Mackenzie Browning

Infobox soap character
name = Mackenzie Browning
series = The Young and the Restless
portrayer = Ashley Bashioum (1999-2002; 2004-2005)
Kelly Kruger (2002-2003)
Rachel Kimsey (2005-2006)
first = May 14, 1999
last = May 10, 2006
cause =
creator = William J. Bell



caption1 = Rachel Kimsey as Mackenzie Browning (2006)



caption2 = Ashley Bashioum as Mackenzie Browning (2004)



caption3 = Kelly Kruger as Mackenzie Browning (2003)
nickname =
alias =
gender = Female
born = 1983
death =
age = 25
occupation = Working with her father Brock on reconstruction of New Orleans
title =
residence = New Orleans
parents = Brock Reynolds
(father)
Amanda Browning
(mother)
siblings =
spouse = William "Billy" Abbott
(annulled)
romances = Raul Guittierez
(dated)
William "Billy" Abbott
(dated/engaged)
Daniel Romalotti Jr.
(dated)
Jeffrey Todd "J.T." Hellstrom
(lovers)
Kevin Fisher
children = Unnamed child
(sex unknown, with J.T.; miscarriage)
grandchildren =
grandparents = Gary Reynolds
(paternal grandfather)
Katherine Chancellor
(grandmother)
aunts/uncles = Jill Foster Abbott
(paternal aunt)
cousins = Ethan "Cane" Ashby
(paternal cousin)
William "Billy" Abbott
(paternal cousin)
relatives =
color = #C3B091
color text =

Mackenzie Alyssa 'Mac' Browning is a fictional character in the CBS soap opera "The Young and the Restless". Actress Ashley Bashioum played the role from 1999 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2005. Bashioum was replaced by Kelly Kruger during her absence from 2002 to 2003 and the role was last played by Rachel Kimsey from 2005 to 2006.

Character's background

Mackenzie met Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper) when they were both staying at the Genoa City homeless shelter and they became friends. Mac had run away from St. Louis and her mother Amanda Browning (Denice Duff) and stepfather Ralph Hunicutt. Later, Mac and Kay were equally shocked to learn that they were long-lost grandmother and granddaughter.

They left the homeless shelter with another friend, Birdie (Vernee Watson-Johnson), and returned to the Chancellor Estate together to face new co-owner Jill Abbott (Jess Walton), who Mac quickly nicknamed "the witch from hell". Jill's teenage son, Billy Abbott (then played by David Tom; later Ryan Brown and Scott Seymour) then returned to Genoa City. The two didn't get off on the right foot as Billy threw a party in his mother's absence to get back at her for grounding him. Mac was almost arrested and accused of theft. She got out of both with the help of attorney John Silva (John Castellanos) and Billy's persuasion with Jill.

Kay returned alone from her search for Mac's father, Brock (Beau Kazer), in India, where he was a missionary. Shortly afterward, Kay received a call that Brock was presumed dead. But in true soap fashion, Brock showed up and they were reunited after many years. Mackenzie, dejected by her father's "death", went missing, while Mac's new friends Billy and his friend Raul (David Lago), search for her. Mac showed up at Crimson Lights Coffeehouse and met Nina McNeil (Tricia Cast), and Nina persuaded her to stay the night with her. The next morning Mackenzie was gone when Nina returned with Billy and Raul. Mackenzie returned to the Estate to get her things, intending to leave town, when her father walked in and they are finally united.

Raul and Mackenzie became close while Billy looked on with jealousy, dealing with his own feelings for Mac, to which Mac was clueless. One evening J.T. (Thad Luckinbill) invited everyone to a party at a house that he was "house-sitting". Raul arrived in time to save best friend Billy's life when he suffered alcohol poisoning and collapsed in the snow. Neither Brittany (Lauren Woodland) nor J.T. were willing to call 911 and get themselves in trouble. Mac, who was not getting along with Billy at the time, stayed at his bedside and prayed that he would pull through. Then came the Junior Prom and Billy and Brittany were supposed to be a shoe-in, but when the votes were counted, Billy and Mac were crowned King and Queen. Only then when they danced together at the prom did they realize their feelings for each other. Unfortunately Jill noticed too, and was horrified to realize that her son could be in love with Kay's granddaughter. Billy arrived at the Chancellor Estate later and he and Mac told each other how they felt, and kissed. Jill began threatening to find runaway Mac's mother Amanda if she became involved with Billy, so Mac and Billy began meeting in secret in the Abbott children's old playhouse. He gave her a ring to seal their love.

