The Young and the Restless is full of memorable characters, but one particular Newman, Cassie Newman, has stayed an integral part of the show despite leaving it long ago, leaving many still wondering what happened to her.
As Joshua Morrow celebrated 30 years of playing the beloved Nick Newman on CBS‘ long-running soap opera in June 2024, it also sent fans back to flashbacks of a character whose drawing still sits in the Newman family’s living room. The June 21 episode of The Young and the Restless was a special tribute to Nick’s journey in the show, from being a frisky teenager to a complex adult. While his pairing with Sharon and their children Noah and Faith makes up the most prominent part of his story, we can’t leave their adopted child Cassie out of the conversation.
Regarded as a super couple by the soap opera media, Nick and Sharon had a strong romantic storyline going for them until Sharon’s teenage motherhood was exposed by her ex-boyfriend. This pregnancy resulted in the birth of Cassie Newman (portrayed by Camryn Grimes), biologically fathered by Sharon’s high school boyfriend Frank Barritt.
Nick accepted and loved Cassie like his own daughter
Then sixteen-year-old Sharon put her daughter up for adoption right after giving birth to her due to financial struggles and the fact that her biological father Barritt wanted nothing to do with her. Cassie found her first home in Alice Joshnson’s household as an infant. However, Alice abandoned Cassie, and her frail, elderly mother Millie ended up caring for her.
It wasn’t until Sharon’s best friend Grace Turner tracked down Cassie in 1997 when Noah fell ill that Sharon could eventually reunite with her daughter. However, when Noah survived Grace decided to keep Cassie, wanting to raise the six-year-old with her boyfriend Tony Viscardi (Nick Scotti). It is only a year after Cassie starts living with Alice that Sharon learns she is her daughter.
This leads to the much-anticipated reunion between Sharon and Nick as they together fight a custody battle for Cassie. The two then adopt her and Nick is shown to love Cassie like his own child, even warning Frank to stay away when he tries to make a connection with Cassie after 11 years. As Cassie grew up, she went from a sweet child to a “rebellious” teen, but the character continued to be adored by fans.
Cassie tragically dies at the age of 14, leaving a lasting impact on the show’s plot
After Cassie turns 14, she yearns to be a part of the “popular kids” clique at school and starts socializing with older teens. However, her supposed “friends” actually laugh behind her back. Cassie also develops a crush on Daniel Romalotti (Michael Graziadei), a guy two years older than her. Acting on her rebellious instincts, Cassie goes to attend a party one night, lying to her parents that she’s going to the movies instead.
At the party, she finds Daniel drunk and unconscious and decides to take him home to the Newman ranch, where he resides with his mother Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford). Being underage and without a license, Cassie wrecks the car, seriously injuring herself and slightly hurting Daniel. After the crash, neither Daniel nor Cassie can recall anything until being taken to the hospital. It was believed up until this point that Daniel was the one driving the car.
Despite suffering serious injuries, Cassie stumbles out of the hospital to tell Daniel that she was the one driving. However, Nick finds her at Crimson Lights where she collapses, and dies hours later at the hospital with Nick and Sharon by her side in the episode dated May 24, 2005. In her last moments, she promises her parents that they will have another daughter.
Cassie’s death wrecks her parents’ marriage, but she continues to appear in the show
Nine months after Cassie passed away, Sharon is becoming closer to Brad Carlton and working more hours. In addition, Nick looks to Phyllis for emotional support and cheats on Sharon, which leads to the birth of Summer Newman (Hunter King), Nick’s daughter. This ends his marriage to Sharon and Nick soon marries Phyllis instead. However, Cassie continues to be a link between the former couple throughout the show.
But in another twist, Nick and Phyllis’ three-year marriage eventually succumbs to Nick’s conflicting feelings for Sharon, which resulted in an affair and the birth of their daughter, Faith in 2009. All this while, Cassie continues to appear in dreams or as a ghost to both her parents. She made significant appearances as an apparition to Sharon while she was off her bipolar disorder meds in 2013. Sharon then had dreams and glimpses of her for the remainder of 2014.
Playing Cassie won Camryn Grime an Emmy at the age of 10
For her depiction of Cassie, Camryn Grimes won the prestigious Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series in 2000. She defeated Kimberly McCullough, who took home the prize at age 11, to become the youngest recipient of the award, at the age of 10.
Fans of the show grew to love Grimes, and they became openly distraught about Cassie’s passing. However, even after the tragic incident, her character’s influence can still be observed in the sitcom.