| “ | I think I need to let her go. | ” |
Daniel Meade is one of the main characters on Ugly Betty. He is portrayed by Eric Mabius.
Early Life[]
Daniel Meade was born on August 28, 1974. He is the second child of magazine publisher Bradford Meade and Claire Meade. After his graduation from Harvard, Bradford picked him to succeed the well-respected (and recently deceased) Fey Sommers as editor-in-chief of MODE. This created animosity throughout the series between him and Wilhelmina Slater as she was more qualified but passed over due to nepotism.
Throughout Ugly Betty[]
Sensing Daniel will need help because of his young age and his inexperience in the fashion industry, Bradford hires a personal assistant to guide him. However, due to his son's habit of womanizing, he knows the assistant he chooses should be someone his son will not find attractive. Bradford thus hires the fashion-ignorant but bright Betty Suarez. An integral part of the show's premise is that Betty was considered ugly by the denizens of the New York fashion world of Mode and specifically by Daniel himself.
Daniel's initial mistreatment and resentment of Betty turns first into respect and ultimately into a close friendship and the possibility of a more romantic relationship. As Betty's character undergoes a metamorphosis into a polished professional woman, Daniel's perception of Betty's beauty alters as an outward sign of his growing maturity as a person.
Daniel's late brother Alex was the editor-in-chief of another Meade Publication, Hudson. Part of Daniel's motivation as a character was proving that he could hold his own without living in Alex's shadow. However, he was unaware Alex was not only alive and had a sex change, but also plotting to have Daniel removed from the job. In the first season, when Alexis attempts to fire Daniel, he fires back with an injunction because "Alex" is legally dead and therefore no longer has any ownership of the company. The ensuing sibling rivalry is negotiated by Betty playing mediator between the two. Daniel and Alexis are ultimately forced by their mother Claire to share co-Editor in Chief duties until Alexis' departure at the end of season three.
Daniel's womanizing was overt and unabashed. Towards the end of the first season, a model he'd slept with attempts to extort him by saying she is only 16 as part of a plan by Alexis to force Daniel's ousting from Mode. Betty saves Daniel by finding evidence that the model is actually 20, but insists Daniel deal with his sexual addiction. Seeking the help of a psychologist, Daniel begins taking a prescription to help him control his sex addiction. The first season ends with Daniel accidentally overdosing and Alexis attempting to get Daniel to the hospital. On the way, the car crashes because the assassin Alexis had hired to kill Bradford had cut the brakes.
In the premiere of season 2, Daniel is recovering from the car wreck in a wheelchair while his sister is still in a coma three weeks after the car crash. Later, he helps Betty "bury" Henry and at the last minute throws his pills into the hole, saying he will get over his addictions. When Alexis wakes up from her coma and replies, "Why are you calling me Alexis, it's Alex!" when Daniel asked her, "Are you all right, Alexis?", Daniel realizes the car accident has caused Alexis to forget about her recent sex change. Daniel tries to cover for her by saying the accident was his fault, but when Alexis regains her memory and admits to the murder attempt, Daniel agrees not to say anything to their father.
Throughout season two, Daniel's rocky relationship with his family gets worse when he learns that Bradford, who had been blaming him for losing key advertisers, has started repairing his bond with Alexis. Daniel also opposes his father's marriage to Wilhelmina. When he discovers her bodyguard coming out of her apartment, he puts two and two together, only to learn from Betty that she knew about the affair and that she had made a deal with Wilhelmina not to say anything in order to get Betty's father Ignacio back to the United States. Daniel fires her for betraying her trust, but as he is trying to tell his father about Wilhelmina's affair, Bradford has a heart attack and dies several days later. After Ignacio explains why Betty had kept Wilhelmina's secret, Daniel regrets his decision to fire Betty and tries to talk her into coming back.
After Bradford's passing, Daniel and Alexis battle to succeed him as chairman/CEO of Meade Publishing, culminating in a paintball contest. Daniel loses to Alexis, who pretended to be hurt while they were playing. Daniel also briefly dates Wilhelmina's sister, Renee. That relationship comes to an end when she tries to kill Betty out of jealousy and is put into an asylum.
In season three, Wilhelmina returns to Mode after she reveals her unborn child with Daniel's dead father. That makes her an even bigger enemy than before. She demotes Daniel from Editor-in-Chief and again becomes Alexis' ally. Daniel is reassigned to Editor-in-Chief of Player magazine, but thanks to Betty discovering letters of loyalty given to her on purpose by Marc as well as good ideas in Daniel's mock up of Mode, Daniel is reinstated as Mode's Editor-in-Chief after sales plunged under Wilhelmina's reign.
