The Young and the Restless Character Recap: Lauren Fenmore

Lauren Fenmore is the bad girl gone good—the vixen who matured into a savvy businesswoman, loving mother, and devoted wife (well, most of the time).

Who Is Lauren Fenmore?

Lauren is the only child of department store magnate Neil Fenmore and his former wife Joanna Manning; she is also the paternal half-sister of Jill Foster Abbott. In her youth, Lauren shunned the practical business world and joined rock n’ roll sensation Danny Romalotti on his worldwide tours.

The petty, mean-spirited, and secretly insecure Lauren bullied fellow vocalist Traci Abbott—particularly about her weight—for the majority of their working relationship, all to mask her jealousy at Traci’s close bond with Danny.

Wedded (Not So) Bliss
In an attempt to mature and curb her more manipulative tendencies, Lauren opened up her heart to private investigator Paul Williams, whom she eventually married—much to the consternation of her future mother-in-law, Mary.

However, the marriage was doomed from the outset. Though he was charmed by Lauren’s feistiness, what Paul really yearned for was a woman who desired a domesticated lifestyle replete with a large brood of children. For her part, Lauren was insistent on continuing her singing career.

The union was eventually busted thanks to the one-two-three punch of Lauren miscarrying a long-hoped-for child after being buried alive by an obsessed fan and then adding spice to her opinioned humdrum existence by submitting an erotic photo of Paul to a pornographic magazine.

Trouble Thy Name Is Lauren Fenmore

Subsequently, Lauren fell into lust with Dr. Scott Grainger, eventual husband number two. But their ardor was quickly cooled by the machinations of Scott’s mentally unbalanced co-worker, Sheila Carter.

When both women wound up pregnant with his child, Scott decided to divorce Lauren so he could marry Sheila—who would go on to switch her deceased baby for Lauren’s perfectly healthy one.

When the scheme was inevitably uncovered, Lauren narrowly survived, losing her life in a fire that everyone assumed had killed Sheila. Instead, the villainess emerged unscathed and relocated to Los Angeles—a fact Lauren became painfully aware of when she visited the area to talk business with Eric Forrester, Sheila’s new betrothed.

For a time, Lauren acquiesced to Scott’s dying wish that she forgive Sheila and allow her to live a life as Mrs. Eric Forrester, but she quickly realized that her old rival was just as dangerous as ever.

After helping to expose one sociopath’s sins, Lauren found herself the target of yet another dangerous miscreant. This time, it was a man named Rush who developed a fixation on the flame-haired beauty after rescuing her from a downed airplane.

A dalliance with Eric—the knight in shining armor who rescued her from Rush—earned Lauren a dunking in the pool, courtesy of Stephanie, and, not long after, she took to traversing the globe.

A Life Still Complicated
Years later, Lauren returned to Genoa City and partnered with Jabot to open the Glow by Jabot boutique. But, as always, romance and trouble soon followed.

Lauren found love with attorney Michael Baldwin but had to contend with the reappearance of Sheila, who schemed with Kevin’s horrible dad, Tom Fisher, to murder her rival. Lauren dodged the assassination attempts only to be kidnapped and imprisoned by a woman claiming to be Sheila, who had altered her face to match Phyllis Summers.

Once freed and having shot “Sheila” dead, Lauren was kidnapped yet again by another plastic surgery enthusiast who claimed to be Sheila’s sister. This woman had matched Lauren’s countenance perfectly and used it to impersonate her victim. When rescued, Lauren once again fired a fatal shot aimed at her captor.

Through it all, Michael stayed loyal and unwavering, something Lauren couldn’t say about herself. In fact, she cheated on her husband with a bartender who, like so many men before him, became dangerously possessive of his conquest.

Though it’s been fairly smooth sailing for the Baldwins, Lauren still worries about her business, Fenmore’s, and Fenmore, the son she shares with Michael and who suffered a relapse with his drug use but was doing well when he visited the last time with his new boyfriend.

Lauren helped out her old friend Nikki Newman when she took over for a bit at Newman Media after Nikki suffered a relapse into her alcoholism.