Chuck Ryan (Father; Deceased)
Jennifer Ryan Hughes (Mother; Deceased}
Rick Ryan (Brother}
Frannie Hughes (Half-sister)
Melinda Grey (Half-sister; Deceased}
Kim Hughes (Aunt}
Andy Dixon (Cousin)
Sabrina Hughes (Cousin)
Christopher Hughes (Cousin)
Hope Dixon (first cousin once removed)
Children:
Paul Ryan (with James Stenbeck)
Jennifer Munson (with Darryl Crawford)
Will Munson (with Hal Munson)
Johnny Dixon (with John Dixon; Deceased)
Brief Character History:
Barbara Ryan, perhaps due to her parents' deaths when she was young, is afraid of abandonment. While she is very good in her professional career, Barbara's personal life is another matter. She is so afraid of rejection and getting hurt that she will either use lies or run away to avoid her problems, rather than confront them. Though Barbara is insecure, she isn't weak. She is loyal to those she cares about and will do anything to see that they don't get hurt. She's learned to be cautious around people who've hurt her and her family and while she will at times show some compassion she isn't easily forgiving
Barbara Ryan was first introduced to the Hughes family when her mother, Jennifer, married Bob Hughes. Barbara was very happy for her mother and liked having Bob for a stepfather. She was a fairly uncomplicated teenager. Her adult life is another story. After a long absence, Barbara returned to town, having just graduated from art school, fleeing a failed romance with Dr. Steven Farrell. Unable to live without her, Steven followed her to Oakdale and got a job in the cardiology department at Memorial, and the couple rekindled their romance. But Steven had a secret past, one he could not share with the woman he loved. The year ended on a sad not when, on the night Nancy Hughes was to give an engagement party for the happy couple, Steven skipped town, leaving Barbara to nurse a broken heart.
She then began dating her former stepbrother Tom Hughes. At about this time, Barbara starting receiving mysterious phone calls. Soon she was forced to confess a deep, dark secret--three years earlier Barbara had an affair with the aristocratic, very rich James Stenbeck. Believing he did not want to raise the child, she gave Paul to her friend Claudia Colfax to raise. Unfortunately, Claudia's husband, Raymond, proved to be an abusive man and with Tom's help, Barbara was able to secure custody of Paul. Just then, James came to Oakdale himself. Barbara resisted a romantic reunion with the dashing aristocrat and became engaged to Tom, but Stenbeck soon learned that he was Paul's father and confronted her on her wedding day and Barbara tearfully left Tom at the altar and ran off to the Caribbean with James and they made plans to marry. The Stenbeck fortune first became a problem for the couple when Charles Ivenstrom, whose daughter was pregnant by James' brother, tried to kill them so his grandchild-to-be, rather than Paul, would inherit the money. Barbara was shot, but survived, and she and James married. Following Charles' arrest, the uncle accused James of wedding Barbara so he would have access to Paul's inheritance. James assured Barbara that this was ridiculous. Unfortunately, for Barbara, the marriage proved disastrous. Seeing nothing wrong with having a wife and a mistress, he began an affair with Margo, Barbara's private nurse. In addition, James decided to supplement his fortune by smuggling drugs and stolen jewelry through the fashion company he bought for Barbara. Then Barbara found out about the affair and the illegal activities. Though James was able to talk Barbara into giving their marriage a chance, it became clear that Barbara was becoming disenchanted. At the same time she suspected that James was having another affair, this time with Dee Stewart, Barbara started having bizarre visions of a previous life. The visions consisted of a woman who looked just like her, named Bianca, who resided in Paris with her husband Jason (who looked remarkably like James, Bianca would later learn was carrying on an affair with the maid, Daphne (who looked like Dee Stewart). Later, Barbara's flashbacks started to have a mysterious blonde Englishman coming to Paris and being very angry for some reason with Jason. The mystery blonde Englishman challenged Jason to a dual (with unfortunately Jason getting the upper hand, at first.) Near the end of 1982, Bianca (Barbara's doubleganger) would learn this mysterious blonde Englishman's name, Geoffrey. Unfortunately, the intensity of the visions was becoming much, with people noticing how distracting she was becoming. Finally Lisa, her partner in Fashions, suggested that Barbara see a psychiatrist, Dr. Ben Forrest. However, this suggested fell right into James's plans for Barbara since he decided to use this as a means to get Barbara locked away so he'd get control of Fashions.
