Fans of The Young and the Restless are growing worried they may have to say goodbye to Phyllis after a 2025 exit scare.
Phyllis Summers has been a regular character on The Young and the Restless since actress Michelle Stafford took the role on starting in 1994. Over the last 31 years, she has appeared in three different stints playing Phyllis after first being introduced as a groupie for Michael Damian's Danny Romalotti.
In more recent memory, as has been the case for years, The Young and the Restless has already handled a couple of exit scares moving into its 52nd season.
What Happened to Phyllis on Young and Restless?
Recent events on The Young and the Restless put Michelle Stafford's long-term tenure as Phyllis Summers into question.
Specifically, Phyllis and Sharon Newman were abducted together. This already set up a major bout of drama considering the animosity these two characters have shown towards each other over the years.
This comes after weeks of Phyllis believing Sharon murdered her son's girlfriend and framing him for it. However, with them now having been kidnapped alongside each other, they now have to depend on each other for survival.
The moment could also spell danger for Sharon Case's The Young and the Restless character after Sharon was caught red-handed murdering Heather Stevens in a late 2024 episode.
Is Phyllis Leaving Young and the Restless?
In most cases, it takes something big for a veteran star like Michelle Stafford to vacate a role for good after a soap opera tenure of that length.
While she left the role previously, she found her way back in front of the camera after short breaks every time and continued to thrive on The Young and the Restless.
Speaking with TV Insider, Stafford discussed how Phyllis and Sharon will have to figure out what is going on with them while "playing that it is [their] last moment of life" on set:
"They’re figuring out what the what the hell is going on. I kept on trying not to get too literal about it but really imagine if you were kidnapped and put in a room and you had been drugged. You probably think the next thing is you're going to be raped and murdered or tortured and chopped up, so I kept on being like, 'Don't we think we’re gonna die?' So, we were playing that it is our last moment of life."
Case posited the idea of the two enemies working together, reflecting honestly on how they feel that way at times and "sometimes they feel the opposite:"
"We felt like the characters thought, 'Maybe we are supposed to work together.' And sometimes they feel the opposite, that this is an every-man-for-themselves situation, which is very real. Over the course of the entire storyline, we're put in a lot of rough situations, we go through every different kind of emotion and our relationship changes over and over."
"I'd like to call this story 'Asylum,'" Case further explained, noting how it "changes the characters and propels them forward" after everything that happens in upcoming weeks:
"I like to call this story 'Asylum.' The first one [Heather's death] was 'Murder.' Everyone saw the first episode of 'Asylum' today, but this carries on and it does take some interesting turns and arcs. It changes the characters and propels them forward. This is really going to be fun and interesting and a great ride for the audience. When Josh Griffith writes this way, it’s a treat. You have to tune in for this one."
While some exit scares on soap operas seem more serious than others (see more on Cyrus' potential leave from General Hospital here), these circumstances do not feel as dire for Phyllis. With her extended tenure and the teases for upcoming episodes, all signs point to her living to see another day.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air every weekday on CBS at 12:30 p.m. ET and can also be streamed on Paramount+.
