbotts to dinner, and had Esther ready with the slide projector (Jill foiled this by staging a stomach bug). Next, she had the most scandalous photo enlarged and cut-up like pieces of a puzzle, which she began sending to John (that one, too, was a failed attempt). Finally, exasperated, Katherine begged John to come to the Chancellor Estate, where she finally revealed to him the photos (although Jack's face had been carefully removed).

Divorce

The next time Jill saw John, back at the Abbott mansion, he was on the floor after having suffered a stroke. John obviously wanted a divorce when he came-to, and eventually Jill had no choice but to give-up on her marriage. When it looked as if Jill might not get all she wanted from the divorce, she called a press conference, content to humiliate the Abbotts by revealing that Jack was her lover in the photos. John barged in, and pulled Jill away. Furiously, he gave into her divorce demands, and then promptly kicked Jack out of the house.

Not long after, Jill was found in her shower, bleeding from a gunshot wound. The three main suspects were John, Jack, and Katherine. Although Jack finally confessed to shooting her--just to keep the case out of court, thereby preventing his affair with Jill from becoming public--the real culprit was actually Sven, a masseur at the Genoa City Hotel. He had been rejected by Jill earlier in the night, and after getting drunk stole the gun from Gina's Restaurant. Sven captured Jill and locked her in a meat freezer. Fortunately for her, Jack realized the danger she was in and became a fugitive in an effort to free her. Sven escaped to Mexico, but Jack was cleared of all charges.

Battle for Phillip

By the end of the year, Jill had started working on Jabot's men's line, and Phillip Chancellor III was living with Katherine while she helped in transfer to Genoa City University. The two rivals became engaged in a bitter battle for custody of the Chancellor heir. As the accusations flew between them, Phillip realized that both women had played a strong part in his father's untimely death. Eventually, Phillip turned to drinking. He fought his alcoholism with help from both Katherine and Jill--alongside Christine Blair (Lauralee Bell)--but found himself drunk one night while he was with Nina Webster (Tricia Cast). The result: Nina declared herself pregnant with Phillip's child.

Rex Sterling

With help from David Kimble, her assistant, Jill hired a bum named Brian Romalotti and set him up with Katherine after dubbing him "Rex Sterling".

Mother and Daughter

Katherine and Jill were mortified when, in 2003, they discovered that they were in fact mother and daughter.While her then-husband, Gary Reynolds, was spending time overseas with their son Brock, Katherine had an affair with Gary's best friend, a local judge named Arthur Hendricks. Shortly before Gary returned, Katherine gave birth to Jill and handed her over to a friend from school named Charlotte Ramsey, with instructions to give her up for adoption. Unfortunately, Charlotte was unable to drop the baby off as planned, and was forced to give her own name as the child's birth mother.

Many years later, the woman Jill had always thought of as her mother, Liz Foster, discovered she had a brain tumor. Fearing that her time on Earth was limited, Liz decided to tell Jill that she was adopted. Liz survived, but the secret left Jill reeling. After a long search, she discovered Charlotte Ramsey's name on her birth certificate. Katherine was shocked when she saw Charlotte back in Genoa City a short time later, but still didn't piece together her connection with Jill. It wasn't until John Bartholomew Abbott, Sr., also a former schoolmate, recognized Charlotte that the truth started to come out. He eventually tricked Katherine into revealing that Charlotte had an abortion, which left her unable to carry children, when she was younger.

With the truth about to surface, Charlotte went to the Chancellor Estate and confronted Katherine on May 20, 2003. The revelation that Jill was her daughter caused Katherine to have a massive stroke, which left her nearly catatonic for quite a while. Still, there was an even greater sadness attached to this newly-revealed family connection. For years, Jill's son Billy and Katherine's granddaughter Mackenzie Browning had been in love. However, the mother-daughter connection between Katherine and Jill meant that Mackenzie and Billy were first cousins. Unbeknownst to them, the young couple was married, while a paralyzed Katherine could do nothing but watch. A horrified Jill and John tried to stop the wedding, but they were too late.

