Christina McKinney

Christina McKinney is a fictional character in the American comedy-drama series Ugly Betty, portrayed by Ashley Jensen.

The character leaves the show in the third season, but returns for the episode "London Calling" in the fourth season.

Background

Christina emigrated to the United States from Edinburgh, Scotland, and is one of ten children; she is a seamstress who works at MODE magazine and calls her office "The Closet" because of the leftover fashion designs she has in her space, which she uses to whip up new outfits from time to time. Christina later finds out her workspace once served as a passageway to a secret hideaway for Bradford Meade and the late Fey Sommers.

Her knowledge of what goes on at her workplace inside and out comes in handy as she becomes fast friends and forms an alliance with new co-worker Betty Suarez. She aspires to be a fashion designer.

She finally gets the chance to show off her designs in the episode "I'm Coming Out", only to learn Wilhelmina Slater chose her show to set up for the return of Alexis Meade, who helped bring down Bradford Meade by framing him for the murder of Fey Sommers. Prior to the episode "In or Out", Wilhelmina had tricked Christina into turning in a package to the police in order to frame Bradford. Wilhelmina uses that to manipulate Christina into serving as her minion. However, when Wilhelmina threatens to blame her for turning in the evidence by lying to Betty, Christina has no choice but to go along. When Christina came clean to Betty in "Punch Out", Betty ends their friendship. The two make up in "Petra-Gate", however, when Betty realizes that she needs Christina more than ever to gets information about Wilhelmina's schemes.

In the finale of Season 1, Christina drunkenly reveals that she has a husband named Stuart (an insurance agent), whom she left in Britain. She tells Amanda ever since she left Scotland, no one has bothered to look for her. Afterwards in the second season she would be the one who would tell Betty's crush, Henry Grubstick, that his girlfriend Charlie cheated on him and may have gotten pregnant by Betty's dentist, not Henry.

In "A League of Their Own", Christina is chatting on a dating site called bachelorcity.com, where her bio mentions she is 5'6", aged 32, has blonde hair, blue eyes and she enjoys dancing. However, the man she is chatting with turns out to be her husband, Stuart. Embarrassed, Christina quickly shuts off her computer.

Christina's husband appears in "A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding". Christina and Stuart sleep together in Fey's "love dungeon", but the reunion is ruined when Christina discovers what appears to be a drug needle in his rucksack. Stuart reveals he has liver failure and has six months to live. His only hope is an experimental treatment that costs more than he can afford. Christina embraces her husband and swears she will come up with the money to save him. Unfortunately, she would later tell Marc and Henry the insurance she was hoping for to help Stuart would not cover for his medical expenses.

This gives Wilhelmina - who has a "hostile womb" and cannot bear children - the opportunity to make Christina a surrogate to carry Bradford Meade's child. Christina agrees to this deal in "Odor in the Court" with Betty acting as her confidant over Wilhelmina's objections. While staying at the Slater apartment, Christina finds out about Wilhelmina's sister Renee's violent past and warns Betty about her, and then at a doctor's office learns about the sperm donor. Christina returns to her apartment to tell Stuart, who in turn sides with Wilhelmina after he calls her. After seeking advice from Betty, Christina agrees to return to Wilhelmina, but tells her that she would do it on the condition Wilhelmina gives the child the love and attention it deserves.

In "Filing for the Enemy", the second episode of the third season, Christina confesses to Betty that she thinks Stuart is using drugs again. She then sends some of Stuart's hair to a lab to be tested. The results come back positive, which devastates Christina as the entire reason she is having the Slater-Meade baby is for him. They get into an argument, and Stuart storms off when Christina threatens to call immigration on him. At the end of the episode as Christina is leaving MODE for the day, an unknown person pushes her down the stairs, and she loses consciousness. It is later revealed Alexis was the one who pushed Christina down the stairs in a blind rage because the baby she is carrying represents Wilhelminia's opportunity to take over MODE magazine. Christina would also learn that the medical experiments Stuart was taking were not working and he has only six months to live.

In February 2009, Christina finally gives birth to a son, William. Christina later confronts Wilhelmina about William, who in turn tricks Christina into believing William is actually Wilhelmina's son after she shows her a letter in which she fabricates the DNA results. Devastated, Christina kidnaps William and drags Betty into helping her find proof, leading to Claire Meade's involvement in the ensuing drama. Wilhelmina admits to the press that Christina is William's birth mother. Now that William has brought them together as a family, Christina and Stuart decide to go back to Edinburgh with their son.

Christina reappears in the fourth and final season in the episode "London Calling", crossing paths with Betty in London. At the end of the night, Christina leaves, but assures Betty that this isn't a goodbye.

Status

While Jensen was considered a primary cast member on the show, her presence was becoming less noticeable by the third season, since she remained in Los Angeles while Ugly Betty was setting up production in New York City, making it difficult for her to continue working on the show. On 14 January 2009, Jensen at first denied rumors she would be leaving the show at the end of its current series.^[1] However, less than 2 months later, it was announced on 12 March 2009 that Christina would leave the show at the end of the current season, after Jensen quit the show.^[2] However, producer Silvio Horta has stated Jensen will still have a recurring stint in the fourth season.^[3][4]

References

1. ↑ http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/a142427/jensen-denies-betty-exit-rumours.html
2. ↑ http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/a149340/ashley-jensen-quits-ugly-betty.html
3. ↑ "Entertainment Weekly". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-04-30. 
4. ↑ "'Ugly Betty' scoop: The braces are coming off!" From EW.com (April 30, 2009)