Ugly Betty

Beatriz "Betty" U. Suarez, born April 1984, is the bright, over-qualified, personal assistant to editor-in-chief of Mode magazine, Daniel Meade. Betty lives in the Jackson Heights neighbourhood in Queens, New York with her father, Ignacio Suarez, her sister, Hilda Suarez and her son, Betty's nephew Justin Suarez. Betty works at Mode to achieve her dream and be able to publish her own magazine.

Background

Betty grew up in the borough of Queens. She is currently living with her father Ignacio, her sister Hilda, and her nephew Justin. It has been mentioned several times within the first few episodes of the first seasons, the name of Betty's mother is Rosas Suarez (deceased). She attended Queens borough High School, graduating in 2002, where she was salutatorian and received a Regents diploma. Betty was cast as a rock in a school play--though her father admits that he was very proud.

Relationships

At home in Queens, Betty has to deal with her father Ignacio and sister Hilda, who feel she's been taken for a ride at her job and are concerned she's being used like a puppet because of her appearance. However, her nephew Justin is the only person who supports Betty and thinks she should continue pursuing her dreams.

Interestingly enough, Betty believes her job will help solve the legal hassles she has to deal with in trying to get an HMO provider for her father, who has a heart condition and has been told not to drink any products containing caffeine, like coffee. But those efforts have Betty questioning the real reason why her father has avoided the doctor when it is discovered he has been using a Social Security number and name of a deceased person who, if he had lived, would've been 117 years old. She would later learn her dad fled Mexico after he fell in love with her mother, who was married at the time to a wealthy banker abusing her while he was working for them as their chef. When she left her husband to be with Ignacio, the banker then threatened to kill Ignacio with a knife, but Ignacio in turn beat the man to death in self-defense (it was later learned the banker was alive). Ignacio's admission could raise consequences for the family if he is deported back to Mexico and in the process could face prison time in that country. It would be through her bribe with Wilhelmina that Betty would get Ignacio back to the United States.

Romantically, the unattached Betty also had to deal with her ex-boyfriend Walter Tabachnik, who dumped her but wanted back in whether she liked it or not. Betty and Walter were once an item and her family thought he would be the person who would marry her, but he dumped her for Gina Gambarro, the Suarez's next door neighbor. When Betty found out Gina used him just to get a TV (which she later broke), Betty decided she wanted nothing to do with Walter, despite Gina's explanation of what happened. However Betty did take him back and was willing to work out their relationship, which was hampered by Betty's family being more supportive of Walter, especially Hilda, who wanted to keep the two together. But that became more difficult after Betty exhibited feelings towards Henry Grubstick, the accountant working at Betty's workplace.

When Betty found out Henry left the message with Hilda during the holidays, she lashed out at Hilda, who said she thought Betty would have her heart broken, but came to realize Betty was capable of making her own decisions. Unfortunately, after getting hints her romance was over as evidenced by Ignacio and Claire Meade, Betty finally parted ways with Walter after he decided to take a job as the assistant manager of new Pro-Buy store in Maryland. However, after saying goodbye to Walter and just as she was finally about to ask Henry out now she is a single woman, Henry stuns her by telling her his ex-girlfriend Charlie has come to New York to work things out, thus breaking Betty's heart. As a result of this, Betty told Henry it would be best to remain friends despite their attraction to each other. In Secretaries' Day, a semi-conscious Henry told Betty he loved her. In the following episode, A Tree Grows in Guadalajara, Betty believes she sees Henry in Mexico. She follows the apparition and discovers her grandmother's house. Her grandmother, mistaking Betty for her mother Rosa, encourages her to fight for her love. Betty resolves to fight for Henry.

In the season 1 finale, Betty and Henry seem to be off to a good start in a relationship, when Charlie comes back into the picture, saying she is pregnant with Henry's baby. Henry decides to move with her to Tucson, and he tearfully and regretfully says goodbye to Betty. However, later, while getting a filling done at her dentist, the dental technician blurts out Charlie had been cheating on Henry with Dr. Farkas for two months and urges Betty to go after Henry. This plan, however, is shoved aside when the police show up at her door, telling her Hilda's fiance, Santos, was killed in a robbery. Betty chooses to go tell Hilda, thus letting Henry go with Charlie to Arizona.

By season two, Henry returns and get his job back in order to support Charlie, which made Betty feel uneasy because was afraid to tell him about Charlie, but at the same still had feelings for him. Despite mixed feelings from Ignacio and Daniel, both Betty and Henry decided to continue their romance for the next six months before Henry returned to Arizona, after he learned that the baby might be his after all. Unfortunately, Betty has also attracted the interest of Giovanni "Gio" Rossi, a deli shop owner. This development has resulted in a semi-close relationship, as Hilda and Henry has witnessed, even though Betty has yet to noticed any sparks, believing that she and Gio are just friends. This would put Betty in an unusual predicament. Gio wanted her to travel to Rome with him. Henry wanted her to marry him. In the season 3 opener it is revealed she chose neither Henry or Gio, instead she took a trip across the country to find herself.

After she returns she asserts herself as "more adult" but, she is shocked to see Daniel is Editor-in-Chief of Player magazine, but after she accepted Wilhelmina's offer to work at Mode again, she realizes Daniel wanted his old job again and after she showed him letters from disgruntled readers, he reclaims his job and rehires Betty again.

She decides to get her own apartment but is schmoozed over by a real-estate agent and leases a complete dump of an apartment without ever seeing it. She then deals with her old bully, Kimmie Keegan, as she is now her father's boss. After a fight in the fast-food restaurant in which they work, her and Kimmie make up. Things then begin to look up after her family, initially against it, help her clean-up and renovate her apartment. She then meets Jesse her new neighbor and obviously new love-interest. Jesse kisses Amanda on the roof during a party and Betty is hurt until Amanada realizes Betty likes him and says it was only a kiss. Betty and Jesse go out on a date and he only talks about himself so she breaks up with him. Her father had a heart attack and after surgery was fine but Betty was missing everything because she was at a party when Ignacio had his heart attack so she decided to move back home in Queens, leasing the apartment out to Amanda and Marc (Amanda was already living with Betty before). Betty joins YETI so she could begin to "go places" in her career and meets a man named Matt who works for a Sports Magazine. Betty eventually starts dating Matt and she meets his mother who thinks she is below Matt (Matt's family is VERY rich) but Matt says she will just have to deal with it. Betty tries to take her relationship with Matt to the next level, but he is avoiding doing so until she finds out Matt has a sex problem because he uses it to "connect" with others and he made a deal with Helen, his therapist. He wouldn't sleep with someone until he had an emotional connection with them, which is what he thinks he has with Betty. She begins to feel weird about what Matt told her until he assures her she is number 1 and they are seen going into Matt's apartment last.

Matt asks Betty to move in with him, and she agrees. However, soon after this Henry returns to New York with his new girlfriend for a few days, and realizes she still has feelings for him. Before Henry's departure from New York, Betty and Henry meet and agree they should go separate ways despite their feelings for each other. They still kiss before Henry leaves. Matt sees this and finally decides to break up with Betty because she wasn't honest with him. He also informs her, she will still be seeing a lot him, because he got a job at MODE as Betty's superior. Betty is now seeing changes in her job and family. Matt and Betty get back together at the end of "The Bahamas Triangle." In the Christmas episode, Betty and Hilda think they are both pregnant due to a mix-up with the pregnancy tests but in the end, it turns out that Hilda is the one expecting a child.

Her necklace is the same necklace worn by Anne Boleyn, Queen of England.