Dr. Forrest administered to Barbara a psychotropic drug that made Barbara's past life visions get even more bizarre and all along Dr. Forrest pretended that she was getting better in remembering Bianca's life in Paris. Barbara even started blurring the reality of her life into the life of Bianca's and this was courtesy of James (via a drug that Mr. Big provided him.) It turned out that Geoffrey had gotten the upperhand in the duel with Jason And finally revealed that he, Geoffrey was the true heir to Jason's families wealth. Geoffrey had also developed feelings for Bianca and was not too happy about Jason's affair with the very winchy, Daphne and his abuse of Bianca. Then, suddenly, Barbara was shocked by the appearance of a man who looked just like Geoffrey! By this point, Barbara had become addicted to the psychotropic drug and at first didn't think the man (named Gunnar St. Clair) was real and no one else had seen him. Meanwhile, Paul started to become frightened for his mother and her erratic behavior. When Barbara ended up passing out one day when she was alone with Paul and Paul had no idea what to do, James saw it as the perfect opportunity to put Barbara away to an institution. (an added bonus was that James would be ensured custody of Paul, since his inheritanced hinged on his having a son) His plan was foiled however and Gunnar, with help from psychiatrist Zachary Stone was able to get Barbara released Now desperate to get rid of Barbara, he tried to kill her by trapping her in a bullpen with a bull, only again to have Gunnar come to the rescue. Later, after a failed attempt to kidnapp Paul and kill Gunnar, James apparently fell to his death. Now free, Gunnar and Barbara made plans to marry. Unfortunately, the met resistence from Paul, who blamed Gunnar for his father's death. To spare Paul, Gunnar and Barbara separated for a time. However when they finally got together, Gunnar started acting distant and led Barbara to think that he was having an affair. Later with encouragement from his doctor, John Dixon, he told Barbara the truth: he was suffering from a terminal blood disease. Though Barbara remained supportive, Gunnar didn't want her to watch him die and set out to travel the world in a hot-air balloon. Later, he was found dead in Australia
Barbara next set her sights on newspaperman Brian McColl. Soon the couple fell in love and made plans to marry. Unfortunately, Barbara's son, Paul, was vehemently against the marriage and caused trouble. Disgusted at Barbara's tendency to let Paul dictate her life, Brian broke off the engagement. Later, Barbara attempted to seduce Tom Hughes, now married to Margo (James's former mistress). Though her attempt was unsuccessful, she did put a cramp in the Hughes marriage after lying to Margo that she and Tom had made love. (Since Tom had been drunk on the day in question, he had no idea) Soon after, Barbara met and fell in love with police detective Hal Munson and they eventually married. Soon after their marriage, she found out that Hal was Adam Hughes's biological father. Barbara kept this a secret from Hal and he was furious when he learned the truth. Fearing her marriage was over; Barbara ran off to Europe and had an affair with Darryl Crawford. She returned to town pregnant. Unfortunately, Hal divorced Barbara once he learned that the child, Jennifer, wasn't his. Hal left town to do some undercover work (and get away from Barbara). Meanwhile, tried to hide the identity of the Jennifer's father, since Darryl was now dating Barbara's sister, Frannie. However, the truth came and Darryl agreed to give up all claims to Jennifer. Hal returned a few years later. By this time his anger toward Barbara had softened and they made love. Soon after, Hal left again on another undercover assignment and was presumed dead. When he resurfaced, he found out that his night with Barbara produced a child, Will. Hal married Barbara at his father's house and agreed to raise Jennifer as his own. Unfortunately, the Munson marriage would disintegrate when Barbara faked a stalker to get attention and they eventually divorced.