Daniel also seems to be the father of a little French boy, named Daniel, Jr (affectionately known as DJ). He met the boy's mother, a French model, on a trip to Paris years ago. (Alexis was also present on the trip.) In a letter to Daniel, Jr. from his mother, she tells him that Daniel is his father. However, results from a paternity test show Alexis Meade is the actual father. When the parents of Daniel, Jr.'s mother wanted to take him back to France, Daniel tried to take him away but realized he couldn't do that and instead decided it was better to be "the cool uncle."
When Wilhelmina suggests hiring Connor Owens to be the new financial officer for Meade, Daniel is reluctant as he seems to hate the man. Eventually, Wilhelmina gets her way only for it to turn out Daniel and Connor were playing at disliking each other to trick her. However, Connor doesn't play favorites with Daniel either, doing whatever he feels best for the company. At a company retreat, Daniel meets Connor's fiancée Molly and the two strike an instant flirtation. This gets the attention of Wilhelmina who, wanting Connor for herself, seems to be planning to push the two together. After they share an almost kiss Daniel decides to confess his feelings. In the beginning, she leaves the party upset but afterward, she joins him and after telling him that she has just broken up with Connor, they kiss. Their relationship seems to be good until she tells him that she has cancer.
Towards the end of season 3, he marries Molly. However, she collapses on their wedding night, and after begins developing fevers, indicating her time was coming to an end. At Molly's insistence, Daniel goes to accept an award on behalf of Meade, and he sees Molly through the crowd before quickly disappearing. He realizes she has died while he was giving his acceptance speech, and he comes back to his apartment just in time to see her body being carried out in a body bag. He calls Betty to help console him on the stoop of his apartment.
As the series enters its fourth season, Daniel is unable to control his feeling over the loss of Molly, frequently throwing objects and punching people who confront him. Betty intervenes and he seeks help at a bereavement group, where he meets a woman named Natalie. The relationship unravels when Natalie invites Daniel to join the Community of the Phoenix, a cult-like group led by Bennett Wallace, resulting in Natalie manipulating Daniel into turning on Betty, his mother Claire, and Amanda because they're seen as bad influences. This prompts Betty and Claire to take action to save Daniel after the cult takes over Mode offices. They get the break they need when Matt warns them about "Level 7" where the cult appears to help people contact the dead, a con that had already resulted in a death of a previous member after they drank a tea that was actually a drug. Although Betty and Claire save Daniel, his attempts to also rescue Natalie fail.
After his experiences with the Community of the Phoenix, Daniel discovers Cal Hartley making risky decisions with the magazine despite joining as a "silent partner" when Connor stole millions from the company. He works to get Cal out of the way by forming an unlikely partnership with Wilhelmina to retrieve the money Connor stole without more of Cal's cash help, but only on the condition that Claire, with whom Cal is having an affair, never finds out.
Later, Daniel accidentally walks into Claire and Cal kissing and he believes that the two began their affair when Bradford was still alive, giving them the cold shoulder. At the same time, Claire decides to look for her long-lost son Tyler. When the latter is chosen to be featured in Fashion Week 2010, a rivalry begins when Daniel was "upstaged" by Tyler, though Daniel doesn't know that Tyler is his half-brother. Daniel discovers the biological truth when he sees pictures of Claire and Tyler dining together. When he confronts Tyler and tells him to leave Claire alone, Claire finally spills the beans. Shocked, Daniel begins to avoid talking to or even having eye-contact with Tyler and Claire. Realizing that nothing would change if he continues to deny the truth, Daniel begins to warm up to Tyler by inviting him to clubs and parties in the city.
In the series finale, he resigns from Mode, making Wilhelmina sole Editor-in-Chief, in order to follow Betty to London where they both start over professionally (following their "dreams"). Additionally, it is implied in Daniel's final "Letter from the Editor" that he also chose to follow Betty to London to pursue a romantic relationship with her.[1]
Relationships[]
Betty Suarez[]
Betty is Daniel's former assistant. She eventually becomes a Features Editor and later leaves MODE altogether in the series finale to pursue her dreams in London. Her knowledge, quick thinking, and creativity helped Daniel succeed at MODE. The two also seem to trust each other and depend on each other, making them very close friends as well as coworkers. Daniel grows to respect her and values her opinion of him highly, trying to stay in her good books, while Betty challenges him to be a better person. In the series finale, it is implied that Daniel has come to realize that he is in love with Betty as he struggles to let her leave him and the magazine for her new life in London. In the end, after following her to London to start over himself, he asks her to have dinner with him.
