The Young and The Restless Storylines - Lauralee Bell

Lauralee Bell

A relatively controversial fixture on the show for several decades was Bell's daughter, Lauralee. Lauralee debuted in 1983 in a bit part as Christine "Cricket" Blair. As Lauralee grew up, her character became more and more prominent, to the point where in 1988 storylines had four different men in love with her. Longtime fan favorite Terry Lester, who played Jack Abbott, left the show in 1989 and blamed her partly, claiming that the excessive airtime given to Cricket drowned out the other performers.

Chris originally became the love interest of the character of Danny Romalotti and was involved in a love Quadrangle between him, Phillip Chancellor III and Nina Webster throughout most of 1987 and the first half of 1988. Chris, who was saving herself for marriage, then had an unconsummated romance with Scott Grainger (which ended abruptly when he was revealed to be her half-brother) and was later a victim of a "date-rape" where Derek raped Christine. Then it seemed as if Chase and Chris would become romantically involved and during the time Cricket was healing from being date-raped, but the story never came to fruition, even though Cricket's mother gave her blessing for the two (Cricket and Chase) of them to marry if that's what the future held for them before she died of AIDS. Christine would later marry Danny and then Paul before becoming an attorney and asking people to refer to her as "Chris". However, she remained a somewhat saccharine central heroine. At one point in 1996, the show hinted at a romance between Christine and the much older Victor Newman, but negative viewer reaction killed the story. Later, Christine began to work with Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc) who had stalked her years earlier. After a brief engagement to Michael, Christine and Paul reunited but eventually split for good. By 2004 or so, Lauralee Bell's marriage and children, as well as a successful clothing store, diminished her on-screen airtime and paved the way for other characters. In early 2005 she announced her move from contract to recurring status. In May 2007, it was announced that Bell would reprise her character on The Young and the Restless's sister soap, The Bold And The Beautiful.