Ethan Winthrop

Ethan Winthrop
First appearance	July 5, 1999
Created by	James E. Reilly
Portrayed by	Travis Schuldt (July 5, 1999 — July 3, 2002) Eric Martsolf (July 8, 2002 — present) Rib Hillis (May 2006; temporary)
In-universe information
Alias	Ethan Crane (birth name)
Gender	Male
Occupation	Attorney
Family	Sam Bennett (father) Ivy Winthrop (mother) Fancy Crane (maternal half-sister) Pretty Crane (maternal half-sister) Fox Crane (maternal half-brother) Noah Bennett (paternal half-brother) Kay Crane (paternal half-sister) Jessica Bennett (paternal half-sister)
Spouse	Gwen Hotchkiss (wife; married 2002; filed for divorce)
Children	Ethan Crane (2002; with Theresa; adopted by Alistair) Sarah Winthrop (2003; with Gwen; stillborn) Jane Winthrop (2004; with Theresa) Nathan Winthrop (; with Gwen;medical abortion)

Ethan Winthrop (born Ethan Crane in 1975) is a fictional character on NBC's daytime drama Passions. Ethan has been played by both Travis Schuldt (1999-2002) and Eric Martsolf (2002-present). Rib Hillis temporarily played the role in 2006 when Martsoff was on paternity leave.

Character history

Pre-show

Ethan Winthrop is the only child of Sam Bennett and Ivy Winthrop. He was born during the mid-1970s. His mother was deeply in love with his father, but Ethan's grandfather, former governor Harrison Winthrop, saw to it that the young lovers stay separated. Ivy and Sam discovered her father's treachery on Ivy's wedding night to Julian Crane, and the two made love, resulting in Ethan's conception. When Ivy learned she would have nothing if she went to Sam she chose to stay with Julian, and instead decided to pass off her son as a Crane.

As Ethan Crane, Ethan lived a life of luxury and power. As Julian's firstborn son, Ethan was bred to be the heir to the Crane empire. This, coupled with his mother's favoritism of Ethan over her other three children with Julian, caused Ethan's siblings to deeply resent him, especially his brother, Fox.

At the age of twelve, Ethan met Gwen Hotchkiss at a joint mixer for both of their schools. The two became fast friends, and soon started dating. The two then went on to attend Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school.

Once out of high school, Ethan went on to attend an unknown undergraduate school and then Harvard Law School.

1999

After graduating from HLS in 1999, Ethan, now twenty-four, decided to move back to his hometown of Harmony with Gwen. He took a job as the lawyer for Gwen's parents, spent some time in private practice, and then went to work for Crane Industries. He and Gwen left and later returned to Harmony that summer of 1999.

Ethan had loved Gwen from the time they were children, but he was reluctant to fully and finally commit to their relationship, until his aunt Sheridan pushed him into it. Knowing that he was proposing for the wrong reasons, Gwen turned him down--if she couldn't marry for love, she wouldn't marry him, and she would wait for a more sincere proposal. However, their prospective engagement was pushed to the back-burner when Ethan began being the victim of mysterious 'accidents', and became determined to learn who was stalking him. With the help of private detective Frank Lomax, he eventually realized that Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald was his "stalker"--her teenage crush on him made her clumsy and accident-prone in his presence. Ethan befriended Theresa without knowing the depth of her feelings for him, all but oblivious as the starry-eyed ingenue assigned cosmic meaning to their every encounter and his every off-handed comment.

Theresa's conversational preoccupation with "true love" backfired on her, and moved Ethan to propose to Gwen; although the engagement was nearly a non-starter when Theresa claimed the engagement ring which Ethan had insisted she try on was stuck on her finger--one of her several small-time plots to stall Ethan from marrying Gwen--but eventually, Ethan and Gwen celebrated their engagement.

2000

Not long after becoming engaged to Gwen, Ethan began questioning his feelings for Theresa; his doubts culminated in his admission of his love for her at her hospital bedside as she struggled for her life after a motorcycle accident. What would become the central motif of this triangle to date emerged when Ethan struggled to reconcile how he could fulfill his affection for and obligation to Gwen and also answer his inexorable pull toward Theresa.

Ethan eventually canceled his wedding to Gwen mere hours before the ceremony (and was disinherited by Alistair Crane for doing so); he proposed to Theresa in church, in front of all of Harmony, on Christmas Eve.

