In an exclusive interview with Australia’s TV Week Soap Extra, “The Young and the Restless'” Michael Muhney (ex-Adam Newman) has point blank denied the allegations that he groped the breasts of one of his former co-stars, which was reportedly the reason show producers opted to drop him from his contract last December. “I didn’t want to be desperately screaming: ‘I didn’t do it!’” Muhney told the publication in its newest issue as to why it took him so long to defend himself after staying silent for so long. “The rumour was untrue,” he continued.
Per the Daily Mail, which has further details from the interview, Muhney states that he didn’t plan on working on the CBS Daytime drama series longer than five years and that as a result of him becoming more heavily involved with his character, he had become upset on occasion and sought input from executive producer Jill Farren Phelps. “I remember sitting down in the final ten months of my tenure with the executive producer and saying, ‘Things have to change. You guys are going to have to fire me or I’m going to have to quit.’ I told them that several times.”
Further commenting on the groping allegations, Muhney says, “First of all, there is no one anywhere, of any official capacity, who ever made any of those allegations. If there were, I would be the first person to come out and say, ‘Hey, now, I’ve got to take you to court because what you’ve just said is lies and I have to sue you for libel and slander.'”
Prior to speaking with TV Week, the closest Muhney came to commenting on the allegations of what may have led to his firing was a comment he made on Twitter, where he said, “It was only a salacious rumor.”
The actor recently announced that he has signed on to the film “Search Engines.” In a tweet he said, “Straight? Gay? Labels. Pushing the limits filming my role in the new movie ‘Search Engines.’ Such a well-written/directed film. #inspired”