Kate Linder has been starring on The Young and the Restless for over 40 years, but she still has a job on the side that she’s not giving up!
The 77-year-old actress is explaining why she still works as a part-time flight attendant while appearing as Esther Valentine on the long-running CBS soap opera series.
Kate has been on the show since 1982!
“We just aired our 13,000th episode, and I was so honored to be part of that,” Kate told Us Weekly.
So, why is she still a flight attendant?
Keep reading to find out more…
“It’s really interesting because one day I get to be on the set, the next day I get to be here doing this Hollywood Christmas parade, and then I get to serve coffee at 35,000 feet,” she said. “You don’t forget who you are that way. It keeps you grounded.”
Kate works for United Airlines and told a story about getting recognized at work.
“I was standing at the gate ready to get on a plane, and this woman looked at me and she said, ‘Kate Linder? No, you’re not,’” she said. “And I said, ‘I was when I woke up. So something’s wrong. I don’t know what’s wrong.’ She couldn’t believe that I was going to be working that flight. And she ended up being on that flight.”
Kate added, “I’ve seen a lot of people that sometimes believe their own press. I feel so very fortunate to do what I do. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do. No one in my family was in the business, so it was always like taking one step forward and two steps back, and yet, how fortunate and how lucky am I?”
Kate previously opened up to People about starting her flight attendant career.
“When I first started, I became a flight attendant because I needed a job that would give me enough time off so I could pursue my career. And then I was hired. I was only hired for one day, so I kept going. And then I thought, ‘Well, if I can keep doing them both, well then I’ll do them both,’” she said.
Her preferred routes are “Denver turns, San Francisco turns, even Hawaii turns so that if I have something that night, I can still make it and still do it.”
Make sure to check out the cast changes for Y&R in 2024.
