1978–1981 In 1978, longsuffering heroine
Victoria Lord takes in 16-year-old goddaughter Tina Clayton as her ward after the presumed death of Tina's mother,
Irene Manning Clayton, Viki's best friend from her teenage years and college roommate. As Viki adjusts to the responsibility of raising a teenager,
Marco Dane sees the perfect way to get revenge on Viki. Tina's apparent father,
Ted Clayton, comes to town under the guise of reuniting with his daughter but with an ulterior motive—to somehow con Viki and Tina out of as much money as he can. Ted pits himself against
Clint Buchanan, who had taken more than a professional interest in widowed Viki. When Ted learns that Clint is about to propose marriage to Viki, he arranges to have Tina kidnapped to distract and get close to Viki, and get his hands on the ransom. Tina is safely returned home, and Ted proposes to Viki. Flustered but touched by his request, Viki opts for time to consider the offer. Clint drops out of the romantic triangle but tries to convince Viki that Ted is deceiving her. When Viki realizes that she is in love with Clint, Ted drugs her. He is arrested as the head of a counterfeiting ring but escapes from jail. When Ted is later killed in 1981, a traumatized Tina leaves town.
1984–1989 Tina returns in 1984 after having read in her mother's diary that Ted Clayton had not been her biological father. In 1985, Tina discovers a secret room under the library in Llanfair, in which she finds
Nazi-plundered paintings from
World War II and a letter written to Viki from her deceased father,
Victor Lord. In the letter, Victor admits to a secret marriage with Irene and that Tina is his daughter, which puts Tina and a shocked Viki at odds. Viki suffers a relapse of her
multiple personality disorder, which is subsequently believed to have been originated by a young Viki stumbling upon Victor and Irene in bed. Viki is further humiliated—and furious with Tina—when Victor's confession becomes public. Finding out that Victor's estate would revert to Tina if Viki's illness recurred, Mitch convinces a reluctant Tina to assist him in his plan to do just that Tina blackmails Niki into divorcing Clint just as Clint discovers Niki's charade. With Viki well and Tina engaged to wealthy
Richard Abbott, the sisters somewhat reconcile. During a 1986 visit to El Paso, Texas, Tina meets and starts falling in love with good-natured cowboy
Cord Roberts. When she discovers Cord is secretly Clint's son, Tina breaks off her engagement to Richard and races to marry Cord before he knows he is a Buchanan heir. She succeeds, and Cord's paternity is revealed; he returns a gift of $1 million from his new-found grandfather,
Asa Buchanan. Tina blackmails Asa (with the knowledge of his secret marriage to
Pamela Stuart) into giving her the money. She secretly buys the
Caribbean isle of Devil's Claw, but is kidnapped by terrorists when she and Cord vacation there. Tina is saved, and the island destroyed by bombs. Tina's recurring lies and schemes finally result in their divorce in 1987. Tina later turns up alive in April 1987, having been cared for by the native Palupe Indians. She reappears in Llanview in May 1987 at Cord's wedding to
Kate Sanders, at first passing off Max's infant son with
Gabrielle Medina as her own son with Cord. Tina and Maria fight over a vial of poison that Maria is planning to use to kill Viki and frame Tina, and Maria dies when the poison spills on her. Tina is charged with killing her, and the baby's true parentage is revealed during the trial. Tina is later exonerated, and in 1988 she and Max find her and Cord's real son alive and being cared for in the Argentine jungle as "Milagro." Max's enemies kidnap the baby and place him in an Italian convent; Tina poses as a nun to retrieve him. Tina and Cord name their son
Clinton James Roberts (nicknamed "C.J.") after Clint. When Tina says, "I take thee, Cord," during her wedding to Max on March 18, 1988, he calls it off. Tina resumes her interest in Cord, who is now involved with
Sarah Gordon. But Tina is soon pursued by Cord's uncle,
Bo Buchanan, who recently returned to Llanview. It is soon revealed that Tina's suitor is actually a "faux Bo": Kate Sanders' ex,
Dr. Patrick London, hired by Asa's enemies to get facial reconstruction and infiltrate the family. Patrick, as Bo, hopes to marry Tina and gain control of her money. He is later found out, and killed by his captive, the real Bo. Pregnant with Patrick's child. Tina is kidnapped by
Ursula Blackwell, who is obsessed with Patrick and plans to raise his baby. Tina and Ursula survive a fall out of a lighthouse window, and Tina loses the baby. His romance with Sarah fizzled, Cord reunites with Tina, and the two remarry in November 1988 in a double ceremony with Asa Buchanan and
Renee Divine. An escaped Ursula rigs the wedding cake to explode, but the blast kills Max's brother
