Melody Thomas Scott on Fame, Family and 40 Years on ‘The Young and the Restless’: ‘I Feel so Blessed’

She’s been a part of our lives for four decades as the perpetually unlucky Nikki Newman on The Young and the Restless. But even some hardcore soap fans may not know that Melody Thomas Scott started out as a child actress with Sean Connery in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie, or shared the silver screen with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

“I was only 3 when I started. I was pushed into the business … but I have to admit that I loved it,” the 63-year-old beauty reveals to Closer Weekly in the magazine’s latest issue, on newsstands now. “I would have liked to have worked even more.”

Despite a sometimes stressful youth and a brief 1979 marriage, she found a healthy career-life balance when she married her second husband, former Y&R and current The Bold and the Beautiful producer Edward Scott, in 1985 and raised three daughters, Alexandra, Elizabeth and Jennifer, with him. Her world nearly fell apart, however, when she suffered a “complete neurological breakdown” in 2014 after taking a common antibiotic and a steroid.

Closer caught up with Melody to talk about how her five grandkids helped her recover, her upcoming memoir and the truth about working with Hitchcock.

Scroll through the gallery below to check out the exclusive Q&A with Melody!