Soap star Don Diamont gave one of his former costars credit for helping him find work after he was fired from The Young and the Restless.
“The greatest blessing of my professional life,” Diamont, 63, gushed during the Tuesday, August 18, episode of the “Soapy” podcast, referring to longtime Bold and the Beautiful costar Heather Tom. “The story goes, which Heather always tells, [starts] when she heard I was coming to B&B.”
Diamont explained that once Tom, 50, learned of his potential casting, she proclaimed to the production team that the “type [she] wants” for a love interest was Diamont himself.
“So, that to me is an Emmy,” he quipped. “Heather Tom, that I call ‘The Heather Tom,’ wanting to work with me? That was enormously flattering, and it is just such a gift.”
Diamont starred as Brad Carlton for 20 years on The Young and the Restless before he was abruptly fired in 2009. Later that year, Diamont began portraying Bill Spencer Jr. on The Bold and the Beautiful.
“She’s just the best person,” Diamont further gushed of fellow YATR alum Tom, who plays Katie Logan on B&B. “[She’s] the finest actress, just fun and funny and so talented, just amazing. It has just been my great privilege and joy to work opposite her all these years.”
Diamont and Tom’s B&B characters have since become one of the soap opera’s most beloved couples.
“Along with Heather, my sons — including my latest crew — [are] such wonderful people, such wonderful actors,” he gushed on Tuesday’s episode. I’m so blessed, so fortunate.”
After making the move from YATR to B&B, Diamont has been candid about his unexpected exit.
“I have to admit that was challenging,” he told Soap Opera Digest in 2020. “The character was being so compromised over that year [when Brad was rewritten as a former Navy SEAL whose family was entangled with Nazis] that I wasn’t entirely surprised by the move, yet I was still somewhat shocked when it actually came down. It was scary. It was difficult to take because it seemed unwarranted. It just came out of nowhere after 23 years.”
He added at the time, “I was fired the day before Thanksgiving, and my last shooting day was the day before the Christmas hiatus. It was hard. … Some of the other actors, along with my wife, Cindy, put together a going away party, which was very poignant. I was very touched by it. It was emotional. It was a tough day, but in hindsight, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
