Don Diamont Gets Emotional Revealing the Costar Who Secretly Advocated for Him After He Was Fired From "The Young and the Restless"

Aug 31, 2026 by apost team

In 2009, after 24 years of playing Brad Carlton on CBS's "The Young and the Restless," Don Diamont was fired. The character was killed off. A run that had begun in 1985, when Diamont was a 22-year-old model who had never acted professionally, came to an abrupt end. He did not know what came next.

What came next was Heather Tom.

Tom, born Nov. 25, 1975, had played Victoria Newman on "The Young and the Restless" from 1990 to 2003 before moving to "The Bold and the Beautiful," where she has played Katie Logan ever since. When Bradley Bell, the executive producer of "The Bold and the Beautiful," was considering Diamont for the role of Bill Spencer Jr., Tom — who already knew and trusted him from their years together at Y&R — made her feelings known. Quietly, discreetly, in the way that counts most in a business where reputations travel faster than resumes, she typed a message to Bell from under a table.

"She is somewhere where she couldn't — she had to reach under the table and type, 'I want Don Diamont,'" Diamont recounted on the August 18, 2026 episode of the Soapy podcast. "So that, to me, is an Emmy. That, to me — that Heather Tom, that I call THE Heather Tom, wanting to work with me — that was enormously flattering."

He got emotional saying it. He has been working opposite Tom on "The Bold and the Beautiful" ever since — 17 years and counting, after the Y&R door closed.

"It is just such a gift," he said. "She's the best person. The finest actress. Just fun, and funny, and so talented, and just amazing. And it has just been my great privilege and joy to work opposite her all these years."

Diamont, born Dec. 31, 1962, has now spent 40 years in CBS daytime television — a milestone he celebrated in May 2025 at a private event on the set of "The Bold and the Beautiful," attended by family, friends, and former castmates from both shows. Bradley Bell, John McCook, Heather Tom, Beth Maitland, Scott Clifton, and Peter Bergman were all present.

In the Soapy podcast interview — one of the more candid conversations he has given in recent years — Diamont also reflected on what the firing felt like in real time. He came to "The Young and the Restless" in 1985 as a model who had answered an open casting call; the show's creator, Bill Bell Sr., had seen him on "Days of Our Lives" and wanted him to screen-test for Brad Carlton. He was one of eight men being considered. He got the part. He played it for 24 years.

When it ended, the cast members who embraced him made a difference he has never forgotten. "Those relationships softened the blow," he told Soapy, "and kept my name in circulation."

Tom's under-the-table message to Bradley Bell was the most specific example — and the one that made him most emotional. In a business where the distance between a role ending and a career continuing can be measured in weeks, having someone in the room advocating for you before you have even asked matters. Diamont has said it publicly now, on a podcast, to make sure she knows he has always known it.

He called working opposite her "my great privilege and joy." She reached under a table and typed three words. That, he said, was an Emmy. He is not wrong.

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Are you a fan of Don Diamont and "The Bold and the Beautiful"? Do you think his story about Heather Tom is one of the most touching tributes one soap star has paid another? Let us know in the comments and pass this on to your family, friends, and other fans out there!