Steve Holden instead. In January 1989, Tina and Gabrielle fall into a hole and discover the abandoned underground city of Eterna, built by Victor Lord. Viki, Cord, and others also end up trapped in the city, and the storyline culminates with the reveal that Viki had given birth to a daughter in high school but, had been brainwashed by Victor into forgetting it. Throughout the summer of 1989, Tina finds herself in pursuit of the lost Crown Jewels of
Mendorra, not realizing her past enemies
Jamie and
Elizabeth Sanders and an escaped Ursula are also after the jewels. Cord and Tina are held prisoner in Atlantic City but evade death at the hands of the Sanders and Ursula, who are arrested. In 1989, Tina becomes aware that Gabrielle switched Brenda Holden's healthy baby with the deceased baby of Michael and Alicia Grande. Gabrielle ultimately confesses. At the trial, Tina is forced to admit she knew and had not come forward. Both women are sentenced to six months at a halfway house. Tina begins working at the organization Lord Love the Children headed by Serena and Ambrose Wyman, and, after discovering it is actually an illegal adoption ring, Tina teams up with Viki, Cord, and
Roger Gordon to stop the Wymans. Meanwhile, Max and Gabrielle's son is kidnapped, to be sold by the Wymans. The Wymans try to kill them all on New Year's Eve 1989 and fail, but kidnap Tina. Clint comes to the rescue and the Wymans are arrested. Cord and Tina's are falling apart over Tina's continued lies. The final nail in the coffin comes when Tina accuses Cord of having an affair with Gabrielle's sister,
Debra. Cord asks for a divorce, and Tina leaves town for
San Diego with baby C.J. Tina flees to
Texas as Carlo makes clear his intention to take his grandchild from Tina when it is born. Cord follows with medical proof that the baby is his, and their daughter
Sarah is born in a snowstorm in February 1991. Cord and Tina return to Llanview and remarry, but Cord is presumed dead later that year; he turns up alive around a year and a half later to discover that his supposed widow Tina has taken up with Cain Rogan. Unable to reconcile, Cord and Tina divorce for the final time in 1993. Tina becomes romantically involved with con man
Cain Rogan, marrying and leaving town with him in 1994, but soon returning alone after Cain goes back to his ne'er-do-well pursuits. As
Dr. Dorian Lord is on trial for the 1976 murder of her former husband (and Tina's father) Victor in 1994, a man named
David Vickers comes forward with the diary of Tina's mother Irene. The diary exonerates Dorian and reveals the existence of Victor and Irene's second child — a son, who would stand to inherit a fortune hidden for him by Victor himself. They sleep together, but David immediately reveals to Tina that he is only pretending to be the missing Lord heir. and David is arrested. With Viki again under the influence of her dissociative identity disorder, her icy alternate personality Jean Randolph forces David to divorce Tina in exchange for his freedom. On June 12, 1996, Tina moves with C.J. and Sarah to
Baltimore, Maryland to become a professional shopper for Logan's Department Store. and Tina reappears in town on June 11, 2008, as the Crown Princess of Mendorra. She meets with corrupt Llanview
Police Commissioner Lee Ramsey, who has stolen the jewels at her request, but soon Ramsey is gunned down and Tina is on the run with the jewels from the sinister
U.S. Ambassador to Mendorra
Jonas Chamberlain, who apparently wants them for himself. Tina finds refuge with her estranged daughter Sarah and Sarah's boyfriend
Cristian Vega; soon Cristian and his brother, Llanview Police Detective
Antonio, discover that Jonas has abducted Sarah and her roommate
Talia Sahid, Antonio's lover and fellow police officer. Tina and the Vegas agree to accompany Jonas back to Mendorra in order to make an exchange: the women for the Crown Jewels. In Mendorra, Tina gets the royal treatment from her palace staff and is reunited with her husband, Crown Prince Helmut Krakoff — really Cain Rogan in yet another disguise. Meanwhile, the real mastermind behind the kidnappings reveals himself to his daughter Talia: Carlo Hesser. Cain is anxious to keep the jewels they have worked so hard for, but Tina is desperate to exchange them for Sarah. She bemoans her lot in life, saying, "I should have gone back to Cord!" Carlo, bent on revenge for Tina's part in Johnny Dee's death, exposes her and Cain's fraud publicly and reveals
Jonas as the true heir to the throne; he adds that, per Mendorran law, Cain and Tina will be beheaded for their treason. Carlo and his minions first drag Tina, Sarah and Cristian to the river above the treacherous Hohenstein Falls. Tina is horrified as Carlo reveals his intent to send Sarah over the Falls to her death, deliberately echoing Tina's own nearly-fatal plunge over the Iguazu Falls in 1987. Cristian saves Tina and Cain from the executioner's axe, but not before Tina responds to Cain's declaration of love with a thoughtless "I love you too,
