Diana Taylor (Brooke Bundy)

Diana Taylor (née Maynard) was a fictional 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 have a car accident which left him paralysed. When Phil was admitted to General Hospital, Jessie was shocked to 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.

Shortly after embarking on a nursing career at General Hospital, 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 no one, 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. Eventually Augusta was revealed as the murderer and Diana forgave Peter when he confessed that he was the father of her child. Augusta served a short prison sentence since the crime was self defense and left town after putting her child into foster care.

Once again, problems soon emerged in Diana and Peter's marriage when Diana suspected that Peter was having an affair with Dr. Lesley Webber, although Diana's fears soon proved to be unfounded. Diana and Peter then began fostering a young boy named Mike, although he was taken away from them due to Diana's past with Phil Brewer. Frustrated at not being allowed to legally adopt, Diana was tempted when Martha's nanny, Heather Grant who had fallen pregnant by Dr. Jeff Webber, offered to sell Peter and Diana her unborn child. In the end, Diana and Peter decided to turn her down.

Soon afterwards, Peter and Diana were devastated when Martha was killed in a hurricane. In the aftermath, Peter and Diana once again decided to adopt and turned to a baby broker for help. Unbeknownst to them, the son they adopted was actually Heather's son Steven Lars Webber. Peter and Diana soon focused their energies on raising their new sonwhom they named Peter Junior or P.J for short, while Heather told everyone in Port Charles that her baby had died. Jeff, the baby's father, was devastated and since he felt sorry for Heather he decided to marry her.

Over the next two years, Heather did everything she could to stay in P.J's life. When Diana became concerned about Heather's attachment to P.J, she fired Heather and hired a new nanny, but Heather soon made the new nanny look unfit and got rehired. Peter and Diana then decided to make Jeff and Heather P.J's legal gaurdians in case something should ever happen to them.

By 1979, Heather was attempting to discredit Diana at General Hospital, although her schemes soon aroused the suspicions of Diana's co-worker, nurse Anne Logan. Sensing that she was about to be caught out, Heather slipped a massive dose of LSD into Diana's tea, but P.J switched the cups and Heather ended up ingesting the drug herself. Heather had a mental breakdown and Jeff was forced to commit his wife to a mental hospital. Jeff soon began a relationship with Anne.

Heather's mother, Alice finally had enough of the situation and informed Peter that P.J was Jeff and Heather's son. The news shocked Peter so much that he had a fatal heart attack but before he died Peter was able to write a note with the words "P.J is Steven Lars" written on it. Diana, now a widow, remained ignorant of the truth until she found the note in Peter's clothes. Having finally learned the truth, Diana was fearful that P.J would be taken away from her.

Diana decided that the best course of action would be to seduce Jeff away from Anne and marry him herself, though at this time she was unaware that Heather was now lucid and secretly plotting to get Steven back herself. In early 1981, Diana and Jeff finally made love and Diana finally confessed the truth to an angry Jeff. Jeff stormed out and soon afterwards Diana was found shot to death with "ANNE" written in her own blood next to the corpse. Anne was accused of the crime, but suspicion soon turned to Heather. In the end, Alice was revealed as Diana's killer; she had killed Diana when she feared that Diana would kill Heather, but Heather had written Anne's name in blood in an attempt to frame Anne for the crime.