Cane Ashby is a fictional character from The Young and the Restless, an American soap opera on the CBS network, portrayed by Billy Flynn. Created by Lynn Marie Latham and Scott Hamner, Cane was introduced in January 2007, portrayed by Daniel Goddard. Latham created Cane as the son of Phillip Chancellor II (Donnelly Rhodes) and Jill Abbott (Jess Walton); the character's background was rewritten by Latham's successor Maria Arena Bell in 2009, re-establishing him as the son of Colin and Genevieve Atkinson (Tristan Rogers and Genie Francis).
Though characterized as "mysterious", Cane is "loyal and dedicated", while Goddard described the character as a "typical Australian, working-class kind of guy". He was the first member of the Atkinson family to appear on the series, followed by his parents and twin brother. Soon after his debut, he became a leading character, a decision praised by viewers and critics. The character has been involved with Amber Moore (Adrienne Frantz), Chloe Mitchell (Elizabeth Hendrickson), and most notably Lily Winters (Christel Khalil), a romance that garnered significant fan attention. In 2009, Cane and Lily were married; Global BC would later call Lily the love of Cane's life. The pair had two children, Charlie and Matilda Ashby.
Goddard was fired in 2011; following a viewer campaign for his rehiring, Goddard returned to the role that same year. In 2019, he exited the role. In 2025, the character was reintroduced by Josh Griffith under the pseudonym of Aristotle Dumas, with Flynn assuming the role.
In October 2019, Goddard announced his exit from the role. In a post on social media, he cited his disappointment over the exit, and noted he was "shocked and gutted" by the decision; Cane exited on November 26 of the same year. In March 2025, Billy Flynn's casting was announced; he made his first appearance on June 19.
In 2008, the storyline about the call Cane received from Langley was readdressed, as re-written by Maria Arena Bell. In her revised version of the storyline, Langley is really Phillip Chancellor III, portrayed by Thom Bierdz. The series kept secrecy around the plot twist by sneaking Bierdz in to tape scenes and asked that he not tell anyone of his return. Goddard liked the plot twist because it added another dimension to Cane, saying that the change would "allow another metamorphosis to begin" and additional "development and evolution of Cane". He also said that Cane had always been a "three-dimensional character" and "a fourth dimension" would soon be seen because the viewers would finally find out where he came from and who he is. Bell later introduced Tristan Rogers as Colin Atkinson and Genie Francis as Genevieve Atkinson, who would portray Cane's biological parents. Goddard stated that Rogers being on the soap opera "created a father/son rapport" for the character, which he thought had "a lot of promise" and was a "wonderful dynamic".
Goddard compared the romance between Lily and Cane to Lady Chatterley's Lover since both characters grew and learned from the relationship. Cane developed an attraction to Heather Stevens (portrayed by Vail Bloom) while with Lily; Goddard noted it would "come down to what Cane needs" when choosing between the two women. The storylines written for the lovers included a controversy with the characters' age gap, a miscarriage, and a love rectangle with Chloe Mitchell (Elizabeth Hendrickson) and Billy Abbott (Billy Miller). Within the love rectangle story, Chloe tricks Cane into thinking they conceived a child together. To make the storyline work, the writers scripted Cane as less intelligent, a strategy they used previously during his storyline with Amber. To keep the character from looking bad, Goddard said he made acting choices to justify Cane's actions. Despite the lessening of the character's intelligence, Goddard said he liked the story because of the originality of the plot. Love triangles and questioned paternity happen regularly in soap operas, but he felt that former head writer Maria Arena Bell managed to make those conventions fresh and new. Khalil stated that she "loved" the storyline, also saying she loved the actors involved in it. Khalil said she thought it "was a possibility" for Lily and Cane to have a happy ending, and that Lily "can see the hope, and they can adapt and love each other in a more mature and honest way". Cane married Lily in 2009, and the following year, Global BC called Lily the love of Cane's life. In 2011, Lily divorced Cane after he continued to lie to her about his faked death. However, she eventually discovered Cane was trying to protect her, and they were remarried. Goddard commented that their relationship "had come full circle" and "was being done well". Of Cane and Lily's second wedding, Goddard stated that Cane and Lily have "certainly had a lot of ups and downs", but he thought through all of that their fans "stayed true and they have expressed their desire for what they want to see". Goddard also thought their wedding of "this caliber" would make their fans "very, very happy and that is what this is about".
