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Relations

Parents: Harrison & Catherine Tyree

Siblings: Michael Tyree

Children: Kirsten Sutton [w/ James Thurlow]

                 Emmet Thurlow [w/ James Thurlow]

                 Marina Thurlow [w/ James Thurlow]

 

Significant Other(s): Patrick Sutton, Engaged, 2013; Married, 2014

Previous: Patrick Sutton, Affair in 2012

                 Dr. David Schmidt, Married in 1999; Divorced in 2012

                 Dr. David Schmidt, Affair in 1988; Ended in 1998

                 James Thurlow, Married in 1982; Divorced in 1998

                 Elias McCormick, Affair in 1977; Ended in 1979

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Others: Lisa Adams Tyree [Sister-In-Law]

              Dylan Tyree [Niece]

              Charlie Sutton [Son-In-Law/Step-Son]

              Gillian Sutton Crenshaw [Step-Daughter]

              Megan Sutton [Granddaughter]

              Eric Sutton [Grandson]              

              Cutler Sutton [Father-In-Law; Deceased]

              Maisie Sutton [Mother-In-Law; Deceased]

              Patsy Sutton-Clarke [Sister-In-Law]

              Peter Sutton [Brother-In-Law]

              Kimberly Sutton [Half-Sister-In-Law]

              Iris Galloway Thurlow [Daughter-In-Law]

              Henry Thurlow [Former Father-In-Law; Deceased]

              Anita Thurlow [Former Mother-In-Law]

              Emmet Thurlow [Former Brother-In-Law; Deceased]

              Shannon Thurlow Jurado [Former Sister-In-Law]

              Lionel Schmidt [Former Father-In-Law]

              Jenny Schmidt [Former Mother-In-Law]

              Gail Schmidt [Former Step-Daughter]

 

History

Helen Nicole Tyree, was born on August 4th, 1963 in Beverly Hills, California. Being the daughter of a famous movie producer secured Helen and her older brother, Michael, financially -- and socially. She grew up thrust into the world of fashion and became a fashion advice columnist for her High School paper. When her column was pulled for being too harsh when criticizing her peers, Helen manipulated her way to Editor of the paper. While still in High School, Helen, started dating an older man by the name of Elias McCormack who worked with her father, Harrison Tyree. Elias showered Helen with anything she had wanted but insisted that they keep their highly sexual relationship a secret. During her Senior Year the entire student body soon found out about their relationship and she was humiliated. Her father grew angry with Helen after the media got a hold of the story and Elias ended up doing jail time because Helen was underaged. After she graduated, the powerful and vivacious Helen Tyree decided to leave Beverly Hills, California and attend Cuttlebone University to steer clear of the media outlets. She planned on finding a husband that would help fund her ambitions to publish her own magazine. 

 

While attending Cuttlebone University she met ambitious and good-natured James Thurlow. Although she wouldn’t admit it, Helen began to fall in love with the man who proved to be the polar opposite of the older, Elias. They grew closer and began casually dating. After finally taking the relationship to the next level, Helen found herself pregnant and gave birth in 1983, to their first child -- a baby girl they named, Kirsten Nicole Thurlow. James continued to go to school while Helen kept busy taking care of young Kirsten. Once James graduated from Cuttlebone University they relocated to Stone Creek so that he could join the family business. James and Helen tied the knot in late1984 in a lavish ceremony that her parents paid for.

 

For the next couple of years Helen lived the life of a bored housewife. Even though she had dreams of stepping into the business world Helen once again found herself pregnant with James’ child. During a trip to Beverly Hills to visit with her parents, Helen had a chance run-in with Elias who begged her to have dinner with him. She fought with the theory of her returning feelings toward the man. It wasn’t until he asked her to leave James and Kirsten behind did she return to Stone Creek -- ending the chapter of their relationship for good.

 

Being pregnant with her second child opened up a brand new chapter in the Thurlow’s lives. They began to bond more and Helen felt as though she had made the right choice in not taking Elias up on his offer. Although she would have never called Daphne Wilkinson a friend, while they were both pregnant, they seemed to bond around doctor’s appointments and play dates with their daughters. Daphne began getting strange messages from an ex. boyfriend and confided in the trio of Gideon, James and Helen. When things took a dangerous turn, James and Helen sent Kimberly to stay with Harrison and Catherine. The couples took to the Thurlow cabin to wait out the news of Rodney Burnett’s arrest. A day after they arrived at the cabin, Daphne began to feel pains from the stress of the situation and Helen grew jealous of both men dotting over her. So Helen faked a tumble down the stairs and was rushed to Stone Creek Memorial. A nosy nurse leaked to the media the incident and because of her father’s fame the hospital became a frenzy. Gideon returned to the cabin to find Rodney holding Daphne hostage. 

