Cane Ashby and Lily Winters

Cane and Lily
	Goddard and Khalil as Cane and Lily
The Young and the Restless
Current status	divorced
Duration	2007–2019
Introduced by	Lynn Marie Latham ; Josh Griffith
Profile
Family	Ashby, Winters
Alias(es)	Lane
Relationships
Spouses	2009–11, 2012–2019
Children	Charlie Ashby; Matilda Ashby

Cane and Lily

Gallery

Ethan "Cane" Ashby and Lily Winters Ashby are fictional characters and a supercouple from the CBS Daytime soap opera, The Young and the Restless. Cane Ashby is the son of Colin Atkinson and Genevieve Atkinson. Lily Winters is the daughter of the show's first leading African American couple, Neil and Drucilla Winters. Cane was portrayed by Daniel Goddard from 2007 till 2019 and Lily has been portrayed by Christel Khalil since 2002.

Storylines[]

Early relationship[]

Lily Winters, recently divorced from Daniel Romalotti, and Cane Ashby, recently divorced from Amber Moore, first met in 2007.

The twosome felt an instant chemistry, but opted to remain friends because of their significant age difference. Lily was 19 and Cane was 31. The passion between Lily and Cane couldn't be denied, and they started a romantic relationship. They shared their first kiss, which led to their first date, despite Lily's father Neil's disapproval. Soon, Lily won the Fresh Face of Jabot contest and became an exclusive model for Jabot Cosmetics, the company owned by Cane's family, the Chancellors. (At the time everyone believed that the Chancellors were Cane's biological family, but this was later proven false).

Valentine's Day 2008 was a day the happy couple would never forget: They made love for the very first time. As fate would have it, Neil caught Cane leaving his and Lily's room at the Genoa City Athletic Club afterward. Cane swore to Neil that he loved Lily and would never hurt her. Lily discovered she was pregnant with Cane's baby. After much indecision, Lily decided to have the child, and a gallant Cane immediately proposed marriage. But Lily declined, believing he was asking for the wrong reasons. When Lily and Cane went for her first ultrasound examination, it was discovered that there was no baby. The embryo had dissolved on its own due to an imperfection. Lily and Cane were both devastated.

Relationship troubles[]

Lily and Cane decided to continue dating after the loss of their baby. However, Chloe Mitchell set her sights on Cane and made a pass at him, but he rejected her. After Chloe discovered she was pregnant, she got Cane drunk and offered him a ride home. When Cane passed out in her car, she set it up to look like they had had sex. Cane refused to believe he'd been unfaithful to Lily. Cane proposed to Lily again, and, this time, she happily accepted. But when Chloe announced she was pregnant and that Cane could possibly be the father, Lily was heartbroken. She broke up with Cane when DNA tests revealed he couldn't be ruled out as the child's father. Lily persuaded Cane to marry Chloe for the baby's sake.

Lanedelia — Jill, Cane and Lily with Delia

Billy Abbott realized he was the father of Chloe's baby, but kept the information to himself. He began wooing Lily under a fictitious name on an Internet date site. Soon, Billy and Lily met and began dating, as Cane seethed. Billy and Lily planned a Valentine's Day getaway at the Abbott cabin. Chloe followed them there, and after a confrontation, Billy was forced to confess to Lily that he was the father of Chloe's baby. Just then, Chloe went into labor and delivered a beautiful baby girl, Cordelia Katherine Valentine Ashby. Cane, who had been trying to get to the cabin to see Lily, walked in just as Billy was holding the baby. Cane was excited to see "his" daughter.

After they all returned to town, Chloe confessed the truth about Delia's paternity to an anguished Cane, who decided to sue for custody of the child. Cane proposed to Lily, but she didn't think he should fight for full custody of Cordelia. Lily disagreed with Cane's choice and refused to marry him because of it. Ultimately, Cane dropped the custody suit, and proposed to Lily yet again. She said yes and they married in a romantic ceremony.

Reconciliation[]

Lanefirstwedding — Lily and Cane's first wedding

Lily was blindsided when she learned Cane's entire identity had been a lie. He was not Phillip Chancellor III, but an imposter who was sent to town by the real Phillip to take his place and heal his family. Lily separated from her husband and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Upon learning of Lily's illness, Cane returned to her side to support her. Lily underwent a hysterectomy; however, her doctor was able to harvest two of her eggs prior to the procedure. It gave Lily hope that she'd one day realize her dream of becoming a mother.

