Di Henry

Diana "Di" Henry is a fictional character from ABC's daytime drama All My Children. She was portrayed by Kelli Giddish from March 15, 2005 to September 19, 2007. From November 10 to 18, 2008, Di was portrayed by Heather Kenzie.

The character was a part of a major storyline within the soap opera medium, which spun intrigue, as well as outrage, having assumed the identity of legendary character Dixie Cooney Martin for several months before the ruse was finally over. Di's actions and ties to other characters during the storyline was subsequently studied by Jeremy G. Butler in Television: Critical Methods and Applications.^[1]

Character history

Pretender

Di first appears as a fellow inmate of Krystal Carey. She defends Krystal when other inmates are harassing her. Even though Di has never spoken about her past, she seems to know much about Tad Martin.

Di in a jail cell with darker hair before her Dixie makeover.

After Di is released from prison, she is hired by Dr. David Hayward to fool Tad and JR Chandler into thinking she is the late Dixie Cooney Martin. After she is given the alias Diana Cole, she begins working as the new nanny to JR and Babe's infant son, Little Adam. Meanwhile, Hayward plants evidence in Switzerland to make it look as though Dixie may have survived the car crash that killed her.

Eventually, a suspicious Tad takes Di's compact from her purse to compare her fingerprints to Dixie's, and they match. Confronted with these results, Di confesses to everyone that she is Dixie. Unknown to all of them, however, is that the compact is actually an old compact of Dixie's that David kept after she was killed. Not much is known about Di's past, except that she seems to have a heart problem similar to Dixie's, and she only has one kidney just like Dixie. She also has a scar on her neck that could have been caused by a car accident similar to the one Dixie was killed by.

Di (as Dixie) explains that after losing her unborn baby in the accident and a series of grueling surgeries, she fell into a deep depression and wanted to start a new life, but that she could not stay away from her family, so she decided to reappear incognito. The incognito decision was because she was not entirely sure she wanted to return to her old life.

JR immediately forgives his "mother" and accepts her into his life.

JR misses Dixie so much that Di's uncanny resemblance to her eventually convinces him that she is Dixie.

A DNA test later reveals that Di's DNA does, in fact, match JR's, although it really only proves that they are close blood relatives. An actual DNA sample of Dixie before her accident was unavailable.

Truth and Dixie's return

Finally, in September 2005, with the return of Dixie's half-brother, Del Henry (viewers and later), Pine Valley residents learn that Di is really Dixie's long-lost half-sister from their shared father's bigamous lifestyle.

Di's past is revealed in October 2005 while Julia Santos is being held captive. On December 23, 2005, it is revealed that Dixie is indeed still alive, and apparently Di has been in touch with her for some time. It is later revealed that Dixie purposely stayed away from Pine Valley and her family because she has been searching for her long-lost daughter, Kate, whom she was coerced into giving up for adoption.

By the summer, 2006, Tad dumps Di for keeping the secret that Dixie was alive. And as Di helps Tad and Dixie search for Kate, she has a fling with Tad's investigative partner, Aidan Devane, who had just been dumped by Erin Lavery, a friend of Di's.

Next chapter, return, and death

Di and Aidan in love.

Di and Aidan start to become more serious about their relationship when Erin, along with Simone Torres, are murdered by a serial killer known as the Satin Slayer. Di and Aidan come up with a plan to catch the killer, bringing them closer. During the holidays, Di asks Aidan to move into Wildwind with her. Aidan happily accepts. Yet, tragically, Di's life is turned upside down when Dixie is accidentally poisoned and killed with pancakes by the Satin Slayer (the pancakes were meant for her daughter-in-law Babe Carey Chandler).

Di leaves Pine Valley to go to New York as a Fusion Cosmetics rep for the East Coast. Deciding not to do the long-distance relationship with Aidan, they break up and he is currently involved with town pariah Greenlee Smythe.

Di returns to the canvas in November 2008. Di is shown taking care of Emma in New York during Annie's kidnapping scam. She is set to meet Annie with Emma in Pine Key within the next few days. Di does not know about the kidnapping scam and believes her watching Emma is a favor to Annie while she and Ryan work on their marriage. Di figures out that Annie is going to frame her and let her take the fall. Di pulls out a gun on Annie and they struggle over it and Di is shot. Greenlee, Ryan and Aidan enter and Annie tells them Di kidnapped Emma. Before she can tell them the truth, Di passes away. However, before dying, she accidentally shoots Aidan while shooting at Annie. She also never got the chance to tell them where Emma is.

References