2001

Early in the New Year, Gwen's mother, Rebecca, discovered that Theresa had information on her computer proving Ethan was not a Crane and, with Gwen's consent, sent the information to a tabloid, timing the announcement to coincide with Ethan and Theresa's engagement party. Gwen and Rebecca believed that Theresa was a gold-digger, and that once money was no longer part of the package, Theresa would leave Ethan. Rebecca assured Gwen that she, Rebecca, would marry Julian Crane and convince him to reinstate Ethan into the family, easing Gwen's guilt and assuring that her daughter would not suffer monetarily once Ethan and Theresa were split up.

Theresa stood by Ethan after he was stripped of all Crane rights and privileges, as he struggled to learn who had outed him to the tabloids, but she never revealed that she had known before the newspaper had created the scandal, nor did she suspect Gwen and Rebecca were to blame until much later. That summer, desperate to prevent Theresa and Ethan's wedding, Gwen once again contacted the tabloid and told them that the information had come from Theresa's computer, implying that Theresa, rather than Gwen and her mother, was the party guilty of publicly robbing Ethan of the life he'd always known.

The news broke on what would have been Ethan and Theresa's wedding day, and Ethan's mother, Ivy, was consequently so angry at Theresa that she crashed her car into the church to stop the wedding. Gwen's quiet insistence that Theresa had known the truth and hadn't told Ethan prompted to Theresa to run away, down the aisle; and Ethan, who maintained his faith in Theresa, didn't catch her before she'd gotten on a plane to Bermuda to try to right the wrong that had been done against him by pleading with Julian Crane.

When Theresa returned from Bermuda having drunkenly wed Julian, Ethan forgave her and restored their relationship under the condition that there be no more lies; but Theresa kept one more huge secret from him--she was pregnant! The secret of the baby, presumed at the time to be Julian's, was the final straw for Ethan; he broke off their relationship.

2002

Ethan renewed his relationship with Gwen and remained bitterly angry for some time at Theresa--until pregnant Theresa confessed to killing Julian Crane. Ethan knew she was innocent and was covering for someone, but never realized that she believed she was covering for him (thanks to a fake videotape made by Rebecca, showing him killing Julian). When she was found guilty and sentenced to death, Ethan helped her run from the law, taking her to the Crane cabin, where Theresa went into labor. She hid her labor pains, using all the time she had to convince Ethan that they could still have a future; it took the arrival of Gwen, who quickly realized Theresa was in labor, to allow for the delivery of Theresa's son, whom she named for Ethan. Ethan later became godfather to "Little Ethan."

The police took Theresa back to Harmony, where Theresa was "executed"; her execution was in fact a ploy to convince still-living Julian, who believed Theresa had shot him, that it was safe to come back to Harmony. Ethan had been devastated, and was greatly relieved that Theresa was alive, and he quickly became enamored of her son; although he'd purchased an engagement ring for Gwen, he began to imagine a future with Theresa again... until the revelation of Gwen's pregnancy spurred Ethan to reassess and to commit to Gwen and their unborn child. Gwen didn't want to marry for the baby alone; Ethan convinced her that his feelings for Theresa were over, and his loyalty would thereafter be to Gwen. Despite some last-minute attempts at interference by Theresa, Ethan and Gwen were married in December 2002.

2003

Gwen's difficult pregnancy led the couple to travel to L.A. in the summer of 2003 (a summer which lasted well into October, in real time) to visit specialists; unluckily for all of them, Theresa, who had been trying to get over Ethan and give them space while Gwen's health was fragile, had left Harmony for L.A., as well.

Ethan's devotion to his wife was shaken by the proximity of Theresa, and he found himself repeatedly drawn to her, jealous of her new relationship with his brother Fox Crane and tortured by memories of their past. The two shared passionate kisses on the beach in L.A., which were unfortunately caught on camera by a news reporter; when Gwen saw her husband with Theresa on camera, she left her doctor-ordered bed rest in a rage. A poolside confrontation with Theresa, in which she attempted to strangle Theresa and Theresa taunted her, led to Gwen's fall. The doctors at the hospital informed Ethan that he had to choose between his wife and unborn child, and after he chose Gwen, the baby, Sarah Winthrop was stillborn.

