Charlotte Cassadine (Scarlett Fernandez)

Charlotte Cassadine is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera General Hospital. She is the daughter of Valentin Cassadine and Lulu Spencer-Falconeri via IVF and was carried by Claudette Beaulieu.

She was formerly believed to be the daughter of Det. Nathan West and then of Dr. Griffin Munro due to Claudette's lies. She was also formerly believed to be the daughter of Claudette Beaulieu, who is still her legal mother and the only mother Charlotte has ever known.

Through her mother's marriage, she gained Det. Dante Falconeri as a stepfather.

Casting
Charlotte made her first appearance in a picture on September 21, 2016.

The casting of Scarlett Fernandez as Charlotte was announced in an issue of Soaps In Depth.

Fernandez made her first appearance on October 13, 2016.

Background
On September 21, 2016, Claudette revealed to Nathan that she had given birth to a daughter, whom she named Charlotte, soon after their relationship ended. Claudette believed Nathan was Charlotte's father, as they never used protection, but knew there was a small chance her former lover, Griffin Munro could be the father.

Immediately after getting this news, Nathan tells his fiancée, Maxie Jones, who encourages him to get a paternity test done. Claudette had a lock of Charlotte's hair in a necklace and they used it to conduct the DNA test. Nathan sent the samples to a private lab.

On September 29, the DNA test showed that Nathan is Charlotte's father. Nathan wants to see his daughter as soon as possible, but Claudette is afraid to reveal their daughter's whereabouts. When pushed, Claudette tells Nathan that she is trying to protect her daughter and herself from Valentin Cassadine, with whom she had a prior romantic entanglement.

After things went south between Claudette and Valentin, she claims that he began threatening her and Charlotte, so they went into hiding.

Storylines
On October 13, Charlotte arrived in town with her "mother" and finally got to meet her "father" at the PCPD. She also met her "father's" fiancée, Maxie.

Maxie still had her doubts about Charlotte's paternity and unbeknownst to Nathan or Claudette, ordered a second DNA test, using a juice box Charlotte drank out of as a sample for comparison to Nathan. On October 18, the second DNA test returned and proved that Nathan is not Charlotte's father, which means the first test was tampered with somehow.

Nathan was shocked at this news, but Maxie was not surprised that Claudette lied. Later on, Nathan gets Claudette to admit that she used his mother's hair for the DNA test and that Griffin is in fact the father. Afterwards, Charlotte meets her real father. It was later revealed that Valentin Cassadine is actually her father. Valentin had a copy of her birth certificate, on which he was listed as the father and her name was listed as Charlotte Cassadine. Valentin eventually wins custody of Charlotte and they start hanging out with Nina. In December, Charlotte sees Santa and the only thing she wants is her mom. Afterwards she meets Lulu and Rocco and Lulu feels a very deep connection to her. On December 8, it was revealed that Claudette was just the surrogate.

Lulu and Maxie are caught after they find the paperwork that proves Claudette was just the surrogate. Dr. Bellamy calls Valentin, who later arrives just before Dante and Nathan. Valentin confirms to the group that Lulu is Charlotte's biological mother. He explains that Helena promised Stavros a child with Lulu, but after Helena discovered that Stavros could not father a child, she sent Daphne to seduce Valentin and recover a sample. Daphne brought Valentin's sample to Helena, and by the time Valentin figured out what had happened, the embryo had already been created, so Valentin recruited Claudette to carry it.

On December 14, Lulu received DNA results that prove she is Charlotte's mother. On December 19, after receiving permission from Valentin to take Charlotte to the Christmas Tree lighting, Lulu remarks that Charlotte has Nikolas's eyes.

Health and Vitals

 * Weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 19ins long at birth [revealed Dec 8, 2016]