Credit: John Paschal/JPI, Monty Brinton/CBS via Everett Collection

When Young & Restless brought Cole Howard back onto the canvas for the reveal that Claire Grace was his and Victoria Newman’s daughter, Eve, we knew that if he stuck around in Genoa City it would only be a matter of time before the author crossed paths with another former wife, Ashley Abbott.

Ashley featured heavily in the storyline surrounding the birth (and supposed death) of Cole and Victoria’s baby, as did the late Neil Winters.

At this point, you may be wondering how on earth Ashley and Neil managed to get caught up in the birth of another couple’s child. Well, a tangled web was woven back then. Let us explain…

Victoria and Cole never had an easy time of it after becoming involved. First, Victoria had to contend with the revelation that Cole had been intimate with her mother, Nikki. Somehow she got past it, and they married, only to be informed by Victor that they were brother and sister, which later turned out to be fake news.

Moving on from that, Victoria became jealous when Cole started spending time with his editor, Jeri Paulson, on a project. Jeri was sent back to New York and that was the end of that. However, it wasn’t long before Victoria began sharing kisses with her ex, Ryan McNeil, at work, and Cole began to fall for Ryan’s wife, Nina Webster. Victor intervened and the pair decided to give their marriage another shot, but Victoria soon took off overseas. That’s where Ashley enters the story.

Having agreed to let Cole base his new novel on her, Ashley began spending a lot of time with him in his wife’s absence. Cole wasn’t happy about Victoria taking off and decided to move out. Unsurprisingly, Cole and Ashley began exchanging kisses during research sessions and that’s when Victoria finally returned home… just in time to watch them making out through the window.

Ashley, who was the “other woman” in Victor’s marriage to Nikki, and who became Victoria’s stepmother in the past much to her chagrin, was now the “other woman” in her own marriage. Cole and Victoria split and he proposed to Ashley, who accepted.

Coincidentally, that’s when Victoria learned she was pregnant with Cole’s child. Neil proposed to Victoria as they made an effort to dissuade Cole from the idea that he was the father of her unborn baby, but Victoria eventually told the truth. Cole announced that he would be a father to the child, but still intended to marry Ashley.

As we all now know, Victoria and Cole’s baby was born and “died” of complications, but was actually stolen by Cole’s Aunt Jordan and raised to believe she’d been abandoned by her parents and the Newman clan.

In the aftermath of losing the baby, Victoria was comforted by Cole and broke things off with Neil before returning to the Newman ranch to recuperate.

Cole, meanwhile, was taken off guard when Ashley stole off to Madrid and became involved with a man named Rafael. The author assumed his lady love was having an affair, but the man was actually her half-brother via her biological father, Brent Davis. Cole followed Ashley around Europe as she tried to buy back forged paintings, and Victoria, intent on breaking up the marriage, joined the chaos and hooked up with Rafael.

Ultimately, Ashley wanted to save her marriage by having a baby with Cole, but he was ready to move on, took a position as a professor at Oxford, and filed for divorce.

Fast-forward to the present, where Ashley and Cole are set to reunite in Genoa City for the first time in decades. We’re certain she’ll be as stunned as anyone to hear of the twists of fate that brought him back.