In June, Griffith previewed to Soaps.com that he had found "exactly the right person" to portray Aristotle, with the website noting it was "hard to imagine it being a coincidence that the character and Billy Flynn begin airing the same week". When Flynn's casting was announced as Aristotle, he compared himself in the role to that of "the person behind the Great Gatsby", recalling the character of Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. This led soap media and fans to further suspect Aristotle Dumas as a pseudonym for Cane; Screen Rant cited the fan theory of Flynn's casting as changing "everything", while also stating his casting "only adds more speculation to who Aristotle really is". Following the June 20 reveal that Cane was Aristotle Dumas, Flynn spoke to TV Insider regarding his casting. He revealed the hardest part was "the idea that I'm playing Aristotle Dumas, this refined businessman who Cane created". He further explained his previous comparison to The Great Gatsby, stating: "Cane created Aristotle Dumas the way that James Gatz created Gatsby. Lily is Daisy Buchanan. He created this world to prove to her that he’s good enough for her, and that is a beautiful story to me." Flynn also revealed plans to rebrand the role, stating, "Cane is a fascinating character. Essentially, we're going to rebrand it a bit, so they Cane have a closer age range, and I don't have a sexy accent. I can't replicate it, so I'm going to do my thing. When people see this Cane and the relationship that I have as Cane with Lily, I think they'll be happy." Khalil echoed Flynn's statement, stating she believed Griffith had done a "good thing" in changing the character with Flynn's casting. She further explained it was "not going to be the same Cane. It's a completely different person, and I really hope that everybody gives Billy a chance and tries to look at the character through new eyes, because it is a new person, and honestly, it's a new character. He's nothing like Daniel Goddard, and that's kind of the point. The point was to make this character something completely different. And so hopefully people give it a chance and look at it like a new relationship rather than like an old one coming back."
Of his casting, Flynn referred to it as a "dream come true" and recalled, "I know all these actors, watching them and admiring them for years". Michael Fairman suggested the potential foreshadowed death of Rivers' Damian, predicting, "Is Y&R going White Lotus on us? Stay tuned." Khalil complimented Flynn's casting, stating, "I heard great things from some of the other cast members who had either worked with him or knew people that worked with him. He's such a great guy and great to work with."
After the wedding, Cane recalled a phone call he had with his "Uncle Langley" regarding their Confidence trick with Jill and Katherine. Afterward, Langley was revealed to be the long deceased Phillip Chancellor III in June 2009; Cane was in fact not Jill's son but someone hired by Phillip. Lily and Cane separated upon this revelation, but soon reunited upon her diagnosis with ovarian cancer. Her uterus was taken out during surgery, but the doctors were able to harvest two of her eggs; they decided to start a family with Mackenzie Browning (Clementine Ford) acting as their surrogate mother. Browning became pregnant with twins. Afterward, an immigration officer arrested Cane and planned to deport him, as he was not truly Phillip. Since he was present for the birth of his children, Charlie Ashby and Mattie in June 2010 and helped Lily overcome cancer he was not deported. Cane was then blackmailed by the crime family he turned to in Australia, and embezzled money from Tucker McCall's (Stephen Nichols) company with the help of Sofia Dupre (Julia Pace Mitchell). Cane's biological father, Colin Atkinson (Tristan Rogers), then came to Genoa City in December 2010 to help Blake Joseph blackmail Cane. Colin then became engaged to Jill much to Cane's dismay. Cane then tried to stop their wedding but was shot in the chest by Blake on the church steps; he died afterward, leaving Lily devastated. Lily then began believing she was receiving afterlife messages from Cane and sought professional help. After seeing Cane several times, Lily realized he wasn't a figment of her imagination; it was then revealed in May 2011 that the man shot at the church wasn't Cane, but his identical twin brother, Caleb Atkinson, who was scheming with Colin to kidnap Charlie and Mattie. However, Cane continued to act as Caleb to stop the plot with Colin and later his mother, Genevieve (Genie Francis). When Lily found out about the entire conspiracy, she refused to forgive Cane and divorced him. After Colin tried to kidnap her children, Lily began to forgive Cane and let him protect her. When Cane threatened to return to Australia, Lily let him back into her life. Later, they reunited when she realized the cause of all the secrets: to take down Colin. Cane proposed to her again and they married in Provence, France in February 2012. Genevieve stays in town, and Cane constantly rejects her for everything she has done. Cane and Lily then go to work at Jabot Cosmetics, where Cane is interim CEO. Tyler Michaelson (Redaric Williams) becomes smitten with Lily and the two develop an attraction, making Cane jealous. Lily and Tyler share a kiss, but she turns him down and returns to Cane.