Later, Barbara tfound herself being attracted to John Dixon; her aunt's ex-husband and her ex-husband's worst enemy. In time, Barbara and John fell in love and they married after she got pregnant. Unfortunately, Barbara lost the baby after suffering injuries in a fire. Unable to deal with the loss of her baby, she distanced herself from John and they divorced. Of great comfort during this period was Hal, who was a good friend to her. Hal helped her deal with the death of her baby and they remarried in a simple ceremony in their home.
The marriage came under strain, however, when Hal focused on Jen's relationship with Bryant Montgomery. Upset with Hal's stubbornness regarding Bryant and jealous about his connection to Carly, Barbara started feeling neglected and started appreciating the advances of Bryant's father, Craig. Barbara was immediately attracted to Craig's worldliness and found him much more exciting than Hal. Over the course of several weeks, Barbara's attraction to Craig grew and she decided that she was unhappy with Hal and asked him for a divorce. Then against her better judgment and against the advice of her family, Barbara agreed to marry Craig. That marriage turned out to be a terrible mistake. Mere weeks after the wedding, Barbara found out that Craig was stealing money from her company. Enraged, she decided to turn him into the police and set up a meeting with police officer Jack Snyder. Tragically while waiting for Jack, Barbara was caught in a terrible explosion that left her in a coma for weeks and horribly scarred. Upon waking up, she insisted that Craig as the man responsible for the bombing, only to find out that she was wrong: she was never the intended target, Carly Tenney was.
Burned horribly, Barbara's self esteem quickly unraveled. Ashamed of her appearance, she isolated herself from everyone except Paul, who'd returned to town when she was in the hospital. Although she shut everyone else out, she seemed to lean more and more heavily on Paul. Though she tried to continue designing, it was clear that her damaged self-image was affecting her work. Telling Paul that she could develop a fabulous new fall line, Paul soon realized that she couldn't and tried to hire Carly against Barbara's wishes. At this time, James re-entered Barbara's life. At first wanting to turn him in, he turned on the charm and made her believe that she was still beautiful. Throughout the next several weeks, he manipulated Barbara and fed on her hatred and insecurity. After weeks of loathing herself and others, Barbara finally asked James to get rid of the three women she hated the most: Emily Stewart (who was now dating Hal), Rose D'Angelo (who was dating Paul), and Carly Tenney (who she felt was trying to steal away BRO). Unfortunately, things didn't go as Barbara at hoped and soon her connection to the women's disappearances came out. When her collusion with James was made public, both Hal and Paul swore her off. Barbara may have sunken more into madness if it hadn't have been for John's help. Recognizing that she was ill, he convinced her Lisa and Kim to help him help Barbara. With John's help, Barbara struggled to get back her self-esteem and vowed to bring James down for kidnapping, even though it meant she'd go down too.
Slowly getting her self-esteem back, Barbara starting redeeming herself by getting through to Hal, who had been brainwashed by James. Though by now, she deeply regretted throwing away her life with Hal, she realized that he loved Emily and reminded an unstable Hal of his love for Emily and his children. Then in a final act of redemption, Barbara sacrificed herself to James so that Carly would go free. After spending weeks with James, Barbara (whose face had been reconstructed) was horrified to learn that he was holding Emily hostage and planning on killing her. Knowing she had to save Emily, Barbara pretended to want to kill Emily and then stabbed James! Finally free, she escaped with Emily and returned to Oakdale where she awaited trial for her crimes. Unfortunately, her troubles were far from over. In addition to realizing that she'd lost Hal to Emily for good, Barbara was also facing jail time for her crimes. Not wanting to go to jail, she allowed her lawyer, Marshall, to get her off by claiming diminished capacity. Marshall succeeded in painting Barbara as an innocent victim who was abandoned by her friends in her hour of need. Though the plan worked in getting her set free, it also cost her her friendship with Lisa and the respect of her Aunt Kim. In addition to losing her friends, Barbara was forced to sell BRO to Rosanna Cabot to pay for her legal fees. Bitter and alone, Barbara sought custody of her son, Will, and vowed to keep him away from Hal and Emily.