Lily and Cane renewed their wedding vows and dreamed of starting a family together; all they needed was someone to carry their child. Mackenzie Browning agreed to the task and signed a surrogacy contract. Mac was thrilled to learn the in vitro process had worked: She was pregnant with Cane and Lily's baby. She soon learned that this "baby" was actually twins. Upon learning her cancer had returned, Lily went to France to begin a trial stem-cell treatment, but it was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Cane sued Mac for the rights to the twins' amniotic fluid, hoping it would save Lily, despite Lily's objections to putting the babies at risk.

Lanetwins1 — Cane, Lily, Jill and Neil at the twins' christening

Mac gave birth to Lily and Cane's twins, Charlie and Mattie. The doctor harvested stem cells from the twins to treat Lily, and the process proved successful. Lily, Cane and their new babies looked forward to a long, happy future together. Phillip warned Cane that the cattle rustlers from his past in Australia were out of jail and bent on revenge. Cane realized that he and his family were being watched when he received a mysterious DVD containing pictures of all of them. He told Lily they were all in danger.

Cane's "death"[]

Lily took the twins to see Neil. She introduced Neil to her new private bodyguard, Edward. Lily and Cane decided to hire Edward due to the threat of the cattle rustlers in Australia, who had finally tracked him down after he narced on them. Lily asked Neil if she could move in with the babies until Cane could get everything straightened out and Neil said yes. A little while later, Cane convinced Lily that everything was okay and she and the babies could move back in.

In reality, though, they were in real danger: the mafia was blackmailing Cane for turning them into the police a while back. Cane fought to protect his family, but worried about scaring Lily, he decided not to tell her. However, Lily got suspicious. She ended up remembering that Blake Joseph, a "friend" of Cane's, was once pretending to be a cop when they were on vacation. She went to Cane with this information, and he admitted everything to her. Upset about his lies, Lily threw him out, but regretted it.

In December 2010, Colin Atkinson arrived in town after getting out of prison in Australia and consulted with Blake who had been keeping an eye on Cane. It was soon revealed that Cane was Colin's biological son. Shortly afterward, Cane was uneasy when he and Colin came face to face. Colin later threatened Cane to return to Australia to assume his position in the family's organized crime business, or he would reveal Cane's past problems to Jill Abbott Fenmore and Lily. Feeling remorseful about their argument, Lily tried to find Cane, but unable to do so. Instead, she and the babies went to Jill's wedding to Colin.

Lanefam — Cane and Lily with Charlie and Mattie

Cane showed up to stop it, but was stopped by Blake. There was a struggle, and the gun ended up being pointed at Lily and the twins. Cane jumped in front of them and got shot, and Blake fell down the stairs and broke his neck. Everybody gathered around Cane as he slipped away. Cane was later proven to be alive. His twin brother Caleb Atkinson was the one who was shot and killed at the church. To put Colin away once and for all, Cane worked with his mother, Genevieve Atkinson, to pose as Caleb and trick his father into kidnapping the twins. Their plan worked and Colin was arrested and deported back to Australia.

Reunion and re-marriage[]

In the aftermath of it all, Cane's marriage to Lily suffered as she, along with everyone else, discovered that he was alive. After much difficulty, including getting divorced, Cane and Lily got back together and remarried in France on Valentine's Day 2012. Their happiness is threatened, however, when Lily is targeted by Tyler Michaelson, Leslie Michaelson's brother, who decides he wants Lily, causing Cane to become jealous. Lily and Tyler grow close and almost cross the line, but in the end, she rejects his advances and instead decides to stay faithful in her marriage to Cane.

When a mystery blogger starts attacking Lily and her family, Lily and Cane fight to protect their marriage and their children. The blogger was eventually revealed to be Hilary Curtis, who Cane had hired to work at Chancellor Industries. Hilary tried to drug Cane and seduce him to break up his marriage, but he recorded everything and exposed her. Neil reached out to Hilary and she apologized for everything she had done, but Lily wasn't very forgiving and made it clear that she wanted Hilary gone. Lily is further enraged when Hilary begins a relationship with Neil. This briefly puts Cane and Lily at odds, as Cane forgave Hilary and put the past behind him, but Lily became almost obsessed with getting Hilary out of their lives.