Shelby Jean Whitehead (previously Harper) was a character on the series, Harpers Falls and Smythewood. She was played by Michelle Stafford, who was best known for her role of Phyllis Summers on the Young and the Restless.
Michael's troublemaking first wife.[]
Shelby was the daughter of George and Lynne Whitehead, and had grown up in the upper class suburb of Brookline. They would later move to Hull and the Whiteheads ruled there.
While she was at Radcliffe, she met Michael Harper, one of the heirs to the Harper family fortune.
A possessive and exceedingly jealous woman, her jealousy would end up ruining her relationships and would eventually end up being her downfall. She was also quite manipulative and despicably known for her scheming and conniving.
She and Michael dated and while they were still dating, Shelby (supposedly) had given birth to their son, Dylan, whom she adored. The problem was they weren't married.
Michael had a dalliance (justified, apparently, given Shelby's infidelities) with a woman named Angela Mercier, one of his classmates, whom the family acknowledges to be the one and only true love of his life, and he became a father again when Angela gave birth to their daughter, Aileen.
After ironing things out, Michael and Shelby eventually got married (under protest, apparently) and then she gave birth to their second child, Rose Harper. Shelby became Aileen's stepmother, and she had a tenuous often hate filled relationship with Aileen. Again, it was later revealed that Rose wasn't Michael's father, but was the daughter of yet another of her paramours.
This stemmed from the anger and animus that she had against Aileen's mother, Angela, whom she hated, and resented for having Michael's heart. She and Michael later adopted Aileen's former friend, Hannah Anderson.
For a long time, she had been the press secretary for communications at Harper Academy.
It was her who had convinced Michael to send Dylan to the nearby academy, Harper Academy, even though he had been accepted to school at Choate-Rosemary Hall school in Connecticut, where his best friend, Barry attended. Once again, she had a relationship with one of the admissions staff, and manipulated things to keep Dylan at Harper Academy!
This act of selfishness showed that she often meddled too often in things, especially when it came to Dylan and his well-being.
Shelby tended to be smothering (sometimes to the point of brazen interference and outright selfishness, a bi-product of her jealousy) towards her children, Dylan, especially.
She also had something of a very tenuous relationship with her husband's twin sister, Michelle Harper. Shelby resented the closeness that the two had, and was angered that she would NEVER be as close with Michael as he was with Michelle.
While they lived in Smythewood, Pennsylvania, she had heard that Michelle had sent Dylan and his late spouse, Alex Corwin, who was also her step-nephew, due to her mother's marriage to Alex's grandfather, David Corwin, to London, to run Harper Industries' London office.
This infuriated Shelby, who had always wanted to keep Dylan close by her, and was angered that it had been Michelle who had cut her apron strings strangling Dylan, who had decided to cut herself off from the family.
She and Michael divorced over the whole issue, which she blamed both twins for. To top it off, she got into an argument with her daughter, Rose, over the whole situation.
With her son gone to London, Shelby had nothing to keep her in Smythewood. She left there to go to Los Angeles.
Sadly, though, while on her way back to Smythewood, at the insistence of her sister, Maureen, to try to patch things up with the family she splintered,. This would prove to be rather fatal for her......literally.
Shelby was killed by the Back Alley Killer, later revealed to be that of Dean Wilson, a vicious businessman who was targeting everyone in Smythewood.
Besides, Maureen, she was also stepsister to David's daughter, Susan and her late brother, John.
Since her death, a lot of revelations have shaken people to the core. It turned out that Dylan wasn't her son after all these years.
She had taken Dylan from his birth mother......Michelle! There was a huge rivalry between Shelby and her boyfriend's twin sister.
They had never gotten along, and for good reason. When Michelle gave birth to Dylan and Sheila, Shelby attempted to kidnap Dylan out of spite to make Michelle hurt as she felt she deserved.
After a blistering confrontation between her and the twins (not to mention their father, mother, the head housekeeper and Dylan's nanny). Michael was about ready to leave Shelby for good and go right straight back to Angela.
However, the gentle minded Michelle, to keep the peace in the family, offered Dylan to Michael so he could raise him. Michelle, however, would always keep an eye on her son, to make sure Shelby would not try anything stupid again.
Shelby resented Michelle, but the thought of her raising Dylan helped tame her troublemaking (Michael and Shelby were planning on adopting to tame her troublemaking). Now, that Shelby is dead, Dylan is reunited with his true mother and his beloved twin sister.
It was later revealed that Shelby did not love Dylan, that her "love" was a fraud, like she was. It was also revealed that she had viciously abused Dylan at six years old. She beat him after he went into her "boudoir" to pick up a pillow that fell off her divan.
Shelby's possessiveness of her "boudoir" was so much that not even the cleaning staff could get in to clean the room. She never cleaned in there herself, but she would bring all sorts of men in and out!
Also it was revealed that Rose was not Michael's daughter (due to a DNA test), but her father was one of Shelby's paramours, Reggie Stapleton! For her scheming and conniving, Shelby died as she deserved, alone!