Angry and bitter, Barbara was also consumed with ending Paul and Rose's relationship and sought out Dusty Donavan. Knowing Dusty was having money problems, Barbara offered him money to break the couple up. Though he tried, ultimately his conscious got the best of him and he confessed all. When a betrayed Paul left town again Barbara refused to pay Dusty a cent. However, Barbara got a chance to reclaim her career when Rosanna offered to let her design for Monte Carlo, despite resistance from Craig and Carly. Feeling victory in her grasp, a gloating Barbara was suddenly kidnapped and locked away in a cabin. Knowing that Craig was behind it, Barbara found a way to escape and revealed herself at Craig and Rosanna's wedding. Though the police doubted Barbara's story at first, soon Jack Snyder learned that Barbara was telling the truth and was forced to arrest Craig, Emily, and Rose. Seeing a way to get what she wanted, Barbara offered to drop the charges if Craig would sell Monte Carlo to her for $ 1. Soon after, Barbara was elated when Paul (who'd been presumed dead), came back to Oakdale. However, Paul was still bitter at Barbara and warned her that he'd protect a returned Jennifer and Will from their mother. what followed next was a game of one-upmanship between Barbara and Paul beginning with Paul bringing in Jennifer's former gold-digging European boyfriend and setting it up so that Jennifer would see Barabara paying him to leave town. Though Jennifer temporarily turned away from Barbara, Barbara was able to convince her that Paul was the one who set the whole thing up. Not long after, Paul mysteriously hooked up with Rose again and the pair made plans to leave Oakdale together forever. Wanting Paul to stay in town, Barbara decided to use Will. She sprayed grafitti in Paul's apartment and then had Will confess! Unfortunately, her plan backfired and she ended up losing the right to see Will alone. Blaming Rose for the loss of Paul's respect, Barbara hired a hit man to kill her but suddenly had a change of heart and backed out of the deal. Weeks later, a gun toting Barbara decided to stop Rose and Paul's wedding. Dressed up as a nun, she snuck into the wedding but was caught by Hal. Showing Hal that the gun wasn't loaded--she just wanted to scare Rose--Hal took her home and made her a deal--if she went to therapy, he'd consider letting her see Will again. Barbara agreed. Then that day, Rose was fatally poisoned! A potential suspect, Barbara removed a bottle and glasses from the scene. Believing that Paul had killed Rose, Barbara hid the evidence in Molly McKinnon's room only to be shocked when it wound up at Paul's crypt! It was then that Barbara starting visiting Will and telling him that he could trust her with his secrets. When Paul was arrested for Rose's murder, Barbara suprised everyone by confessing! Telling a bitter Paul that she was trying to protect her son, Barbara awaited sentencing. The day of her sentencing , Barbara startled everyone by escaping and taking Will! However, unbeknownst to Barbara, Dusty was certain that Paul was the killer and found evidence--computer files from Paul's computer that showed him visiting websites devoted to selling the drug, Methanol. Eyeing the files, Paul made a horrific discovery and went to locate Barbara. After locating Barbara and Will at a helipad preparing to leave town, Paul revealed that he knew who killed Rose--Will. It was then that Will admitted to poisoning Rose, not with the intent to kill her but to merely make her sick so the pair wouldn't leave Oakdale. While sickened by the revelation, Paul assured Will that he still loved him. However, Paul wouldn't let go since he didn't want him leave with Barbara, since it was Barbara who had poisoned Will against Rose in the first place. With Paul refusing to let go of Will, Will was put into police custody and finally sent to a state psychiatrict facility.
