Esther Valentine
| Esther Valentine | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| The Young and the Restless character | |||||||
| Portrayed by | Kate Linder | ||||||
| Duration | 1982– | ||||||
| First appearance | April 8, 1982 | ||||||
| Introduced by | William J. Bell | ||||||
| Classification | Present, regular | ||||||
| Profile | |||||||
| Occupation | Housekeeper, personal assistant, residential manager | ||||||
| Home | Genoa City, Wisconsin | ||||||
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| Husband |
Norman Peterson (1994) Roger Wilkes (2009) |
|---|---|
| Daughters | Chloe Mitchell |
| Granddaughters |
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Esther Valentine is a fictional character from the American CBS Daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. The role has been portrayed by actress Kate Linder since April 8, 1982. For over three decades, Esther has been known as the long-serving maid, housekeeper and confidant for businesswoman Katherine Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper).
Linder was initially hired to play a "one-day, one-line role". The actress remained on recurring until 1985, when she was upgraded to a full-time contract. In the beginning, the character remained unnamed. Jeanne Cooper, who plays Katherine, coined the name "Esther" when she began calling the character that "out of the blue". Linder said: "Then other people started calling me that and the writers picked up on it. That's how Esther was born." A national contest was held to give Esther a surname, the options picked by the public were: "Valentine" and "Diamond", with Linder picking Valentine.
Throughout her entire tenure on the soap opera, Linder has continued to work as a flight attendant for the United Airlines.
Linder has described the character of Esther as a "very loyal and very giving person", adding: "She gets run over and people take advantage of her."
Esther has served as Y&R's comic relief and has been Katherine Chancellor's (Jeanne Cooper) maid since 1982. She is also a trained alcohol abuse counselor. She had a one night stand with a plumber named "Tiny", with whom she had a daughter, Katherine Tina Valentine, who was only shown a handful of times as a child before emerging as Jabot Cosmetics fashionista, Chloe Mitchell (Elizabeth Hendrickson).
Esther was indirectly responsible for the death of Katherine's husband, Rex Sterling (Quinn Redeker) when she answered a personal ad and met Norman Peterson (Mark Haining), a notorious con man. In an effort to impress Norman, she posed as lady of the manor, and Rex and Katherine went along with it and disguised themselves as her servants. Norman coerced Esther into convincing Katherine to include her in her will and marry him. A suspicious Katherine and Rex arranged a fake wedding. Then, not content to wait for Katherine to die to inherit her riches, Rex caught Norman breaking into the estate safe. Rex was shot and killed in the altercation, leaving Katherine devastated. Norman was then arrested for murder and Esther has since been forgiven and named in Katherine's will. It was later revealed that Chloe Mitchell is her daughter. Esther then started attempting a normal relationship with her, but Chloe/Kate is frequently embarrassed by her mother's status as a maid and her lack of bashfulness regarding the chosen career. At Cane's yearning, they are getting somewhat close again.
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Wikipedia