Billy, Brittany, Raul and Rianna (Alexis Thorpe) were chosen as the Glow by Jabot Kids as a promotion for the new Jabot teen line. Mac assisted Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford) running the website featuring the kids. Brittany discovered that her boyfriend Billy was involved with Mac and arranged for Mac to walk in on her and Billy "making love." Billy had been drugged and Brittany was faking it, but Mac believed what she saw and was heartbroken. Billy tried to defend himself, but couldn't remember what happened. J.T. eventually spilled that it was setup for Mac to see, but no one realized that Billy was drugged. Brittany was hurt, but eventually took Billy back. Raul found out and broke things off with Mac, moving on to Rianna. Mac and Billy began being drawn to each other again, but it wasn't until Jack (Peter Bergman) arranged for Billy and Mac to be trapped in an elevator at Jabot that they realized that they still loved each other. Although Billy did his best to be a deter Mac "for her own good", they eventually reconciled and became a couple again. Jill made peace with their union, when she realized that compared to Brittany, Mac was the lesser of two evils.

Afraid that Amanda would show up in Genoa City and take her back, Katherine petitioned and was awarded legal custody of Mac, which eased Mac's fears of discovery, and she agreed to join the on-screen Glow By Jabot Kids. When Amanda did show up, Mac rebuffed her and sent her away. However, Amanda had divorced and run away from her husband Ralph too, and was living at the same homeless shelter where Mac and her father were volunteers. With her boyfriend Billy's help, Mac and her mother began accepting each other in their lives again.

Things went well for Billy and Mackenzie for several months. He helped her admit that she had run away from St. Louis because her stepfather Ralph had molested her, and her mother wouldn't believe it.

After the holidays, Billy realized that he was ready for more from his relationship with Mac. When he shared his feelings with her, he tried to avoid pressuring her, but couldn't accept her insistence that she was not ready and wanted to wait. As a result, the two of them broke up. They got over the trauma became friends. Then Ralph (Daniel Quinn) showed up in Genoa City and began stalking Mac. He coerced Amanda into helping him steal from the Chancellor Estate. Amanda let him into the mansion while all were at the prom, but Mac returned home unexpectedly and much to her horror, was met by Ralph. Billy arrived on the scene as Ralph was about to rape Mac, and whacked Ralph over the head with a fireplace poker. Thinking that he had killed Ralph, Billy took Mac to hide out in their special place, the old Abbott playhouse. Believing they were doomed, Billy and Mac realized they still loved each other. Ralph kidnapped Kay after she returned from chaperoning at the prom, and tied her up in a motel room. Ralph, disguised as a police officer, talked Raul into telling him places where he might find Billy and Mac. Meanwhile, Larry Warton (David "Shark" Fralick) found and rescued Kay. Ralph showed up at the playhouse, too late, but found them at a campsite where Raul and Billy used to play as kids. Ralph knocked out Billy by whacking him over the head with a rock and grabbed Mac, but Larry showed up in time to rescue her. Larry and Ralph fought, and just before the police arrived, both ended up going over a cliff to the lakeshore below. The next morning Ralph awoke and tried to kill an unconscious Larry with a rock. Scared away by the arrival of the police, Ralph disappeared into the bushes. Larry recovered with minor injuries and major thanks from Billy's mother Jill for saving her son's life. Because Jill had video evidence that Amanda had stolen her jewels, and after nearly getting both her own daughter and Jill's son killed, Amanda agreed to leave town if Jill would drop the charges.

After all he went through that Summer, Billy decided he needed to do more with his life than go to college, so he left for Louisiana to help Mac's father, Brock, build houses for the poor. He and his mother Jill shared a tearful parting although Jill felt he was making a mistake. Mac and Billy parted tearfully as well, declaring their love and promising each other this is not the end of them. Mac left Genoa City that fall to attend Northwestern University. Both Billy (now played by Ryan Brown) and Mac returned to Genoa City for Christmas, and decided to attend GCU and now share a loft apartment with Raul and Brittany. By Spring, Billy had proposed and Mac and Billy were to be married with Raul Guittierez as best man and Colleen Carlton (then Lyndsy Fonseca; later Adrianne Leon; now Tammin Sursok) as maid of honor. But with the reveal that Kay and Jill were actually mother and daughter, their lives were shattered when they realized they were cousins. Mac and Billy both left town on their own, devastated by the news.

