Young & Restless Exclusive: Peter Bergman Reveals the Death — and No, It Isn’t Diane’s — That Breathed New Life Into ‘Phack’
“They are afraid of the pain they caused one another in the past.”
For far too long, The Young and the Restless‘ Jack has been walking this planet without a woman by his side. And even when he’s been lucky enough to find a lady, things have not worked out well. “Jack has been unlucky in love for as long as we’ve known him,” says someone who knows that perhaps better than anyone, portrayer Peter Bergman.
While many of the character’s issues date back to the day mom Dina walked out of his life, he has managed to slowly move beyond that painful, life-shaping incident. “With each woman that has come into his life, Jack’s learned a little bit that they’re not all Dina,” muses Bergman. “They have altered him somewhat, helping him to become who he is today.”
So what does it mean that he and a certain redhead are once again circling one another? “No one on earth knows Jack better than Phyllis,” suggests the actor. “And I would argue the reverse is also true. And now, she is by his side as a partner/companion/confessor/comfort/ally even as he’s dealing with some of the most life-changing experiences one can have.”
Interestingly enough, it was another life-changing experience which may actually have helped clear the path for a reunion between Jack and his favorite redhead. “In the wake of his father’s death, Jack became the patriarch of the family,” explains Bergman. “And with it came a new kind of empathy, and a new sense of responsibility to others. He gained the ability to like himself more, to stop trying too hard and disappointing himself when he failed.”
Jack spent several decades trying to live up to his father’s expectations… usually failing in pretty spectacular fashion.
Credit: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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More importantly, “After spending years talking about wanting to be the man his father was, he’s getting closer. And that impacts all of the relationship in his life.”
Including the one he’s currently re-developing with Phyllis. “These two people never fell out of love with each other,” he says. “It just got too painful, and that pain goes really, really deep. So as they get closer, both of them are rattled. Because neither wants to relive the mistakes of the past. They are afraid of the pain they caused one another in the past. Can they get past that? But it’s never been a lack of love for one another which holds them back.”
Look back at Jack and Phyllis’ whole love story in the new photo gallery below.
