If you think she's evil and a no good mother to her youngest daughter you only know the on-screen side of Lillie-Bell Barbar.

The real Young and the Restless daytime soap star Ms Norma Donaldson is nothing like the mother everyone despises.

Yesterday The Royal Gazette interviewed Ms Donaldson, who is vacationing in Bermuda for the first time, to find out what she's really all about.

Her fans will be relieved to know that her off-screen relationship with Victoria Rowell, otherwise known as Drucilla, is like that of a real mother and daughter.

Ms Donaldson arrived on Wednesday for a week with her cousin Ms Lovely Billups, a director of education issues for the American Federation of Teachers in Washington DC, who frequently comes to the Island to visit her longtime friend Mrs. Maude Young.

During one of her trips Ms Billups was walking around in Smith's department store and overheard three sales ladies talking about Lillie-Bell Barbar.

"One girl said I just want to slap her face, and I went and told them she was my cousin. I knew I had to get her down here,'' Ms Billups said.

Ms Donaldson said that when she arrived at the Airport people called out to her.

"It's such a wonderful feeling, people are really into The Young and the Restless here,'' she said. "Some people have said to me `why don't you just go home to your husband, you're so mean to Dru.'' Asked how she enjoyed working on the show, Ms Donaldson said: "We have a wonderful cast, and I love playing my role. It's challenging for me as an actor.

"I could never imagine saying the kinds of things I am saying to my daughter on the show, and that's where I divorce myself.'' Ms. Donaldson added: "I feel like they are my children. Victoria looks at me as a mother figure, we have a wonderful relationship.

"When I told her (Victoria) that I was coming to Bermuda she said `they're going to love you, we have such fans there'.

"We love each other like mother and daughter, and I feel like I have a daughter in her.'' Ms Donaldson has been in the entertainment business for more than 20 years and has starred in popular television shows The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Good Times and What's Happening.

And her list also includes movies such as Poetic Justice, House Party 1, 9-5 and several Broadway shows.

"I have been fortunate because I have never been locked in as one kind of performer, I can do many kinds of roles.'' She added: "Bermuda is so peaceful, and I am being a tourist for the first time here. I will be back. Bermuda has a wonderful peace.''