Traci Abbott Connelly

Traci Ann Connelly (née Abbott; formerly Romalotti and Carlton) is a fictional character on the American soap opera The Young and the Restless. She has been played by American actress Beth Maitland on and off since 1982. Maitland won a Daytime Emmy Award for playing Traci in 1985, which was also the very first acting Emmy Award the show had won.^[1]

Comings and goings

Originally intended to be a short term contract role lasting three months, the actress impressed the producers and stayed on the show on and off between June 1982 to 1996. She returned briefly in 1999 and again from May 2001 to December 26, 2002. After a 4-year absence, she returned with brief guest appearances in 2006, in which John Abbott was dying from a stroke. She returned on a recurring basis beginning on March 1, 2007, as she returns briefly for special occasions. She appeared on an episode of The Bold and the Beautiful on March 20, 2007.

Character history

Traci is the youngest daughter of cosmetics tycoon, John Abbott (Jerry Douglas) and his first wife, equally successful cosmetics entrepreneur, Dina Mergeron (Marla Adams). She is the sister of Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman), maternal half-sister of Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson), and paternal half-sister of Billy Abbott (Billy Miller). She is also the most sensitive and emotional of the siblings.

For a long time, she felt insecure and jealous of her more glamorous sister, Ashley. As such, she suffered from terribly low self-esteem and also from bulimia. During a period in which she was addicted to diet pills, she would often sing (to the melody of Turn to Stone by Electric Light Orchestra), "I turn to pills, when I'm feeling ill, I turn to pills". Traci and Jack have an excellent relationship as brother and sister. Whenever she had problems, she usually turned to her father or her older brother.

During the 1980s, her biggest rival was singer/department store heiress Lauren Fenmore (Tracey E. Bregman), but has long since put those feelings aside and she and Lauren are somewhat civil and friendly to one another. She was twice married to Brad Carlton (Don Diamont) and is the mother of their now-deceased daughter Colleen Carlton (Tammin Sursok). Her first husband was Danny Romalotti (Michael Damian). After finding out that she was pregnant by Tim Sullivan, she found him in bed with another woman. Desperate, Traci attempted suicide at Danny's apartment. After hearing her story, Danny offered to marry her to give the child a name. Traci later miscarried and selflessly divorced Danny. She then married Brad Carlton. Everything was fine, until Brad's psycho ex wife returned, kidnapped Brad and left a message for Traci that the two of them had run off together. Brad and Traci divorced, later reconciled and remarried when she became pregnant with Colleen. The two would later divorce again.

She currently lives in New York City with her third husband, book editor Steve Connelly (Greg Wrangler), and works there as a successful author. Because of her frequent travels and her work, she has had no idea of all the familial strife that has plagued the Abbotts.

Traci returned to Genoa City on August 18, 2006, for her father's hospitalization; subsequent death, and stayed for his funeral. Her sensitive and emotional nature is still evident, especially during the blistering argument that Jack had with John's widow, Gloria (Judith Chapman). The shock was evident on her face when she hears all the strife that has been circling around in her family. Despite this, Traci is the only Abbott sibling that has no issue with Gloria.

She returned to Genoa City on March 1, 2007, due to the condition of her daughter, Colleen (played at the time by Adrianne Leon), who had been injured in a fire set by Jana Hawkes (Emily O'Brien). A few weeks later, she called her sister Ashley in Los Angeles. She appeared in Genoa City in September 2007 to lend moral support to her brother Jack as he attempted to deal with the fallout from a fraud scandal.

She came to Genoa City again on August 13, 2008 to attend the Jabot Cosmetics annual stockholders meeting after the David Chow Scandal. She told her ex-husband Brad, she would give her support to him as Jabot Cosmetics' CEO if he could gain enough votes. However, an unpredictable move by Jill Abbott caused her son Cane Ashby to become Jabot Cosmetics' new CEO, in order to restore the appearance that Jabot Cosmetics is a family-owned company again. Later in late 2009, Traci returned to Genoa City in order to help her sister Ashley, who was going through a hard time. Colleen was kidnapped by Patty Williams. Colleen escaped but fell into a lake and nearly drowned. She was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late and Colleen was declared brain dead. A heartbroken Traci decides to donate Colleen's heart to Victor. Later there is a funeral for Colleen, after she left and stayed in New York for a couple months but returned on December 24th 2009 (Christmas Eve) and spent Christmas with family and friends and is expected to stay indefinitely.

When Lily Winters Ashby, Colleen's best friend, asks Traci if she would like to be the godmother to her twins, Charlie & Matilda, Traci happily accepts.

References