Anjelica
Deveraux is the mother of Alexander Kiriakis, step-mother of Jack
Deveraux, and the ex-wife of Harper Deveraux and Neil
Curtis.
In April of 1987, Anjelica swooped into Salem to help establish a diabetes wing at the hospital. The wife of Senator Harper Deveraux, Anjelica already had several connections in Salem, including Victor Kiriakis, who had contributed to her husband's campaign, and Neil Curtis, an old friend. In fact, Neil allowed her to stay at his house while she worked on the diabetes project. Although she and Harper had plans of moving to Salem, he was still tied up with work in Washington. However, something else brought Anjelica to Salem. Her step-son, Jack, was to receive treatment for Hodgkin's Disease at Salem University Hospital. As Anjelica settled more and more into Salem, she began to take on other projects. Among them, a partnership in a construction business with Victor Kiriakis. But the Kiriakis end of Kiriakis/Deveraux Construction would actually be handled by Victor's flirtatious nephew, Justin.
From their first meeting, it was obvious to Anjelica that Justin had his eye on her. And as a woman entering middle age, she was rather flattered by his attraction to her. However, she took great pleasure in turning down all of his advances. It was when Justin finally admitted defeat that she chose to take Justin to bed. Anjelica enjoyed power and control in every aspect of her life, and she loved her little boy toy. However, she began to depend too much on Justin and the attention he gave her. It wasn't long before Justin found someone whom he was actually interested in for reasons other than sex. And when this happened, Justin called off their little affair. This struck a deep chord in Anjelica. She had made herself vulnerable, and her boy toy dumped her. Losing control was not something that Anjelica was accustomed to and it hurt.
Meanwhile, Harper finally arrived in Salem. Despite her affair with Justin, Anjelica did care for her husband. So when Harper was shot in cold blood by one Steve Johnson, Anjelica spearheaded a campaign to catch a murderer. While this was going on, Anjelica and Justin's business began to suffer. Kiriakis/Deveraux had strategically begun to take over the cheap Riverfront properties, inhabited by low-income families, in order to develop condominiums. This was met with angry protests and picketing. Adrienne Johnson, the sister of Steve, was one of the protest organizers. When Anjelica realized that this was the girl who had taken Justin away from her, she immediately despised her and became determined to break them up. While Harper recovered in the hospital, Anjelica lured Justin to an apartment for one last fling, threatening to tell Adrienne about their relationship if he didn't. She planned for Adrienne to arrive and believe that she and Justin were still sleeping together. Although Justin rejected her once again, Anjelica managed to get his shirt off. When Adrienne arrived, Anjelica's plan worked like a charm. Unfortunately for her, Adrienne and Justin's separation was brief. They soon reunited, to her chagrin. Only months later, they married in an extravagant wedding in Greece. Anjelica was there to hate every minute of it. From that moment on, she tried to make Adrienne as uncomfortable as possible in her new life of wealth.
In
the Spring of 1988, Anjelica began to feel very lonely. By this time,
Jack had married and Harper was busy traveling on business. She soon
began to want a child. But when she brought this up to Harper, he
coldly rejected her idea. He also coldly rejected her in the bedroom.
During this time, Justin and Adrienne's marriage was also suffering.
One afternoon, Justin and Anjelica met at the stables and got drunk
on champagne, lamenting their problems with their respective spouses.
In a moment of weakness, Anjelica kissed Justin, and they wound up
having sex on a haystack. Afterwards, Anjelica realized that the
fling had meant something to her. Sadly, she also realized that
Justin only loved Adrienne, and that he probably had imagined he'd
been making love to her. Soon after this, Adrienne and Justin
reconciled. To make matters worse for Anjelica, Harper was revealed
to be a serial killer, the Riverfront Knifer. But that wasn't all. As
Harper was carted off to prison and the Deveraux name was dragged
through the mud, she discovered that she was pregnant. The news were
soon made public and most everyone agreed that the baby couldn't be
Harper's. After all, Anjelica would've been a fool to have gone to
bed with the man and not realized that he was criminally insane.
Anjelica finally admitted that the child was not Harper's on a
nationally televised talkshow. In a melodramatic moment, Anjelica
broke down in tears at the host's harsh questions and claimed that
the baby was the product of a one-night stand with a man who wanted
nothing to do with her...which wasn't far from the truth. Naturally,
Justin wondered if the baby was his. However, Anjelica lied and told
him that it wasn't.