Cane then helps Katherine discover she has a brain tumor that needs to be removed. While she is on sick leave, she names Cane interim CEO of her company, Chancellor Industries. He later hires an assistant, Hilary Curtis (Mishael Morgan), whom Jill and then Lily become suspicious of. Meanwhile, an unknown blogger is targeting the Winters family online, with photos of Hilary kissing Cane as well as the two of them in a hotel room. After a private investigation, the Winters figure out Hilary is the blogger (as she blames Neil for her mother's death years prior) just as Hilary attempts to drug Cane. She is fired from Chancellor Industries and shunned by the family. Soon after, everyone gets word that Katherine has died from terminal cancer while on trip around the world. She leaves Cane as CEO, but leaves her percentage to Victor (Braeden). After recovering their marriage, Cane and Lily agree to become the new managers of the Genoa City Athletic Club after her brother Devon Hamilton (James) buys it. In 2015, Cane and Lily experience marital problems after Lily learns Cane knew about Devon and Hilary's affair. Cane takes a job at Fenmore's and begins to grow close to his step-aunt, Lauren Fenmore (Tracey Bregman). The two eventually share a kiss which causes further problems within his marriage. Incorrectly thinking he and Lauren are having an affair, Lily lashes out by sleeping with Cane's friend and one-time business associate, Joe Clark (Scott Elrod). Cane dumps Lily after she confesses to the tryst. The two reconcile a few months later with Joe having become obsessed with Lily. He is subsequently framed by Joe as having involvement in Hilary's disappearance. Lily is unsure of what to believe causing Cane to be upset that she would question his innocence and the two separate, with Cane moving out of their home. Lily sleeps with Joe again before finding out the truth. Lily agrees to help Cane clear his name but he rejects her attempts to reconcile. The two eventually reconcile in early 2016. Jill purchases Brash & Sassy and appoints Cane co-CEO alongside Billy (Thompson) and Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle).
In 2017, Jill sells Brash & Sassy to Victoria and Lily becomes their brand ambassador. Cane believes Victoria's romantic feelings for Billy make her bias, so Cane plots to have Billy fired. After Billy secures a lucrative deal for Brash &Sassy everyone travels to Los Angeles to film a national commercial. Cane pays a videographer to alter footage involving Billy. The footage airs during a live broadcast causing a PR nightmare. As a result, Lily's commercial is pulled and Brash & Sassy loses a substantial amount of money. Prior to this, while on a business trip to Tokyo, Cane gets drunk and has sex with a colleague, Juliet Helton (Laur Allen). Cane tries to keep the one-night-stand a secret but when Victoria fires Juliet for approving the footage, she files a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company naming Cane as her harasser. Cane at first denies anything sexual happened but when Juliet announces her pregnancy he finally admits to a tearful Lily that he had sex with Juliet. Victoria feels forced to settle the suit and fires Cane for costing her company a substantial amount of money. After a DNA test proves Cane is the father, he is thankful that Lily decides to stay in their marriage but the videographer comes back asking for more money. Cane, afraid of Lily learning he is responsible for her national commercial being pulled, uses the twin's private high school tuition money to pay him off. When Lily learns of this from Billy and Victoria, she kicks him out and he moves into the Chancellor Mansion. After months of unemployment Jill agrees to appoint him interim CEO of Chancellor Industries. He is devastated when Lily files for divorce but when Juliet dies during childbirth the divorce is postponed. Upon Lily's suggestion, Cane names his newborn son Sam, after his deceased younger sister Samantha.
