Young & Restless Exclusive: Michael Mealor and Allison Lanier Unpack Kyle and Summer’s ‘True Love,’ Simmering Jealousy and Necessary Mistakes
Can The Young and the Restless ever get Kyle and Summer on the same page again? Well, Michael Mealor and Allison Lanier have a lot to unpack when it comes to their characters’ relationship with each other — it’s the ultimate “it’s complicated” love story. Summer has happily moved on to Chance, but there always seems to be an underlying connection between her and Kyle that cannot be denied.
Is there jealousy brewing between them? Well, Lanier gave Soaps.com the inside scoop, and she has a pretty firm stance on where Summer stands right now. She points out that Kyle “doesn’t have a leg to stand on in terms of jealousy” because he jumped in bed so quickly with Audra. “I think that maybe she does feel good in the sense that he went off and had this fling that kind of crashed and burned,” she says. “And she moved on to this kind of awesome love affair that could develop into something more serious.” That gives Chance a major leg up in the competition!
Where does that leave Kyle in all of this? Well, Mealor believes that “there’s always going to be a part of Kyle that’s jealous of any man that comes into Summer’s life,” so he has to deal with the consequences of his actions. However, there’s also a lot of growth between them, especially after Harrison’s kidnapping forced them to become a united front. “I love how Kyle and Summer have evolved, where they have this mutual love for each other,” says Mealor.
Mealor knows that his character has come a long way from acting on his “very primal instinct” by hooking up with Audra in the wake of Summer’s betrayal. He thinks Kyle acted impulsively to “numb the pain,” and while he’s not “justifying any of the actions that Kyle has done,” Mealor knows that he “didn’t want to feel anything.” He adds, “I think there was definitely something in him that came to a breaking point. It was a snap for him.”
In his state of not wanting “to feel anything,” Kyle might have finally understood how much he actually felt for Summer. It’s something that will hopefully evolve over time whether it’s as friends, co-parents, or something more. “They just want what’s best for each other. Whether they’re the best thing for each other at any given time, [it] may be right, [it] may be wrong, but they just love each other,” Mealor sums up. “I think that’s more true love than anything, really.”