Cord!" — a mistake she had also made in 1988 while at the altar with Max Holden. Sarah reappears alive, just in time to join the others in their escape. A duplicitous Cain later parachutes from the plane with the Crown Jewels — not knowing that Tina has already switched the gems with fakes — and in Llanview, Tina is soon reunited with Viki, and then with Cord. After Cord hears about the drama in Mendorra, Tina is devastated when he tells her that she has not changed, and they can never be together. When Viki leaves town to tour Africa as a goodwill ambassador, Tina takes it upon herself to move back into Llanfair and install herself as the
de facto "lady of the manor." Upon reuniting with Viki's daughters,
Jessica and
Natalie, Tina is eager to play den mother in her sister's absence. She makes fast friends with Natalie, a relative newcomer and former fellow "black sheep of the family," but Tina's once-loving relationship with Jessica is now fractious and antagonistic. Stunned by Jessica's cold and rude behavior, Tina is unaware that Jessica is actually "Tess," her dangerous alternate personality, who has secretly emerged from Jessica's psyche to take control and seek revenge on Natalie and her lover
Jared Banks, whom Tess blames for the death of
Nash Brennan, Jessica's husband and the love of Tess's life. As Tina settles into Llanfair, she takes care to hide the stolen Mendorran Crown Jewels in Viki's wall safe, fearing she will be apprehended by international authorities. Tina grows increasingly suspicious of "Jessica's" strange actions when she discovers her niece has ordered construction to be done in the Llanfair basement. "Jessica" claims the construction work is a surprise for the family, but when Tina and her beloved
shih tzu "David Vickers" go snooping in the basement, they discover the soundproofed secret room Tess has built below the house. Tina reflects on her memories of her father Victor Lord's own secret room, and its significance to Viki and her own alternate personalities, one of whom had imprisoned Dorian Lord below Llanfair. Remembering her own complicated relationship with Viki's alters such as Niki Smith, Tina realizes that Tess has emerged. Before Tina can alert the family, Tess traps her in the secret room. Tess discovers the jewels in the safe and threatens to not only tell the authorities, but a vengeful Carlo as well. Fearing for herself and especially Sarah, Tina begrudgingly agrees to not only stay quiet, but to help Tess drag a drugged Natalie down into the secret room. A guilty Tina tries to thwart Tess several times, but is always caught; Tina sends Jared down to the basement to find Natalie, but Tess traps him as well. Viki returns to town in time to realize that Tess is on the loose. With a bomb set to go off, Tina leads Viki and Jared's father
Charlie Banks down to the secret room in time to save Natalie and Jared. On November 14, 2008, Tina comes clean to a furious Viki, who tells Tina to leave and never return. Tina says goodbye to a disappointed Sarah on November 25, 2008, too ashamed to explain why she is leaving town. She is shocked to discover that her mother Irene is alive and well, and that the brother who has just died is not Todd, but his secret twin brother,
Victor Lord, Jr. Victor has left everything to Irene. Tina sees Cord at Llanfair, but he is still angry at her for endangering other members of the family with her schemes during her 2008 visit. Tina's dog goes missing, and the search for him brings Tina and Cord closer. They reminisce about their past together and nearly kiss, but are interrupted by Clint. Tina and Viki talk about their troubled relationship, mostly influenced by Tina's many past mistakes, but the sisters decide to put the past aside. Tina's dog returns. Tina and Cord nearly get intimate with each other again after they babysit Jessica and
Robert Ford's son
Ryder, but Natalie interrupts them. Natalie confronts Tina for being partly responsible for having her locked in the basement by Tess. Tina apologizes to Natalie, and offers to plan Natalie's upcoming wedding with
Brody Lovett. Natalie accepts. Viki tells Tina that she is pushing too hard to rekindle things with Cord. Tina and Cord hash out their problems in the stables, but end up having sex. Cord tells Tina that despite this, he does not know if he can trust her again. Tina vows to regain his trust. Her commitment to changing is tested when she inherits all of Victor Jr.'s fortune, Irene's money, and
The Sun newspaper. Tina is elated to be rich at last, but recalls her intentions to not be fueled by greed and hands over both fortunes and
The Sun to Todd, the rightful owner. Todd, Viki, and Victor Jr.'s widow
Téa Delgado are pleasantly surprised. Cord learns of Tina's benevolence, the two declare their love and share a passionate kiss. On November 15, 2011, Tina interrupts Natalie and Brody's wedding with the missing paternity test results proving that Natalie's ex-boyfriend
John McBain, not Brody, is the father of Natalie's baby
Liam. The wedding is called off. Cord proposes to Tina, who accepts. They marry then and there for the fourth time. ==Notes==