Following
Harper's imprisonment, all of his assets were frozen and Anjelica
seemed to be headed toward the poorhouse. Her only hope was to find
and get control of Harper's Swiss bank accounts. At the same time,
Victor found out about the Anjelica and Justin's drunken rendezvous
and realized that she was carrying a little Kiriakis. Wanting an
heir, Victor sought to control Anjelica. He offered to marry her and
help her raise the child accordingly. But by now, Anjelica could
hardly tolerate Victor and chose to remain on her own. When Harper's
Swiss bank accounts were found, Anjelica believed that everything
would be alright. But Victor got Harper's money instead. As payment
for a debt that the Deveraux family owed him, Victor seized all of
the money in the accounts. Desperate for some sort of financial
stability, Anjelica began to consider Victor's proposal. But while
drowning her sorrows with Neil, she stumbled on the answer to her
problems. Neil offered to marry her and raise the baby as his own.
Ecstatic, Anjelica accepted and rubbed her triumph in Victor's face.
In December of 1988, Anjelica and Neil were wed in a quiet ceremony
at Neil's mansion.
Unfortunately,
marriage to Neil was not all rosy. Although the main reason for the
marriage was to give Anjelica's unborn child a stable family, Neil
loved Anjelica and expected her to learn to love him. Though she
tried, it was hard to love a doctor who worked night and day, and who
spent much of his little free time betting on horses. As she became
lonelier, Anjelica began to dwell on her relationship with Justin.
She secretly loved him and wished a thousand times that she could
tell him that he was her baby's father. Looking to the future,
Anjelica made a videotape for her grown-up baby, in which she told
him/her who his/her father was. However, she the need to tell Justin
became more unbearable as she got closer to giving birth. During a
business retreat at the Greenbriar Inn, Anjelica and Justin were
forced to stay the night and share a room. There, Anjelica finally
told Justin that he was her baby's father. But when Anjelica turned
around, she saw that Justin had fallen asleep. The next morning,
Justin wondered what it had been that Anjelica had begun to tell him
before he dozed off. As Anjelica was about to tell him again she went
to labor. Later that day, she finally gave birth to a baby boy.
Though Neil was busy elsewhere in the hospital attending other
patients, she had Justin by her side to help her through the birth.
Later on, she named the baby Alexander Neil Curtis. Alexander, after
Justin's father, and Neil after her husband.
Not
long after Alexander was born, the real trouble began. Her marriage
to Neil rapidly went downhill as he began gambling compulsively
(thanks to Victor.) When Neil was up to his neck in debts, Victor
began pressuring her to marry him once again. Instead, Anjelica
plotted to finally win back her baby's father. She secretly slipped
the videotape she'd made for her baby into Adrienne's suitcase when
she and Justin moved out of Victor's mansion. Justin was outraged
that Anjelica had kept quiet, and that he had found out that way.
However, he welcomed his son with open arms. Soon the news of
Alexander's father were all over Salem. Neil, too, was outraged at
Anjelica's lies and filed for divorce. With Victor hovering over her
like a vulture, Anjelica tried to get Justin to allow her to live
with him. When he refused, she decided to move into the dumpy
apartment below Shenanigans knowing that Justin would never want his
son to live in such a place. But instead of inviting Anjelica to move
in with him, Justin hired a nurse, J.J. Bagwood, to stay with
Anjelica to make sure Alexander was well taken care of. Seething,
Anjelica pretended to have accepted Victor's marriage proposal,
knowing that Justin would never want Victor to raise Alexander.
Unfortunately, Justin called her bluff. So with no other choice left,
Anjelica went for the real thing. She told Victor that she'd marry
him, hoping that Justin would ask her to move in with him instead.
But Justin didn't. Anjelica and Victor held a private ceremony in
their mansion. All through the ceremony, Anjelica tried to stall for
time. When all seemed lost and she had to say her vows, Anjelica's
dream came true. A desperate Justin ran into the room and stopped the
wedding. He begged her to come live with him and Adrienne rather than
marry Victor. Satisfied, a victorious Anjelica packed her bags and
moved into Justin and Adrienne's penthouse.
Anjelica's
stay at the penthouse was only meant to be temporary. But as soon as
she moved in, Anjelica began acting like it was her house, installing
private phone lines, changing the decor, and ordering Adrienne
around. She made it her duty to make Adrienne's life a living hell
with the hopes that it would drive her out of the house. And it did.