Upon returning to Harmony, Ethan swore to his grief-stricken wife on their daughter's casket that Theresa was out of his life for good.

2004

Gwen, angry at Theresa for her role in causing her miscarriage (which would prevent her from carrying any further children), colluded with her mother in causing the courts to take Theresa's son from her; Ethan, bound by his promise on his daughter's grave, was powerless to openly help Theresa, and contented himself with working with Theresa's lawyer secretly to help her regain custody. Once Julian (then considered Little Ethan's biological father) and his wife, Rebecca, gained custody, Ethan agreed with Gwen that they were inappropriate parents, and agreed that he and Gwen should take custody of the boy in the stead of Rebecca and Julian; and so Rebecca and Gwen's plan of giving Gwen Theresa's son to raise was accomplished.

Theresa, believing that without Ethan's help she'd never regain custody of her son, resorted to stealing Ethan and Gwen's embryo and having herself implanted with it, intending to exchange their child for hers once it was born. But when she believed she had miscarried the baby, she sank to still more desperate measures; she drugged Ethan, disguised herself as Gwen, and snuck into his bed, where the two had very passionate sex. Ethan later revealed that he had, in fact, known it was her, but had tried to fool himself into believing it was Gwen (but this act on Theresa's part, and whether or not it constitutes rape, remains one of the most contentious questions among Passions fans today).

It was soon discovered that Theresa was in fact carrying twins, although, because Theresa had had a one-night stand with Fox, both the maternity and paternity of the twins was in question. After being informed by Dr. Eve Russell her body was unable to successfully carry both children to term she was given the option of a medical abortion, which would kill one fetus, while ensuring the other would live. Theresa agreed to have the baby with the best chances of survival be saved.

After delivering a healthy baby girl prematurely less than a month later, DNA testing proved Theresa to be the biological mother of the little girl, and Ethan the father, much to Gwen's outrage. Theresa later decided to name daughter she shares with Ethan, Jane Winthrop after Jane Eyre.

2005

Gwen became mad with grief, and stabbed Theresa in the back with a hospital scalpel. She was arrested and put in jail, while Theresa fell into a coma. Ethan was devastated for both women, and torn once again by his love for and obligations to each. Theresa woke, but was paralyzed.

Gwen, who was hospitalized after a suicide attempt and was suffering from elaborate delusions about her unborn children, later kidnapped Jane and hid her in the Crane cabin before absconding on the Crane jet with Katherine Crane. Ethan and Theresa led a frantic search for their child, growing closer while attempting to locate Gwen and their daughter. At the same time, Ethan also began growing closer to his father and paternal half-siblings. After learning his half-sister Jessica Bennett had been assaulted, he, along with Chad Harris, and Fox Crane tarnished and destroyed the nightclub in which it occurred.

Soon Ethan, Theresa and Fox learned Gwen, Jane, and Katherine were being held prisoner by Alistair at the Crane Compound. They rescued them from the Compound, reuniting Ethan and Theresa with their daughter. Ethan had planned to sue for custody of Jane, but offered to let Theresa keep their daughter if she would end the war with Gwen. But Theresa pressed charges against Gwen hoping that Ethan would turn to her with Gwen in prison, and Ethan sued for custody as he had originally intended. Gwen was acquitted once it was revealed that a drug interaction had caused her behavior, and the judge gave custody to Ethan and Gwen, in part because of the method Theresa used to conceive the child.

Shortly after the court decision, a heartbroken Theresa accused Ethan of stealing her baby from her; Ethan admitted to Theresa that he loved her and wanted to be with her and her two children, but could never break his marriage vows to do it.

That summer, Harmony was struck by an earthquake and tsunami, and Ethan saved Theresa's life numerous times; Theresa's belief that this proved their connection and commitment, though, was met by Ethan's insistence that they keep their love "bottled up" in deference to his marriage.

While Ethan served as Eve Russell's lawyer (she was on trial for attempted murder; a mistrial was eventually declared), a desperate Theresa married Alistair Crane in order to move into the Crane Mansion to look for clues to prove her innocence in the old matter of the tabloid scandal and to regain contact with Jane. Ethan was appalled by her actions, considering marriage to Alistair a deal with the devil. He softened however, after learning Theresa was being raped night after night by Alistair, and offered to help her leave Harmony, which she refused to do after Alistair adopted her son.