 

Helen secretly manipulated her doctor into inducing her pregnancy so that James would only focus his attention on her. It worked, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy that the couple named after James’ late brother, Emmet. Emmet Jordan Thurlow was the apple of his mother’s eye. She would soon pawn Kirsten off on family friends while she cared for baby Emmet. 

 

In late 1986 she developed a powerful friendship with Patrick Sutton. A page turner of intrigue their relationship almost led to a couple of steamy encounters but she remained faithful to her husband, James. The duo set-up a plan to use Kirsten’s trust fund to start up a magazine empire, she would lated call it HEAT Magazine and Patrick soon fell out with Helen leaving her unable to return the money to her daughter’s trust. This caused a wedge in James and Helen’s marriage. After James’ father died he was forced to take over the family lumber mill, which drove an even bigger wedge between the two. Helen grew tired of James not being there for the milestone’s of her magazine’s success’, and in turn, she started to drift away from her family. During a New Years party in 1987 the couple reconciled and fell into bed, Helen gave birth to their second daughter and their third child, Marina Annette Thurlow. The birth wasn’t enough to keep Helen devoted, however, as she entered a dangerous affair with Dr. David Schmidt.

 

The affair lasted a decade long and in the fall of 1998 James and Helen divorced, leaving Helen to move forward with her relationship with David. It didn’t take much for Helen to give James full custody of their children. It was the stock in Thurlow Lumber Mill Enterprises that was harder to part with, but she agreed to split it between her three children. Helen found herself occupied with her relationship to David. Much to his daughter’s chagrin, the two married in 1999. Her second chance at a family wasn’t easy and after a couple of attempts to win over Gail, Helen put a plan to rid her new marriage of the teenager. She convinced David that Gail’s boyfriend, Adrian Stone was a bad influence on the girl. The couple was constantly scrutinized by both Helen and David and were forced to make a decision -- one that Helen was overjoyed to see come to fruition. The young lovebirds made a plan to flee Stone Creek and after breaking into David’s safe and hopped on Adrian’s motorcycle. David was devastated, but Helen was there to pick-up all the pieces.

 

Start of the Series...

 

In 2011, after eleven years of marriage, Helen’s life would hit a snag once Gail returned to Stone Creek. David offered his daughter a place to stay, he welcomed her back into his life and made her promise to tell him where she had been. Gail’s decade long absence wasn’t enough for Helen as she grew jealous of the woman’s bond with David. Helen enlisted her personal assistant, Mackenzie Kern to help locate and retrieve Adrian Stone who seemed to be missing from Gail’s life. She had hoped Adrian’s emergence would shake Gail and send her out of town. David was furious that Adrian had come back to Stone Creek and had hoped Helen wasn’t behind his reappearance. Even though she lied and told him she had nothing to do with it, David admitted that if she had -- they would divorce. Gail dropped a bombshell on Helen, David and Adrian and admitted to having a miscarriage a couple of months ago and that the loss of Adrian’s child was what had really drove her away from him. The two reunited and with their new found knowledge put the pieces together. They realized that Helen had orchestrated everything and was the one to blame for their troubled relationship with David. Gail confronted Helen and confessed that she would keep it a secret for now, but one day the truth would come out.

 

Helen surrendered to Adrian and Gail and placed her focus on the magazine. Helen had suspicions that her spokesmodel was pregnant and quickly replaced her. Although it turned out that it wasn’t Natalie who was pregnant, but her replacement spokesmodel, Cassie Lakhani. Helen fired the young woman and terminated her contract with the company. This turn of events angered Helen’s daughter, Marina. Helen rubbed salt in the wound when she re-hired Natalie Marlowe as her lead spokesmodel for the magazine. This helped light the rivalry between Natalie and Marina as they both vied for the same man, as well. A horrible accident left Natalie’s face permanently scarred and Helen chose to terminate Natalie’s contract with the magazine. Helen offered the contract to Natalie’s ditzy friend, Amanda Tucker. This struck Natalie hard and Helen unwillingly noticed, she offered Natalie an internship as a photography assistant to Oliver Cuthbert. The younger woman took kindly to this.

 

Even though she found herself on the outs with her youngest daughter, Helen still wanted to make up for the years she had lost with her children. Helen went to James and asked for his support in becoming a part of her children’s lives. He agreed to help his ex. wife but asked for a favor. James was having problems with a man named Damien Crenshaw and needed someone to spy on him. This seemed like something right up Helen’s stream and she eagerly went to work on trying to get information from Damien about Danielle... the daughter her had once shared with Caitlyn. However, Damien saw through Helen’s kindness and informed her that she was on the wrong side and hoped she’d be better than lies and games. James took his word back and Helen was on the outs once again. Helen tried to smooth things out with her children once more. This time she chose to help Kirsten by offering to babysit for Megan so that Kirsten, Charlie and even Caitlyn could have a break. Especially now that Caitlyn was preoccupied with her ex. husband, Damien blackmailing her. Babysitting was never a job that Helen was good at and it proved so when Megan had to keep reminding Helen what she was supposed to be doing as an adult. After a board-meeting was called unexpectedly, Helen made the choice to bring Megan to work and tried to keep it a secret from Kirsten. Unbeknownst to Helen, however, Megan had let it slip to her mother about her adventure with Helen and caused Kirsten to lose trust in her mother once again.

