Kelly Cramer is Dorian Cramer Lord's niece, the daughter of her younger sister, Melinda. Kelly spent her adolescent life abroad, in a strict, private boarding school just outside of London. She has always had a strong, wild streak, and this is one of the reasons she was sent away. Melinda was ill-equipped to handle her tempestuous character and rebellious nature. She's a free spirit, with a larger-than-life imagination and a deep rooted need to be the center of attention and to be loved. There is an innocence to her wildness.
When she was caught having an affair, Kelly was dismissed from private school and sent to live with her Aunt Dorian in Llanview, PA. Free of the structure and repressed school life that had so stifled her in Europe, Kelly now had the chance to act out the fantastical life she only imagined living before. Kelly hated high school -- until she met her tutor, Joey Buchanan, the son of Dorian's arch-rival Viki. Joey, though only in his early twenties, had already had a sizzling affair with Dorian herself! Soon, Kelly found herself with an undeniable crush on Dorian's young husband, bad boy David Vickers. David was a man on a mission -- he was out to seduce Kelly as revenge against the wife he despised.
It appeared that Kelly's obsession with David was over when she found herself falling deeper in love with Joey. She confessed to him that she was still a virgin, and pleaded with him to make love -- but when Joey refused, (he was not about to be used!) Kelly was convinced that he still loved Dorian. When Kelly caught Joey and Dorian having sex, she fell back into David's trap again. Using David to make Joey jealous, Kelly went with him to a tacky motel, hoping Joey would show up and 'save" her. When David tried to seduce her, Kelly hit him over the head with a lamp and killed him -- or so she thought! David returned from the dead, kidnapped Kelly and held her for ransom aboard a yacht. When a fire broke out, Joey raced aboard the yacht and saved the day!
With love overflowing, Joey took Kelly for a romantic trip to Paris, where they shared a night of passion for the first time. Upon their return home, they moved in together. However, their relationship nearly disintegrated when Kelly caught Joey kissing Olivia, an enchanting nymph he encountered in the woods. After weeks of tears and separation, Joey managed to woo Kelly back.
In 1997, Kelly and Joey decided to move to Paris. When Dorian found out, she took secret steps to insure that her niece would never leave Llanview. When Joey left, Kelly was supposed to follow. However, Drew Buchanan (who was scheming with Dorian to keep Kelly from Joey) comforted a devastated Kelly - and conveniently hid Joey's letters from her. Months later, Kelly was devastated when Joey informed her that he wanted to break up with her! Kelly was so devastated that she went for a ride in her car on a rainy night. Wiping away her tears, Kelly swerved her car -- running another car, carrying Patrick Thornhart and her pregnant cousin Blair, off the road. Blair was terribly injured, and her unborn baby died in the crash. Kelly, horrified by what she had done, hid her painful secret.
In the end, Kelly finally came forward and confessed to the accident. No one was harder on Kelly than she was on herself, but Blair refused to forgive her and the animosity between them continues to this day.
Kelly found love with Ian Armitage and was devastated when he died in a plane crash. In 1998, Kelly learned that Ian had left her his fortune in his will. Blair wanted to get her hands on Kelly's newfound fortune and set in motion a scheme to impersonate Kelly and take her money. When Dorian was almost killed in a violent shooting, Blair changed her mind and Kelly got her fortune as Ian had planned.
Drew Buchanan returned to town and he and Kelly began dating again. As Kelly and Drew were growing closer, Kelly's life was once again shattered when Drew was shot and killed.
Wanting to do something with her life, Kelly offered to buy The Sun from Todd, who had also made secret deals for The Sun with Blair and Max. When Todd left Llanview after faking his DID, Kelly and Blair each ended up with 49% of The Sun and Max got the remaining 2%. Kelly and Blair were at each other's throats as they battled for control of the paper. Things changed, however, when Max sold his shares to Asa, who then placed Kelly in charge. Kelly quickly fored Blair and set out to make The Sun her own.
At this time, Kelly and Max started sleeping together. Kelly and Max were an unlikely couple, but they became engaged in 1999. Max and Blair were still hung up on each other and they devised a scheme to swindle Kelly out of her fortune after Max married her. This never came to fruition because Kelly left Max at the altar when she realized she still loved Joey Buchanan.
Kelly walked out on Joey when she learned he had slept with Sophia, but they soon reconciled.
Kelly reached out to Kevin in the aftermath of Grace's death and they became closer. At Christmastime in 1999, Joey proposed and Kelly accepted. On New Year's Eve, a series of events kept Kelly and Joey apart. Kelly returned home with Kevin and they were both surprised when they fell into a passionate kiss after Kevin broke down over Grace.
Kelly and Kevin shared a kiss on New Year's Eve, but stopped themselves before they made love. Kevin and Kelly both felt guilty about what they had done, but agreed not to say anything about it to Joey. Sophia learned about Kelly and Kevin almost making love on New Year's Eve and told Joey. Joey, however, didn't believe Sophia's claims about Kelly and Kevin.