Not long after, Barbara was pleasantly surprised when Paul offered to call a truce and told her he wanted to help her resurrect BRO. Elated, Barbara welcomed Paul. Although Craig warned Barbara that Paul was plotting to oust her from her company, Barbara believed Paul's assertion that Craig was lying. About this time, Barbara started experiencing headaches and blurred vision. Desperate to have her company be a success again with her family surrounnding her, Barbara reluctantly went to Dr. Walker Daniels about her vision problems. After a cursory exam, Walker determined that Barbara had a tumor against her eye. Although he recommended treatment, Barbara made him vow to keep her condition a secret and told him that she needed more time to put her affairs in order, mainly getting her company off the ground again for the sake of her children. Not seeing any harm in waiting, Walker complied. Desperate to save her company, Barbara suddenly offered Carly a partnership! Although Carly was wary of Barbara's offer, Barbara was able to convince her that the offer was a sincere one. As the weeks went by with Barbara desperately trying to hide her condition, Walker became more and more concerned about Barbara's health since the longer she waited the greater chance her condition could be fatal. Finally, fed up with Barbara's hesitation, Walker gave her an ultimatum--either get treatment or he'd tell her family of her condition. Faced with the revelation that time was running out for her, Barbara agreed to undergo radiation treatment, but insisted it be kept secret. However, Barbara's secret was about to be found out. Although she had tried to cover up her condition for weeks, Carly finally caught on. Although she tried to persuade Barbara to confide in her family, Barbara refused and was adamant about the show going on so the company could be a success for her children. In the midst of this, Paul had discovered that Barbara had given her new assistant, Jordan Sinclair, purchasing power at BRO and saw this as a sign that he was being booted out of the company. Things finally came to a head, the night of Barbara and Carly's fashion show, when Paul cruelly confronted her in front of everyone and told them he was in charge and cancelled the show! Then Paul finally told his mother that he'd never forgiven her for what she did to Rose and his plan all along was to ruin her and steal her company. He then revealed that his original plan (before Barbara hired her herself) was for him to hire Carly and replace Barbara with her when the time was right! Although Barbara refused to believe that Paul had lied to her for months, he provided her with proof--a contract he rushed her into signing that made BRO his. However, Paul's victory would turn bittersweet. During the altercation, Barbara seemed to be looking past Paul, and couldn't even grab the contract that he was holding right in front of her. Finally angry and hurt, Barbara rushed out to get away from Paul and tumbled off the walkway. At that moment, Paul made a stunning realization-- Barbara couldn't see! With nothing left to lose, Barbara admitted that she had a brain tumor that was causing periods of blindness; that is why she hired Carly and gave Jordan purchasing power. Her secret out and the show seemingly cancelled, Barbara checked in to the hospital for radiation treatment. Meanwhile, a shocked Paul was left at the office contemplating what he'd done and wondering if his mother's tumor was malignant. Chagrined, he visited her at the hospital, where she surprised him by finally taking responsibilty for everything that had happened to Rose. Wanting to put the past behind him, Paul accepted her apology and allowed the fashion show to go on with Barbara in attendance.
Unfortunately, Barbara's life would soon spiral out of control again thanks to James. It was at this point that Barbara and her family would learn a shocking secret--Jordan was James's son! Placed in an orphanage at a young age, Jordan had no idea that he was James's son and swore no allegiance to the man. However, to Barbara that didn't matter, since she knew James would never let Jordan (and his own son, Cabot) alone. At this point, Jordan and Jennifer were in love, as were Paul and Jordan's wife, Rosanna Cabot. But since James had set up the circumstances in which Jordan and Rosanna married, Barbara knew James would stop at nothing to see that his plans for his son weren't derailed, no matter who (not even Jordan) objected to them. Fearing for her children's safety, Barbara tried to keep the couples apart, but only met with resistance from both Paul and Jennifer. Soon, she went to James for help. Barbara's collusion with James would leave her vulnerable and later he blackmailed her into helping him escape, or he'd hurt Will. Scared, Barbara agreed. Unfortunately, upon his escape, James would kidnap Rosanna and Cabot and apparently kill Cabot. Her part in James's escape discovered, Barbara was promptly brought up on charges but escaped herself and went to desperate measures to get to Will.
©ATWT Online