Eventually, Jill managed to inform the newlyweds of the shocking news before the marriage was consummated. Heartbroken, Billy and Mackenzie (played at the time by Ryan Brown and Kelly Kruger respectively) had their union annulled, and the two separately left town. Jill helped her mother to recover and the two eventually resolved their differences.

Return of the Son

In early 2007, Katherine began to have disturbing nightmares involving a baby. She soon determined that they were actually fragments of a repressed memory. Eventually Katherine recalled that years ago--unable to accept the fact that Jill had given birth to a child with her deceased husband Phillip--she kidnapped the baby, and gave him to a woman named Violet Montgomery, whom she met in a bar. Violet was to place the child with a different family. The woman then gave Katherine a different baby that Jill raised as her son, Phillip Chancellor III.

While Jill adamantly refused to believe this at first, DNA testing of Phillip's remains in March 2007 confirmed that he was not Jill's biological son. It was then revealed that Jill's real son was, in fact, new-in-town Cane Ashby, who had recently married Amber Moore (Adrienne Frantz). (In reality, Amber had deduced Cane's parentage before anyone else, and, with help from her friend Alison Stewart of As the World Turns), faked their wedding.)

In June, scandal erupted at "Extreme Catwalk", a reality-based fashion show for which both Jill and Gloria Abbott ("Judith Chapman") served as judges, when footage aired showing a confrontation between Lily Winter and Amber. Jill sided with her new daughter-in-law, but also agreed that it was best that she resign from the show.

The fight with Lily merely added to Cane's suspicion that his marriage was an elaborate lie. Cane eventually found out, much to Jill's dismay, that Amber had indeed faked their marriage, and he "divorced" her, and cut her off financially. Jill continues to clash with Amber, despite the fact that Amber and Cane are no longer romantically involved. It has infuriated Jill that Katherine does not hate the girl as well.

Ji Min Kim

Jill was engaged to Ji Min Kim (Eric Steinberg), a man she met when the House of Kim CEO briefly owned Jabot. Little did Jill know in the beginning that House of Kim was just a front for Jack Abbott's ownership of Jabot--an ownership he had to give up due to a skin cream contamination scandal. Before meeting Ji Min, Jill was seeing William Bardwell (Ted Shackelford), the District Attorney, who had just inherited a fortune from his late uncle. However, Gloria Fisher (Judith Chapman), also had her eye on him. Gloria won out in the end by drugging Ji Min and Jill with libido pills while the two discussed business in the conference room. She then set it up for William to walk in on Jill and Ji Min pawing at each other. A broken-hearted William eventually married Gloria.

Perhaps sparked by the incident with the pills, Jill and Ji Min developed genuine feelings for each other, which thrived even after the truth came out about Jabot's ownership. Katherine became furious with Jill upon learning that her daughter was planning on eloping with Ji Min Kim, feeling that he couldn't be trusted after lying to her about working for Jack. Mrs. Chancellor offered Ji Min a bribe not to marry her daughter, but he declined. Ji Min Kim was murdered in September of 2007, before he could marry Jill, which devastated her. On July 01, 2008, it was suggested that David Chow, acting on loanshark Walter Palin's behalf, played a part in the death of Ji Min Kim as a way to "pay off a debt."

Chancellor Industries

In 2008 Katherine retired as CEO of Chancellor Industries and made Jill the company's new CEO. Jill feels that Katherine is constantly looking over her shoulder, and second-guessing her decisions. This is especially true when it comes to Chancellor-subsidiary Jabot Cosmetic's new CEO, Nikki Newman. Despite several obstacles along the way, the two former enemies have begun to form a true mother-daughter bond. Nevertheless, their feud is decades old, and it remains to be seen if Katherine and Jill can continue to be cordial--recent events have caused their deeply-rooted enmity for one another to resurface.

Cane and Billy

In October 2008, for the first time Jill finally had both her sons Cane and Billy at home. Billy returned with a chip on his shoulder because Jill had made Cane CEO of Jabot over himself.