Kevin and Kelly continued to struggle with their feelings, but in the wake of Viki's medical crisis, Kevin pushed her away and urged her to turn to Joey.
Sophia was determined to expose Kevin and Kelly's feelings for one another and after getting her hands on some police surveillance equipment, Sophia arranged for Kelly and Kevin to get trapped in the storage room together. Sophia was elated when she caught Kevin and Kelly kissing on tape, but her joy turned to guilt when she overheard Kevin speaking about Viki's breast cancer. Sophia then unlocked the door and freed Kevin and Kelly. Sophia did the right thing and told Joey that she had lied about Kevin and Kelly's actions on New Year's Eve.
In April 2000, Viki and Kevin were stunned when Joey and Kelly announced that they had eloped. Kevin hid his pain and congratulated the happy couple. Kelly still privately struggled with her lingering feelings for Kevin, but truly did love Joey.
Kelly and Kevin started a smear campaign against Asa in The Sun and The Banner and started spending more time together. At this same time, Kelly became desperate to get pregnant right away as she wanted to start a family with Joey in an effort to get over her feelings for Kevin. Joey was concerned when Kelly overreacted to not pregnant quickly and the doctor's refusal to run fertility tests on her. Joey then became suspicious when he saw Kelly's reaction at finding Skye in close quarters with Kevin. Joey questioned Kelly, who admitted she was in love with Kevin! Joey was both hurt and angry and wanted nothing more to do with Kelly.
Kelly and Kevin clearly had feelings for each other but Kevin wasn't about to just jump into a relationship with her. One night, Daniel summoned Rae, John, Kevin, Max and Skye to the Crossroads and said that the life of someone in the room would be changed forever. At this same time, Kelly learned that the mob had placed a hit on Daniel and she raced to the Crossroads. As Daniel was about to make his revealing announcement, gunfire erupted and Kelly ended up being seriously wounded. Kelly's injuries made her and Kevin reaffirm their love for one another and Kelly went on to make a full recovery.
Kelly was deeply hurt when Blair tricked her out of signing away control of The Sun and gave the newspaper back to Todd. Kelly, however, had no idea that Todd had forced Blair to do his dirty work. Now back at The Banner, Kelly ignored Kevin's protests and joined in on his investigation to try and find the mobster who shot and almost killed her.
Kevin and Kelly met with mobster Rourke, but were unable to get any information about the man who had shot Kelly.
Asa hired Mr. Gray to kill Ben. At Ben and Viki's reception, Mr. Gray fired at Ben, who was saved by the silver dollar in his pocket that Renee had given him. Kelly had caught a glimpse of Mr. Gray at Ben and Viki's wedding and moved into Dorian's with Kevin after refusing police protection. Joey also moved into Dorian's to help protect Kelly. Unbeknownst to any of them, however, was the fact that Mr. Gray was really Charlie, the computer technician at The Banner! During this same time, Joey told Kelly that he wouldn't stall their divorce proceedings but had actually instructed his attorney to delay the divorce as long as possible.
The tension escalated between Joey, Kelly and Kevin while trying to keep Kelly safe from Mr. Gray, aka Charlie. Joey and Sophia tried to lure Mr. Gray out but were unsuccessful. A short time later, Kevin learned that Joey was deliberately stalling his divorce. Kelly then made it absolutely clear to Joey that there was no hope of them reconciling. By the end of the month, Kelly surprised Kevin with a romantic evening at Viki's cabin.
Shortly thereafter, Charlie lured Kelly out alone after sending her an e-mail that was supposedly from Joey. Sophia realized Kelly was in danger and raced to the meeting place and stalled Charlie long enough for Kevin and Joey to arrive and overpower him.
Joey finally accepted the fact that it was over between him and Kelly and decided to move to London, where his father, Clint Buchanan, lives. Kelly and Kevin remained very much in love and looked forward to their future together.
Later, Kevin went to visit his son, Duke in Texas for a while. Kelly started helping Blair get out of the mess she put herself in with Todd, and was there for moral support and advice for her cousin Blair.
Kelly and Sophia had become much better friends by now. When Sophia got in a freak accident and seriously injured her legs, Kelly was devastated for her. The injury was so bad that Sophia had to be sent away to Minnesota for rehabilitation, and Sophia trusted Kelly enough to tell her a secert. Right before Sophia left for Minnesota, she told Kelly that Roseanne Delgado, Sophia's enemy, was R.J. Gannon's spy at the police station. Sophia begged Kelly to tell Antonio Vega, who was a cop and Sophia's friend, about this. Kelly went to Roseanne for Sophia and told her that if she didn't tell Antonio about this, then she was going to do it for her. An angry Roseanne was forced to tell Antonio all about how she was working for R.J. as a spy.
Kevin didn't come back to Llanview for a while. Then Kevin told Kelly that he was going to stay and live in Texas with Duke. So that she was able to live with Kevin, Kelly decided to move down to Texas too. Although Kelly had moved to Texas, Kelly came back to Llanview on two different occasions to visit Blair.
Courtosy of ABC.com