All of us who have ever held a job — in other words, all of us — know very well that no one is gonna get along with literally everybody at work. So perhaps it won’t come as the biggest surprise ever to learn that Young & Restless MVP Peter Bergman once experienced, let’s say, friction with a castmate.

Making matters worse? When the All My Children vet took over the role of Jack from Terry Lester in 1989, he had scenes almost constantly with the castmate with whom he butted heads.

What the Heck Happened?

These days, Jack’s personality isn’t so far removed from Bergman’s. But when he joined Young & Restless, the character “was a womanizing, manipulating cad of a guy,” he noted during a recent episode of Soapy. (Watch below.) “He was not very kind. And so for me, it required that I kind of steel myself in a way that I could bring some cocky to the set. So I brought a lot of cocky to the set.”

That, Bergman assumes, no doubt raised eyebrows, in particular those of Eric Braeden, who plays Jack’s perpetual tormentor Victor. “I’m sure Eric probably looked over and thought, ‘Who is this Mr. Cocky here?’”

How Was the Conflict Resolved?

For a minute, the tabloids had a field day with the on-set friction. But over the years, Bergman and Braeden have not only worked out their differences, they’ve become what the former calls “great friends.” And as pleased as they are to have kept the fire burning on one of TV’s longest-running on-screen feuds, “the journey we’ve taken together” behind the scenes, “I’m also very proud of.”