Justin's inability to kick Anjelica out for the sake of spending time
with his son caused Adrienne to leave. In Adrienne's absence,
Anjelica tried to seduce Justin, still dreaming of having a family
with him. But it was clear that he loved Adrienne despite their
problems. Anjelica even tried to make Justin believe that Adrienne
was having an affair with Neil (she'd gone to live at his house,
where her mother worked.) Finally, Justin kicked Anjelica out. And
repeating history, she moved in with Victor. This time, Justin didn't
stop her, in part because his problems with Adrienne had gotten
completely out of hand. Though Anjelica was now stuck with living at
Victor's, she continued to try to break up Justin and Adrienne for
good. While overhearing a conversation between Victor and Adrienne,
Anjelica discovered that Adrienne, who'd recently announced that she
pregnant, was only faking the pregnancy. After toying with Adrienne
by letting her know that she knew her secret, Anjelica used her past
position as Neil's wife in order to obtain Adrienne's medical records
at the hospital. Naturally, the records indicated that Adrienne was
not pregnant. Armed with this evidence, Anjelica told Justin the
truth about Adrienne's phantom baby. Just as expected, Justin and
Adrienne legally separated, and he moved back into the mansion. Now
with Adrienne seemingly out of the way, Anjelica relished her
victory.
Although Anjelica had no intentions of ever marrying Victor, she resented the presence of another woman in the Kiriakis mansion, the Baroness Yvette de Castellain. Her presence threatened her position because if Yvette married Victor, Anjelica would have to leave. In addition, Yvette could bear Victor's children, who would then receive a large chunk of his inheritance instead of it all going to Alexander. Needing to rid herself of Yvette, Anjelica investigated her past and discovered that she was a fake. Yvette was not a baroness but simply a French high-class hooker. But just as Anjelica was about to blow the lid on Yvette's secret, Justin locked her in a room in order to keep her mouth shut. Instead, Yvette confessed her secret to Victor herself...and remained engaged to him.
Meanwhile,
a new construction business emerged in Salem, Johnson Construction.
Anjelica cackled at the thought of Adrienne running a construction
business and used this to further strain the relationship between her
and Justin. As Justin grew more bitter, it became easier for Anjelica
to control him. One stormy night, she finally managed to worm her way
into his bed. But as they began to have sex, Justin brought out a
condom and insultingly warned Anjelica that it was to protect
himself, "In case [she] had any ideas about getting pregnant
again." Afterwards, a purring Anjelica believed that she'd finally
triumphed over Adrienne and won Justin's heart. However, Justin made
it abundantly clear that this fling had meant even less than the last
one. Once again, Anjelica had provided him with an easy outlet for
his problems with Adrienne. Realizing that Justin had been thinking
about Adrienne the entire time, Anjelica sought revenge against
Adrienne and decided to ruin her.
Knowing
that Adrienne's foreman at Johnson Construction, Hank Tobin, was
J.J.'s brother, Anjelica began spending time with them and getting in
their good graces. Once she befriended Hank, she paid him a large sum
of money to sabotage Adrienne's business. Johnson Construction soon
began to lose money, buying expensive materials and not meeting
deadlines. Meanwhile, Anjelica made sure to steal all possible
construction bids from Adrienne. However, Justin began to take
sympathy on Adrienne's situation and worked against Anjelica to allow
Johnson Construction to get a very profitable bid. Furious, Anjelica
decided to sabotage the project. Once again she called on Hank to do
the dirty work. Toward the project's completion, Anjelica ordered
Hank to plant explosives in the building. That night, using a remote
control device, Anjelica detonated the bomb and watched Adrienne's
life crumble in front of her eyes.
Later that night, however, Anjelica was horrified to learn that Hank and Adrienne had been inside the building when the bomb went off. Hank was found dead, while Adrienne remained trapped inside the rubble. Anjelica hated Adrienne but she hadn't wanted to kill her. Feeling guilty for killing Hank, Anjelica gave a grieving J.J. a large sum of money to get by with. Adrienne was eventually rescued, but then the investigation into the explosion began. Though the police was way off track, Justin began an investigation of his own and found Anjelica's connection to Hank. Knowing that her days were counted, Anjelica took Alexander, went to the airport, and booked a flight headed to Buenos Aires. That flight crashed upon take-off. While everyone in Salem mourned the death of little Alexander (only Jack mourned Anjelica), Anjelica and Alexander, who hadn't gotten on the plane after all, were headed safely out of Salem.
In March of 1991, Anjelica contacted
Johnny Corelli, who had power of attorney of Victor's estate. Living
in hiding had not been easy, and Anjelica looked horrible and was
penniless. Wanting Alexander to have a better life with a family, she
decided to return him to Justin, in exchange for some badly-needed
money. After making the exchange with Johnny in a country hut,
Anjelica said good-bye to her son and headed for parts
unknown.
The character of Anjelica Deveraux
was played by the following:
Jane Elliot (1987-1989)
Shelley Taylor Morgan (1989)
Judith Chapman (1989-1990; 1991)