Inside Y&R Star Melissa Claire Egan's Relationship With Chrishell Stause
"The Young and the Restless" star Melissa Claire Egan is the kind of girl's girl that any friend would love to have. She proved to be a very good friend to her former "Y&R" co-star Chrishell Stause and was very much a part of her life when Stause was still married to her ex-husband, Justin Hartley, who was also on the hit CBS soap for a time.
In fact, the trio were super close. In an interview with Soaps.com, Stause called Egan "my best friend in the whole world." Back in 2017, Egan also opened up about their friendship in an interview with Soap Opera Digest. When asked about the couple, she said at the time, "I just saw [Justin] and Chrishell two days ago. Of course I miss him at work — he's so talented and a super-fun guy to be around."
Egan's also tight with many of her fellow daytime television stars, per her Instagram page. But it's her relationship with Stause that has a lot of people wondering what happened, how it happened, and where they are today.
Melissa Claire Egan's friendship with Chrishell Stause explained
Melissa Claire Egan and Chrishell Stause were as tight as they could be while they were both on "The Young and the Restless." Along with Egan's husband Matt Katrosar and fellow "Y&R" co-star Justin Hartley, they would often go on date nights, as detailed by Soap Opera Network, and spend just as much time together off-screen as they did on-screen. Egan also played a huge role in Stause and Hartley's wedding in 2017, serving as a bridesmaid. It was a cute twist to their on-screen soap opera lives as Egan portrays Chelsea Newman, who was Adam Newman's (Hartley) ex-wife on "The Young and the Restless."
Egan and Stause also spent a lot of time together and hit up many industry events as two soap opera best friends who were attached to the hip. Egan showed that she was also there for Stause in the good times and the bad when Stause's mother passed away after a long battle with cancer in 2020, per Soaps.com. But something must have changed between then and now as many soap fans have even noticed that the dynamic of their friendship doesn't look the same way as it did before.
Melissa Claire Egan is still close with Justin Hartley
Interestingly enough, it seems like Melissa Claire Egan and Chrishell Stause's friendship might have changed after Stause's ex Justin Hartley pulled the plug on his marriage to Stause back in November 2019. The last time that Egan shared a photo of Stause on her Instagram page was right before the separation announcement that same year. She jokingly captioned her post with, "We never run out of things to talk about... annnd yet we can never come up with a caption." Some of Egan's fans in the comments section even pointed out that the two former friends unfollowed each other on social media, but Egan has not made any comments about it.
That said, Egan still seems to be very close with Hartley. In May 2022, she posted a photo of the two of them together and congratulated him on his successful run as a cast member of "This is Us" and his cover of Haute Living magazine. That same month, Egan also shared a photo in her Instagram story of her, her husband Matt Katrosar, Hartley, and his wife Sofia Pernas — also a "The Young and the Restless" alum — on a fun date night, as detailed by Soap Spoiler. While Egan hasn't spoken about her friendship with Stause in years, it looks like her social media photos are doing all the talking for her.