There’s not a soap character that’s ever been created that keeps a secret better than Colleen Zenk. The daytime legend knew for over a month that she’d be wreaking havoc on The Young and the Restless as Claire’s Aunt Jordan, yet her lips remained as sealed as the vault in which Victor Newman keeps his will.\
“I’ve been doing this since early August,” she confesses. “Which is a long time to keep this kind of secret!” So how, exactly, did the show manage to do so? “They literally did not have my name on anything. Not on a script list, not on a dressing room list. When they called me to the set, they used my character name, never my actual name. They did everything they could to make sure nobody talked… including me!”
The actress, who played Barbara Ryan on As the World Turns from 1978 until its cancellation in 2010, couldn’t help but be tantalized by the possibilities presented by Aunt Jordan. “I got one phone call from [headwriter] Josh Griffith, and once he described the character and storyline to me, I said, ‘I’ll be on the next plane!’ Jordan is right up my alley”
Of course, the biggest question surrounding Jordan is how she’s connected to the Newman family in general — and Nikki in particular — as well as what drives her seeming hatred. On that, Zenk is largely mum. “The way she was described to me was that Jordan would be causing a lot of trouble for a lot of people,” she reveals. “And I said, ‘Oh, well, I certainly know how to do that!’”
Zenk doesn’t yet know Aunt Jordan’s endgame, but even if she did, she wouldn’t spill the beans — well, not all of them, anyway. (A longtime soap star like her knows better than to reveal everything!) However, she does say that “the story will take a while to fully come to light, so people will definitely have to stay tuned to find out Jordan’s ulterior motive.”
As for exactly how long Zenk and Jordan will remain in Genoa City, the actress insists that’s up in the air. “It’ll be a while, but I don’t actually know how long,” she says. “I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned!”