Theresa's many attempts to kill Alistair were thwarted, but Ethan nearly became a victim of the final one; she had poisoned guacamole with aspirin and Ethan, after eating it, collapsed, became comatose, and was declared brain-dead.

Gwen decided to take Ethan off life support as per his wishes, but Theresa wouldn't hear of it and enlisted the help of Noah Bennett to help her kidnap Ethan. When everybody's backs were turned Theresa and Noah took Ethan from the hospital and took him to the Crane Cabin. Gwen eventually found them and took Ethan back to the hospital where she still planned to let Ethan go, but decided to wait until after Christmas. At the Christmas Eve service Theresa prayed to God that if he would bring Ethan back she would leave Gwen and Ethan alone forever. Just as the service began Ethan entered the church alive and well. Ethan forgave Theresa for accidentally poisoning him, and it was revealed that his supposed "brain-dead" state had been a trick of Alistair's, which is how Ethan became one of the suspects at Alistair's New Year's Eve "Murder Party" when the man was found stabbed. He was soon cleared, and it was discovered (only by Julian) that Liz had been the one to stab Alistair, for raping her many years before.

2006

Ethan found himself in the position of having to resist Theresa's constant advances, as Theresa, realizing Ethan would never leave his wife for her, offered to become his mistress. Gwen urged Ethan to make a total break and the couple resolved to move to India, but were stopped when Theresa was named in Alistair's will as the heir to the Crane Empire; she used her newfound resources to ground the plane Gwen and Ethan had already boarded for India, and to prevent Ethan from getting jobs elsewhere.

Ethan, Gwen and Jane set up house at Grace's B&B to get out of Theresa's sphere of influence; but the move was to no avail. Theresa arranged a demanding job for Gwen at Collier & Co., to drive a wedge between Gwen and Ethan, while Ethan, refusing Theresa's extravagant offers of co-chairmanship of Crane Industries--which would have allowed him to fulfill the idealistic plans he'd once had as Crane heir--resorted to working in a garage.

Soon mysterious events where drawing the residents of Harmony to Rome. Theresa found out that Jessica, Paloma, and Simone were in danger there and asked Ethan to accompany her to Italy to save his half-sister, and Ethan agreed. Ethan and Theresa were forced to stay in a hotel suite together when Theresa received and e-mail telling her that someone from Harmony would die in Rome. Ethan wanted to be near Theresa to protect her.

Very soon Theresa found J.T. Cornell, the editor of the tabloid in which Ethan's paternity was revealed. Theresa got the evidence she needed to show him that it was Gwen and Rebecca who set the truth of Ethan's paternity to the tabloids. But soon Rebecca called J.T. and convinced him to take the evidence and run. J.T. managed to get away from Theresa in time. Ethan was convinced she was lying and stormed out on her.

After Theresa finally gave up on Ethan, Ethan became upset and very jealous of Jared Casey. When Pilar (Theresa's Mother) was shot Ethan went to see her, she told him to leave Gwen and go be a family with Theresa Little Ethan and Jane. Later on, Theresa and Jared were staying at the same hotel as Ethan and Gwen. Ethan accidentally crawled into Theresa's bed. They were both drunk and he thought that she was Gwen and Theresa thought that he was Jared. They ended up having sex. Not long after the two knowingly began a short affair. Ethan always admit his love for Theresa, and he was convinced that Jared was a criminal (but couldn't prove it to Theresa).

2007

Early in the New Year, Harmony's "Nightstalker" (alternately known as "the peeping tom," "the rapist," "the blackmailer," "the half-man/half-woman" and "the he-she") drugged Ethan and induced him to crawl into bed with Theresa, presumably so that Gwen, upon catching them, would leave Ethan once and for all--which is what happened. Gwen left Ethan and Jane at the end of January 2007, despairing that he would always love Theresa, and declaring that she deserved a man who loved her alone.

The same incident threw a wrench in Theresa's relationship with Jared, during which time (the day after Gwen left him), Ethan moved into the Crane mansion so that Theresa could help him take care of Jane. Ethan and Theresa appeared to be on track to finally renew their old relationship--only the secret Theresa had been keeping from Ethan regarding their son's paternity stood in the way--but before she could tell him, she began being blackmailed by the same entity that had drugged Ethan and which had framed her brother Luis for multiple crimes he hadn't committed (while her brother Miguel had similarly been set up by Julian and Fox Crane). Ethan was forced to watch in frustration as Theresa withdrew from him, allowing herself to be coerced into marrying Jared Casey, all because the mysterious blackmailer apparently wants Ethan for himself.

