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We’ve got a soap opera shocker, celebrity gossip fans.
Allison Lanier — the Emmy Award-nominated actress who has portrayed Summer Newman on The Young and the Restless for the last three years — announced on Wednesday that she’s exiting the popular CBS drama.
Like, immediately.
“This Friday, May 2nd, will be my last episode on Y&R,” the star wrote in an April 30 message shared to social media, adding:
“I’ve loved the journey and learned so much but it’s time to grow in a different direction… very grateful for all of the Y&R fans who have supported me <3.”
Wow, huh?
No one else associated with Lanier and/or The Young and the Restless has yet commented on the unexpected departure.
The veteran actress joined the cast of the long-running program in May 2022, taking on the role of Summer Newman… who has been a series regular since her birth on a 2006 installment.
Lanier was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 2024 for her performance, losing the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series trophy to colleague Courtney Hope.
She took over the iconic character from Hunter King, who had played the role on and off since 2012, and was awarded a pair of Daytime Emmys for her effort — in 2014 and 2015.
Prior to King, Summer was played by Lindsay Bushman, Samantha Bailey, and an assortment of twin child actors, including Elara and Rhea Kerwin, and Bianca and Chiara D’Ambrosio.
It’s unclear at this time what will become of Summer.
Or who might take over for Lanier.
The character has already been kidnapped, sent into anaphylactic shock by a peanut-laced kiss, played accomplice to a cop killer, committed bribery, grand theft auto and a whole lot more. She’s been through it.
Lanier joins Colleen Zenk in walking away from The Young and the Restless.
The four-decade veteran of As the World Turns made her exit after only a year on the show in appropriately grand fashion — by chugging a teacup full of crushed sleeping pills in a January episode.
