‘The Young and the Restless’ Star Lauralee Bell Reflects on Her 40th Year on the Soap (Exclusive)

Lauralee Bell is reflecting on her 40-year career with The Young and the Restless and how the show has shaped her. 

Talking with ET, the actress, 54, said she cannot believe what was originally supposed to be a two-episode role turned into a journey spanning four decades — only one decade shy of the show’s full length. 

Bell, who first appeared on the show at just 13 years old, is the daughter of the show’s creators, William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell. 

The actress — who plays Christine “Cricket” Blair Romalotti Williams — gave ET an inside scoop at a Nov. 2 episode paying homage to her character’s story over the years, complete with the return of a fan-favorite character. 

“It’s a lot of flashbacks,” she said of the episode. “It’s fun because we’re gonna go through a lot of different characters that have made this journey with me. And yeah, it sort of comes together as a beautiful little package and at the end, there’s a little bit of — kind of like an exciting tag that we’ll see what happens next. So you can’t miss it.” 

“Super grateful to all of you who have gone on this journey with me! I never take it for granted!” Bell said on Instagram while promoting the episode.

Included in the episode is the return of Michael Damian who is reprising his role as Danny Romalotti — a character he has not played in more than 10 years. 

Romalotti was the first love interest of Bell’s Cricket and fans have long pushed for them to come back together on the show. 

Damian also sat down with ET and the two played coy about what fans can expect from the upcoming episode. 

“People will say like, ‘We can’t believe you guys may come back together. We’ve been waiting 30-some years for this to happen,'” Bell said. “Anything’s possible in Genoa City.” 

Damian agreed, saying that he thinks “there’s always a very good possibility” of a reconciliation. “He just has to write the perfect song to warm her heart. When there are two single people in Genoa City, you know, you never know what happens. Sparks can fly.” 

As for what the future holds for Bell’s character outside of the special episode, she says he doesn’t have many bucket list items but did think of one place Cricket could go. 

“I’m known as relatively a good girl so I guess I would like to just do something awful,” the Daytime Emmy nominated actress joked. ” I mean, I suppose I should say something like do a remote in Paris… It’s her turn.”

Bell also took a moment during the interview to thank the fans for supporting her and the show for five decades filled with ups and downs. 

“I just wish at the end of every episode we could say thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much.” 

The special episode of The Young and the Restless commemorating Bell’s 40 years on the show airs on Nov. 2 on CBS. 

RELATED CONTENT: