‘The Young And The Restless’ Star Christel Khalil Reveals Lily’s Future

The Young and the Restless star Christel Khalil left her contract position with the show last June, and she moved to Toronto. At the same time, Lily ended up moving to a hospital several hours from Genoa City to serve her sentence for distracted driving in connection with Hilary’s death. Khalil has brought her on-screen alter ego, Lily, back a few times since she departed. However, Lily is now working at Chancellor Media with Billy, and she’s been included in the storyline a lot more.

The actress recently discussed Lily’s triumphant return to Genoa City with Soap Opera Digest. She revealed that early this year, Y&R co-executive producer and head writer Josh Griffith approached her about a new storyline for Lily. Since Khalil and her boyfriend, Sam Restagno, had already made plans to move back to Los Angeles this summer, the timing was perfect for her to bring Lily back to the canvas regularly.

“It kind of was kismet when I ran into Josh, and we had that conversation,” noted Khalil. “Sam was definitely supportive knowing that he’d have to do a lot more and watch Caden when he’s in school and stuff. I think we both care about making money.”

The actress is excited about Lily’s new storyline, too, since she’s running a division of Chancellor along with Billy (Jason Thompson). For several years, Lily was an employee and never the one in charge, but now she gets the opportunity to make the decisions — that is, if she and Billy can agree. However, Khalil said that she enjoys working so closely with Thompson as they create an entirely new division of a legacy company in Genoa City.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted for Lily, so it’s nice to actually have that. Plus, I thought it was great for there to be a job to show more women in power as well, which is something that Josh was really wanting to do,” the actress said.

With Lily fresh off serving time and then helping the women prisoners she met while she was behind bars, it is an excellent time for her to move in a completely different direction. Her twins are away at college, and Lily divorced Cane (Danial Goddard), so she can focus entirely on creating something great for Jill (Jess Walton) with Chancellor Media.

Right now, Y&R is not shooting new episodes because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Khalil, Sam, and her son are in Toronto. However, once everything with COVID-19 is under control, the family intends to continue with its plans to move to L.A. Khalil just isn’t sure exactly when that will happen.