 

With her marriage stalled and her children icing her out, Helen decided that she would help her dear friend Patrick Sutton uncover the truth behind the election for Mayor. It seemed that Damien had mysteriously won the election over Patrick. Although this did put Helen on the same team as the rest of her family she had to keep her involvement a secret. Helen was able to witness a conversation between Damien and Clifton Briggs, a local business tycoon who was always up to no good. In late 2011, after spending many nights in Patrick’s orbit she finally started an affair with the man.

 

When Gail moved into a new place with Adrian, and the couple found themselves expecting a baby, Helen felt more alone than ever. It didn’t help that in 2012 David offered to help house one of Gail’s closest friends, Dr. Dizzy Roberts. Dizzy had come to Stone Creek to watch over Gail’s pregnancy as she was high at risk for a second miscarriage. Helen and David found themselves at odds, but eventually Dizzy found herself an apartment and moved out of her temporary home. This wasn’t enough to stabilize the Schmidt’s marriage as Helen accidentally let it slip that she was the one who manipulated Adrian to come back to Stone Creek. David asked Helen for a divorce as he was through with her games. The cunning redhead wasn’t going to just lie down. She hired her old friend, William Maverick and requested that she keep David’s home, since he had nothing else she wanted. They battled it out for the claim to the house and once it looked like Helen would win, David’s lawyer -- Melinda Lombardi weaseled Helen into giving it up. David was finally able to move Helen out of his life.

 

A model admitted that Oliver Cuthbert had been sexually intrusive towards her and once other models began to speak up Helen had no other choice but to fire Oliver and she suggested that he return to Paris where he had previously resided. Oliver had taken up a flirtation with Natalie Marlowe and was hurt to find that she would be his replacement with the company, so he threatened her. Someone tried to sabotage Natalie’s career. The young woman had thought it to be Oliver but once Helen assured Natalie that it wasn’t Oliver and that they had found the guy, Natalie left for Paris, France to spend time with Oliver away from the chaos that had become her life. Helen was out two photographers. She objected to focus her time and energy on her daughter, Marina, who had come to Helen for advice. Marina needed help getting rid of Leia Joplin-Barsky and since Leia’s mother, Diem had been a big thorn in Helen’s side on many occasions in the past -- this was a task Helen took to nicely. She insisted that they needed to get dirt on Leia in order for them to push her out of the newspaper. They discovered that Leia’s ex. husband was abusive towards her. Although Marina didn’t want to use the information against Leia she did and nearly caused the woman to have a breakdown. The two bonded while on an undercover mission and afterwards Marina resented her mother for the tactics they used against Leia.

 

In 2013 Patrick Sutton wandered back into Helen’s life. This time, however, they would take a more permanent solution for their relationship. Patrick; who was sulking from the loss of his status as CEO of Sutton Enterprises asked Helen for his rightful spot as Co-Owner of HEAT Magazine, while Helen had a proposition for him. She wanted nothing more than an expensive engagement ring and her rightful spot amongst the Sutton clan. They married in Las Vegas and started a plan to regain their power in Stone Creek. This plan, isolated Helen from her children once again.

 

Helen and Patrick decided that first they had to get rid of Clifton Briggs as the strong armed business man was seen to be protecting Damien. In order to get information on Clifton, Helen bribed her old assistant, Mac Kern, to come back to HEAT Magazine and work for her. It was easy once she learned of Mac’s flame for Cassie Lakhani - Clifton’s live-in girlfriend. Once they learned of the illegal activities that Clifton was conducting they blackmailed him to leave Stone Creek. Although Clifton tried to retaliate, Helen was able to learn that Cassie was pregnant with Clifton’s second child. The brazen redhead made Clifton a deal... all he had to do was leave town and she would make sure any charges against Damien wouldn’t affect Clifton and his family. Clifton, Cassie and their son, Lucian said goodbye to Stone Creek as they moved closer to Cassie’s brother, Callum. This infuriated Mac once he realized that Helen had played him. He washed his hands of his boss once again and left Stone Creek as well, hoping for a new start.

 

As 2014 came to a close Helen made it her mission to help Patrick and Ryan get Damien out of town as well.

 

Portrayed by: Jamie Luner [2010-Present]