Mac returned to Genoa City after spending time in the Southwestern US helping out teaching kindergarten and preschool children on an Indian reservation. Her grandmother Katherine, who had fallen off the wagon, was thrilled to see her. Mac found it difficult to live in the same house as a drunken Katherine and Jill, who hated her, so she moved back into the loft apartment with J.T., Brittany and Raul. (Kay has since become sober.) Victor Newman (Eric Braeden), as part of his community service sentence for commercial bribery was restoring an old building into a recreation center in a seedy part of town. He hired Mac as his supervisor on the project. 21-year old Mac began to get close with Daniel Romalotti (Michael Graziadei), who had a similar parentless background. But a jealous J.T. was only too glad to spill Daniel's secret that he was only 16 to Mac, and Mac called it quits.

Mac convinced J.T. that he really loved Brittany, but he wasn't able to tell her before Brittany married Bobby Marsino (John Enos III), so he reverted to his playboy past. Mac was able to get troubled Kevin Fisher (Greg Rikaart) to open up to her, and convinced him to go to a psychiatrist. Kevin appeared to be learning how to deal with his past and handled it well when he realized that Mac was not interested him as more than a friend. Meanwhile, Mac and J.T. got closer, and she finally lost her virginity to him. But in an intricate plot to keep the mob away from Brittany and her unborn baby, they set it up to look like JT was the father, and Bobby and Brittany staged a split. Mac wasn't included in the plot for her safety, and this "revelation" left her reeling. Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) began nosing around and uncovered the plot, ending up being kidnapped by Vinny Trabuco's (Joe Maruzzo) goon, Luca (Marcus LaVoi). Paul (Doug Davidson), Victor, and Bobby rescued Nikki while J.T. took a distraught Brittany to the Newman Ranch. Luckily Mac showed up as Brittany went into labor, and Mac delivered the two-month-premature baby, Joshua. Vinny, Angelo (Angelo Tiffe) and Luca ended up in jail, Brittany and the baby in the hospital, and Bobby turned over his evidence on the mob and went into the witness protection program, leaving Brittany and Joshua behind. J.T. confessed to Mac this was all a hoax, that he really loved her, but Mac was reluctant to trust him again. Kay convinced J.T., Brittany and her baby to come and live at the Chancellor Estate with Mac, as it would be the most secure for all of them. Months went by, and finally Brittany shared a short visit with the heavily-guarded Bobby. Not long afterward, she received word that Bobby had been killed by a hit-and-run driver. Brittany was devastated, and she and Joshua ended up moving to New York City with her parents. Mac and J.T. have since moved into the loft apartment with roommates Kevin Fisher and Scott Grainger (Blair Redford). Kevin became close friends with Mac again, and they decided to go into business together. They convinced Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Sharon (Sharon Case) to sell Crimson Lights and they began running it together.

Around the time Colleen returned to Genoa City intent on making her jealous, Mac discovered she was pregnant with J.T.'s baby. She couldn't bring herself to tell him, but she told Kay and Kevin. It wasn't until she miscarried that J.T. found out and was livid that she hadn't told him and confided in Kevin instead, so J.T. had a one night stand with Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle). Mac and J.T. broke up and Mac moved out of the loft and back into the Chancellor Estate. She was getting closer and closer to Kevin, before suddenly taking off back to the Indian reservation. Mac later returned to tell Kevin she was going to go to New Orleans to work with her father Brock and signed a power of attorney over to Kevin for the coffee house.

Actress history

;Ashley Bashioum:Contract: April 1, 1999 - February 15, 2002; April 20, 2004 - March 10, 2005

;Nicole Tarantini:Temporary replacement: 2001

;Kelly Kruger:Contract: February 19, 2002 - July 1, 2003

;Rachel Kimsey:Contract: March 25, 2005 - May 17, 2006