JAKE McKINNON and
MARLEY HUDSON

Marley was Jake's first true love. He had originally come to Bay City to help her sister, Vicky Hudson, swindle her. But Jake ended up falling in love with her. He began to court her, much to the disapproval of her mother, Donna Love, who felt he was too poor to offer her anything.

Marley was upset about taking away her sister's boyfriend, and was willing to sacrifice her feelings for Vicky's happiness. But Jake's persistence won out, and he and Marley were married in September 1986. Right after the wedding they both moved to Los Angeles.

In late 1987, Marley stopped sleeping with Jake, and in frustration, Jake had a one-night stand with a co-worker. In May 1988, Marley fled to Bay City to consider leaving him for good and Jake came in pursuit. While they were separated, Jake had a brief affair with Vicky. Marley eventually accepted him back, but Jake chose not to tell her of his indiscretion.

When he found out that the child Vicky was carrying might be his, he told Marley that he might be the father. He asked her to help him fight for custody. Desperate to have a child of her own, Marley agreed. When the baby was revealed not to be Jake's, he and Marley found they couldn't keep their marriage together. She left town in the fall of 1989, and they were divorced shortly after.

Marley returned to Bay City in 1990. She had softened a bit toward Jake, and consented to be wooed again by him. During their renewed courtship, however, Jake was in the midst of seducing Paulina Cory.

Jake convinced Marley to accept his marriage proposal, but she discovered his affair with Paulina and broke it off with him. Enraged, he tried to berate her into taking him back. She refused, and his rage was so great that he raped her. Jake was shot later that same night, and Marley was put on trial for the crime. Their relationship was never to recover.

When Jake came out of his coma, Marley forced him to relive the night he raped her. Yet Jake would not give up on her. When she and Jamie came close to marriage, Jake threw a monkey wrench into their relationship by betting Dennis he couldn't seduce Marley away from Jamie. His plan worked in the end, but Marley entered into a relationship with Dennis before moving away from Bay City in 1994.

In the years following the rape, Jake and Marley couldn't be in the same room without feeling uncomfortable. When Marley visited in 1997 for Vicky and Jake's wedding, that tension was still evident. Yet she was able to put the past in the past and she gave her blessing to the union.

In 1998, Marley heard that Jake and Vicky had split, due to Vicky's ongoing affairs with Shane Roberts. She returned to Bay City and made no secret of her desire to reunite with Jake.

She was burned in a fire, and reconstructive surgery gave her a stranger's face. On the outs with Vicky, Jake was able to devote his attentions to Marley. He gave her the McKinnon home, where they had lived from 1988-1989. Suffering an identity crisis, Marley was desperate to reclaim her old life, and since the best part of it had been her marriage to Jake, she envisioned them reuniting.

But Jake and Vicky soon reconciled, and Marley was left feeling abandoned. Her dark side urging her to do whatever it took to break them up, Marley used every advantage to undercut Jake and Vicky's relationship. She even kidnapped Vicky, but when Vicky's health was threatened, Marley relented. She repented and was institutionalized.