Despite Ethan's efforts to unmask the blackmailer and exonerate Luis, he's been unsuccessful; as her brothers' attorney, he was frustrated by sham court proceedings, controlled by the blackmailer, which culminated in Luis being sentenced to death and Miguel to life in prison. Theresa has repeatedly underscored the necessity, per the blackmailers' orders, of committing to her new husband--a claim which Ethan has repeatedly rejected, going so far as to kidnap Theresa and take her to one of Alistair's hidden safe rooms so they could make love, hiring a look-alike to impersonate him so they could be alone without fear and to draw out the blackmailer, and demanding to know her secret to end the blackmailers' hold on her.

Ethan's efforts have not been without their risks; for continuing to see one another covertly, the blackmailer has punished Ethan and Theresa by crushing Ethan between two walls, threatening Theresa at knifepoint, trapping the pair in the Crane Mausoleum and setting fire to it, and demanding that Theresa conceive her husband's child.

Believing they were about to die, Theresa confessed the truth about their son to Ethan in the Crane Mausoleum; but he passed out before he heard it, and remains ignorant of her secret. But her secret is increasingly in danger, as, rapidly, more people have learned it--Pilar, Chad, Whitney, Julian (with whom Theresa made a business bargain to ensure his silence), and Father Lonigan (who set Theresa's penance as telling Ethan the truth); her secret is also one of the many that is on J.T. Cornell's USB stick, which is somewhere in Harmony.

On Friday, February 23, 2007, Ethan received a petition for divorce from Gwen. Their divorce proceedings remain underway. With Gwen out of the picture, Ethan has insisted he is committed totally to a future with Theresa; but long-time fans anticipate more trouble for the couple returning with Gwen, who will reappear in Harmony June 21st, 2007.

Family and relationships

Marriages

• Gwen Hotchkiss (married December 19, 2002; currently divorcing)
• engaged to Theresa Casey (June 2007 to present)

Children

• Ethan Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane (son, June 21, 2002, with Theresa; adopted by Alistair)
• Sarah Winthrop (daughter, October 8, 2003, with Gwen; stillborn)
• Unnamed Child (son, November 8, 2004, with Gwen; medical abortion)
• Jane Winthrop (daughter, December 2, 2004, with Theresa)

Parents

• Sam Bennett (father)
• Ivy Winthrop (mother)

Siblings

• Fancy Crane (half-sister, via Ivy)
• Pretty Crane (half-sister, via Ivy)
• Fox Crane (half-brother, via Ivy)
• Noah Bennett (half-brother, via Sam)
• Kay Bennett (half-sister, via Sam)
• Jessica Bennett (half-sister, via Sam)

Grandparents

• Harrison Winthrop (grandfather, via Ivy; deceased)
• Helen Revere-Mott-Beaton (grandmother, via Ivy; deceased)

Uncles and aunts

• Hank Bennett (uncle, via Sam)

Nephews and nieces

• Maria Lopez-Fitzgerald (half-niece, via Kay)

Close friends

• Chad Harris-Crane
• Sheridan Crane
• Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald

Relationships

• Gwen Hotchkiss (lovers/married)
• Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald (lovers/engaged/affair)
• Rebecca Hotchkiss (kissed)
• "The Blackmailer" (kissed)

Trivia

• Ethan's maternal half-brother Fox is currently married to his paternal half-sister Kay.
• Ethan's maternal half-sister Fancy was once dating Ethan's paternal half-brother Noah.
• J.T. Cornell had Ethan's true paternity on his memory drive and possibly his biological son Ethan Crane.

Hidden Passions

In the book Hidden Passions, Ethan's paternal grandparents were Benjamin Bennett and Margaret Joyce Bennett. Ethan also had at least two more uncles on Sam's side. Information in the book has not been confirmed on-screen and is not considered to be official since the information seen on the show contradicts much of what was said in the book.

See also

• Ethan Winthrop and Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald

External links

• soapcentral.com|PS Online
• Ethan at Soap Central