In 2018, Cane pursues Lily to Paris, the two have a romantic reunion and they renew their vows on Valentine's Day. Lily is later sentenced to a year in prison for vehicular homicide and is sent to prison. Cane struggles with loneliness in her absence and kisses Victoria Newman twice. The second of which Billy Abbott interrupts and relays to Lily that Cane is cheating on her while she's in prison. She is upset but vows to "survive this by any means necessary." Lily subsequently cuts off communication with Cane and removes him from her visitors list. When Cane later receives divorce paper in the mail, he rips them up and vows to fight for his marriage. Cane pleads with Lily to work on their marriage but Lily sticks to her decision. Neil unexpectedly passes away on the day of Lily's release in April 2019 and Lily leaves Genoa City after her father's funeral. Cane is devastated at the loss of his marriage and after weeks of hoping Lily will return to him, he finally signs the divorce papers. During this time Cane develops a friendship with Traci Abbott (Beth Maitland) who supports him as tries to figure out his future without Lily. Traci develops a crush on Cane, which Cane is initially unaware of but later reciprocates which leads to him kissing her but the two decide to remain good friends instead of exploring a romantic relationship. In the fall of 2019, will pages are discovered that names Cane as the heir to the bulk of Katherine Chancellor's fortune, as opposed to his former brother-in-law Devon. Wanting to honor his late grandmother's wishes, Devon signs over the 2.4 billion dollars he inherited to Cane. Afterward, it is discovered that the new will pages were a forgery by Colin and Colin implicates Cane as a co-conspirator in the scam. Colin confesses to taking the money out of Cane's account and escapes from police custody. Cane vows to track down Colin, clear his name and return the money to the rightful heir.
In 2025, a mysterious billionaire Aristotle Dumas begins to seek interest in several companies based on Genoa City—namely Hamilton Winters Group and Abbott Communications. His name strikes interest in several residents, including Victor (Braeden) and Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman). With the assistance of Amanda Sinclair (Morgan) and his assistant Carter (Vincent Stalba), Aristotle invites select guests to Nice, France, where he intends to lift his mysterious identity. With Amanda's assistance, Aristotle reveals himself as Cane to Lily, telling her things would be explained after he greets his other guests.
Janet Di Lauro of Soap Opera Weekly commended Maria Arena Bell's change to Cane's backstory, saying: "This story also breathes new life into Cane, who was becoming increasingly dull as a whitewashed, pompous do-gooder. Suddenly, he has his edge back." Soap Opera Digest gave the storyline a thumbs up and a thumbs down because, though it was an exciting twist, it happened too closely to the other Chancellor family rewrite undoing the mother and daughter relationship between Jill and Katherine. The magazine later named the storyline the "Most Preposterous Plot Twist" of 2009 because the rewrite "was way out of sync with Y&R's usual authentic approach to storytelling". In 2011, Tommy Garrett of Canyon News said that Goddard is "forever second guessing his character when asked about Cane by the media", also stating that, "To keep an edgy Cane, never to make him boring and lifeless. That's why Cane is forever keeping secrets from his wife Lily and step mom Jill." Garrett added that he was "interested to see what Maria Bell's plan is" to keep the character edgy, and that Goddard's performance is "always dependable, on fire and exciting". In 2013, another writer from Canyon News, LaDale Anderson, commented that it was difficult for Lily to resist attraction to Tyler Michaelson (Redaric Williams), saying that "trouble in paradise is brewing".
What's on TV Terrell Smith compared the Flynn's potential casting as Cane to that of Rory Gibson assuming the role of Michael Corinthos on General Hospital, suggesting he wouldn't "rule out the possibility that a new actor can add some excitement to a veteran character." In response to the story involving Flynn's casting, Soap Opera Digest columnist Carolyn Hinsey wrote that "the story focused solely on the recast Cane holding Genoa City's A-listers hostage. Bringing Cane back to Genoa City, where he's on equal footing with Victor, Jack, and even Billy, is much more interesting because the action is balanced."
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