Young And The Restless – Remember When? The Start Of Katherine Chancellor and Jill Foster’s Epic Feud

Young and the Restless Jill Foster (Jess Walton) and Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper) had the longest running feud in the history of American soap operas, and it all began with the tragic death of Katherine’s husband Phillip Chancellor II (Donnelly Rhodes).

The Young And The Restless (Y&R) rivals met back in 1975 when Jill (played by Brenda Dixon at the time) was a teenager working in a salon. Katherine was her favorite client and the two became close. Eventually, The Old Battle-axe (as Jill later referred to her) hired The Tramp (Katherine’s future name for Jill) as a paid companion.

Growing up on the poor side of town, the job was a fantasy come true for Jill and she started to spend a lot of time at the estate. At first, she tried to help Katherine patch up her crumbling marriage to Phillip. But Katherine’s alcoholism and chain smoking drove Phillip right into Jill’s arms and she and Phillip fell in love.

Suspicious of Jill’s involvement with her husband, Katherine introduced her to her son Brock. Jill still had feelings for Phillip but was overwhelmed by guilt over their affair, so she agreed to marry Brock. But when Jill told Phillip she was carrying his child, Phillip informed Katherine their marriage was over and flew to the Dominican Republic to get a quickie divorce.

Katherine picked Phillip up from the airport to try to convince him not to marry Jill. When he rebuffed her suggestion, she lost control of the car and drove it off a cliff. Phillip was seriously injured and married Jill from his hospital bed just before he died.

Devastated, The Tramp confronted The Old Battle-axe in her hospital room. Jill told her rival she blamed her for Phillip’s death and that after suffering through years of a miserable marriage with Katherine, he had finally been happy with her. Katherine blasted her and told Jill she never loved Phillip and was only after him for his money.

She then blamed Jill for Phillip’s death. If it hadn’t been for her, she told Jill, he wouldn’t have gone to the Dominican Republic in the first place and she wouldn’t have had to drive him home from the airport. Jill accused Katherine of driving the car over the cliff on purpose and marched out of the room. And so began the decades-long feud between Katherine Chancellor and Jill Foster.

As always, more detailed spoilers and a full collection of pictures for the week in question will appear here on Soap Opera Spy, where there will be more clues and hints over exactly what’s going on.