Diana Taylor (Brooke Bundy)

Diana Taylor (nee Maynard) was a character on General Hospital, played by Valerie Starrett from 1971 to 1977 and Brooke Bundy from 1977 to 1981.

Character History
Diana Maynard was a waitress that Phil Brewer met while he was presumed dead and hiding out as a fugitive for the death of Polly Prentice. The two soon became lovers but Diana already knew the truth that Phil had already been cleared for Polly's death. When Phil discovered this fact, he left Diana to reunite with his wife Jessie, only to fhave a car accident which left him paralysed. When Phil was admitted to General Hospital, Jessie was shockedto learn that he was alive, while Phil was shocked to learn that Jessie had married another man Dr Peter Taylor. With her new marriage invalid since Phil was alive and Phil needing her because of his paralysis, Jessie felt she had no choice but to reunite with Phil and thus Peter, like Diana was also left out in the cold.

Diana disocvered that she was pregnant with Phil's child, Peter offered to marry her in order to give her baby a name. Diana accepted and the two were soon married for convenience but soon fell in love for real. Meanwhile Phil and Jessie's marriage ended because while Phil had managed to recover from his paralysis, he had been left impotent from the accident.

Soon after Diana's baby, a boy named Tracy, was born, Diana learned that she had Hodgkins disease. To add to her troubles, Phil came around to visit Diana in the hopes of winning her back. During the visit, Phil suddenly realised that he wasn't as impotent as he thought. When Diana refused to reunite with Phil, he forced himself on her. Diana was ashamed and told noone, except nurse Jane Dawson of the rape.

Diana was somewhat relieved when she learned that her Hodgkins had been misdiagnosed, but continued to hide her rape from Peter. Soon afterwards, tragedy struck when Diana's son Tracy died. Diana soon learned that she was pregnant again, but knew that Phil was the father. Diana gave birth to a girl, Martha and Peter soon learned the truth that Diana had once again had Phil's baby. Not believing Diana's claims that she had been raped, Peter filed for divorce and began having an affair with nurse Augusta McLeod. Phil continued to pursue Diana for a while but eventually gave up and moved to Nairobi, Kenya.

At the beginning of 1974 Diana began focussing on her nursing career at General Hospital and soon met Dr Joel Stratton,who asked her to be a private nurse to his brother Owen. Diana agreed, but Peter misunderstood their relationship and continued his affair with Augusta. Diana soon learned that Owen only had a few weeks to live and knowing that Owen was in love with her, decided to make him happy by agreeing to marry him. However, Owen suddenly died before Peter and Diana's divorce could be finalised and Peter, discovering the truth at last, rushed back to into his wife's arms.

Augusta learned that she was pregnant with Peter's baby and wrote to Phil about it. Phil immediately returned home from Nairobi and told Peter that he was going to be a father. Peter tried to keep this from Diana and thus became a suspect along with Jessie when Phil was murdered. However Diana surprised everyone by confessing to the crime herself. To back up her claims, she produced the murder weapon. Peter soon realised that Diana hadn't comitted the crime and had only confessed to protect him.