Y&R’s Mal Young Reveals Backstory Behind Dina’s Alzheimer’s Tale

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Y&R Executive Producer and Head Writer Mal Young.

Mal Young revealed his mother also suffered from the Alzheimer’s.

Art Mirrors Reality

The Young and the Restless is currently tackling a sad subject familiar to many, Dina (Marla Adams) is struggling with debilitating Alzheimer’s Disease. The Y&R matriarch, portrayed deftly by Adams, has been grappling with the neurodegenerative disease, and the actress continues to give a bravura performance of her character’s valiant struggle.

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Young told Soap Central that the story resonates deeply with him, given his own mother’s fight with the all-too-common disease.

“When my dad died, my mom truly fell apart,” Young told Soap Central. “Then my sister and I received calls that she wasn’t showing up to work, or that she was making mistakes like giving people the wrong change back for their purchases.”

Daytime Destiny

Young’s involvement with Y&R seemed to be foretold by his mom’s love of Coronation Street, the popular British soap.

“My mom watched every single episode every day of the week until the day she died,” he said. So, it’s fitting that he’s at the helm of this very popular American sudser, and moreover, relating something personal through one of its characters.

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“Featuring these topics opens our audience up for discussion and it helps people grappling with these issues realize they aren’t alone,” he said.

Authentic Adams

Much deserved praise has been showered on Adams for her performance. She touched upon how the show is being painstaking in keeping the sensitive nature of the storyline authentic in an interview with TV Insider’s Michael Logan.

“We’ve been working with the Alzheimer’s Association to make sure we’re doing all this accurately and realistically,” she said. “Sometimes this has been scary as hell to play because it puts me in touch with my own mortality. But I’m also blown away by the opportunity because it’s a groundbreaking story and the audience can relate.”

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Well, dear readers, we at Soap Cities send kudos to Y&R for tackling this tough but topical storyline!

Give us your input in the comment section below. Check back with Soap Cities for more Y&R spoilers, recaps, news, and fun! Follow us on Twitter at @soapcities, on Instagram at @soapcities, and come chat with us in our Facebook group. Catch The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS. If you want more soap action 24/7, go to Soap Fans United!

 

 

Christine is a native New Yorker and freelance writer who now lives in southwestern Connecticut. She is a longtime, avid soap fan who has always had an affinity for ABC soaps, in particular her favorite, General Hospital. (She will even tell you she sleeps, eats and breathes that soap!) She is passionate about the soap genre, and in addition she enjoys traveling, attending plays and musicals, reading biographies and various pursuits in between. She was a political science/history major, English minor and has published a book of paranormal short stories under her nom de plume, Prudence MacGregor.

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