Roman and Diana
Diana Colville and John Black (at the time thought to be Roman Brady) met when Diana saved Carrie Brady from drowning. They were attracted to each other at once. Diana was faking a relationship with Victor Kiriakis at the time to learn about a mysterious computer disk.
Diana went with Kiriakis to Greece for Justin Kiriakis and Adrienne Johnson's wedding with John following. John and Diana made love and began their romance. While there, John discovered that Serena Colville was mining the mineral that made up the disk. Serena tried to kill John, but he shot her first. Diana then told John that Serena was her mother.
John kidnapped Diana to keep her from marrying Kiriakis. Diana told John that she was only marrying Victor to help her mother. She escaped and went back to the Kiriakis mansion where she heard her mother and Victor plotting. She also learned her mother had stolen the disk. She hid what she knew and worked for John to get the information from Serena and Victor.
Diana's father was killed, leaving Diana the Colville fortune. Serena was the abducted to Peru. Diana, John, Justin, and Adrienne went to Peru to find Serena. The kidnappers demanded $10 million for Serena. Diana was arrested as she made the trade along with John. The money was taken by thugs pretending to be Peruvian Police. John told Diana that Kiriakis and Serena were behind the kidnapping to get Diana's fortune. Justin and Adrienne helped Diana and John get out of jail. Once they returned to Salem, Diana lived with John for safety.
Diana stole a Greek icon from a museum after Serena set up a plan to sell it to Kiriakis to get back Diana's fortune. John figured that Diana was involved. Diana confessed that she swindled Kiriakis, which ended John and Diana's romance (for awhile).
They became involved again when they investigated the Torres family. Diana's life was in danger so John convinced her to fake her own death. The Torreses found out the truth and targeted John. Diana lured the family into a trap. They were attacked so Diana fled to Japan. John the learned there was a contract on Diana's life so he took her to the Bahamas.
After they returned from the Bahamas, John became bothered by vague memories. The Torres family set up a car-bombing which Diana and John escaped. But John didn't recognize Diana. He did regain his memory but had personality shifts. Kimberly Donovan hypnotized him and revealed a killer personality.
Diana then ran a missing persons photo in the Spectator for Orion. The picture was Roman (before surgery). Orion was John's Kung Fu master. They tried to find Orion but they couldn't. On Steve and Kayla Johnson's honeymoon to the Orient they found a little deaf boy named Benjy. When they were unable to find his mother, they brought him back to Salem with them. He saw a postcard from Bo and Hope Brady and said he had been there before with his mother. Kayla gave the card to John hoping he would know where it was. But it caused John to go into a trance. John remembered it from a flashback. He searched the Kiriakis mansion and found a file on himself. Kimberly realized that certain signals put him in a trance and he became an assassin. John, after seeing Benjy's mom, remembered threatening her. Orion was Benjy's grandfather and left the country after Benjy. John was very upset that this link to his past was gone. All he had left to his secret life was a mysterious ring.
Shane Donovan returned to England with Kimberly after renewing their vows only to discover he had a twin brother, Drew. John found Drew very familiar, besides the fact that he was Shane's twin. John suspected Marlena might still be alive and figured Stefano was behind it all. Stefano kidnapped Carrie and held her and Orion on a boat. John and Diana headed back to the Bahamas. Drew turned out to be one of Stefano's assistants, Iago. After most of the other Bradys got to the island, Stefano put Roman in a trance and ordered him to kill everyone. Diana talked John out of the trance, but Stefano escaped before John could get him. John accepted the fact that Marlena was dead.
John proposed to Diana in early 1989. They planned to marry but the wedding was postponed three times. First, there was no death certificate for Marlena. Then, Caroline had a heart attack. After Cal Winters was admitted to University Hospital, Diana postponed the wedding again. Jack Deveraux discovered Cal was Diana's husband, a former MIA soldier. Jack made Diana sell him her half of The Spectator to keep him quiet. Diana tried to rush the wedding, but Cal stopped it. Diana the tried to prove she was never married to Cal. Cal then shot John, but Diana realized it was actually her who shot John in the crossfire. She left town consumed by guilt never to be heard from again.
"Genie [Francis] was really brought in to be Mike Horton's love interest. They crossed my path while playing amateur detectives, and I had to save them from some tough guys. Diana and I had about a one-page scene about a one-page scene about my correlation to Marlena, and the scene just clicked. The producers and NBC were watching. Next thing you know, they sent us over to Greece for the Kiriakis wedding, and Roman {John} and Diana became a storyline. I enjoyed it a lot and I had a lot of fun. It was short-lived, though, because Genie was on for only two years." Drake Hogestyn in Soap Opera Digest (September 10, 1996)
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