Molly[]
Molly was Daniel's wife and Connor's former fiancée. They became a couple after she breaks up with Connor, but she has terminal cancer, which creates a crisis in their relationship. Although they eventually marry, their union is short-lived. Weeks after their wedding, Molly dies from complications of her disease.
Sofia Reyes[]
Sofia is an author and the Editor-In-Chief of MODE's sister publication MYW. Daniel falls head over heels for Sofia in the first season, when she is brought in by Bradford to launch the new magazine. At first she resists his advances because of his womanizing ways, as she has a boyfriend who has just asked her to marry him. She tells Daniel she wants commitment, and her presence helps curb his womanizing and causes him to reflect on what it is that he truly wants, too. After Sofia leaves her boyfriend, Daniel asks Sofia to marry him and she accepts. However, on a national TV broadcast, Sofia reveals her seduction of Daniel had all been for an article on how any woman can get any man to propose to her in only 60 days and that she did not love Daniel at all, devastating him.
Other Relationships[]
- Wilhelmina Slater - Co-editor-in-Chief of MODE; Daniel's role as the editor-in-chief has made Betty and him unlikely enemies of the Creative Director. She wants Daniel's job and is determined to make sure, by any means necessary, Daniel and Betty never succeed in the world of fashion. She succeeded in taking everything away from Daniel, including his position as Editor-in-Chief. Wilhelmina resents Daniel because Wilhelmina had worked hard for decades to secure her job as Editor-In-Chief but was passed over in favor of Daniel by Bradford, who was immature, irresponsible and didn’t know lots about fashion.
- Bradford Meade - Daniel's late father and owner of Meade Publications; Despite handing the job to Daniel, Bradford was not sure his son could live up to the challenge. Daniel gained his trust, even though the two had shown signs of a rift in their relationship. The rift was fueled by Wilhelmina and Alexis, but would make peace prior to his passing.
- Claire Meade - Daniel's mother; Has been in and out of rehab due to her drinking problem. She has warned Daniel against his womanizing and told him he will end up going the same route as his father when he had the affair with Fey. She later openly admitted to Betty, Daniel, and Bradford, and later turned herself into the police for the murder of Fey Sommers, but was later given early release after it was proven she was being drugged by Fey Sommers. Both have since restored their mother–son bond.
- Alexis Meade - Daniel's sister, with whom he has constant sibling rivalry.
- Amanda Tanen - Receptionist at MODE; She had an unusual romantic relationship with Daniel, and wanted the assistant editor job Betty filled. However, Daniel only thought of Amanda as a one-night stand, and this, together with his constant womanizing has strained the relationship. In the end, she gave up on Daniel but agreed to a working relationship instead. She also gave up on being Daniel's assistant after realizing Daniel trusted Betty more, and she was overqualified for the job, and demanded a raise. But it would be at the expense of her job with MODE and future to go after Daniel; when forced by Marc to sabotage a date for Daniel, she does just that. During the season 1 finale, Amanda discovers a birth certificate declaring Fey Sommers as her mother when she was accidentally trapped in Fey's love Dungeon with Christina McKinney. In the second season, Amanda believes, because of Fey's affair, Bradford may be her biological father and sets out to get a sample of his DNA to see if he really is. To the relief of Daniel and Amanda, the test results came back negative ruling out Bradford as Amanda's father. In season 4 they become lovers (or fun buddies as Amanda calls their relationship) again, and Amanda becomes Daniel's new assistant after Marc got a promotion from Wilhelmina as her new Junior Fashion Editor.
- Daniel Meade Jr. - Daniel's nephew. He is the son of a hand model with whom Daniel had a fling years previously. With her recent death, the boy came to America to find Daniel. Initially Daniel rejected him out of hand but has since come to believe his story may be true; however, a DNA test revealed Alexis Meade is his biological father. In Betty Suarez Land, DJ discovers Daniel is not his father and goes back to France with his grandparents as Daniel thought it would be the best.
- Renee Slater - Daniel and Renee dated for a while. She tried to burn down his apartment and kill Betty because she had a mental condition and thought that Betty was interested in Daniel. She was committed to a mental institution without hurting anyone.
- Fey Sommers - Former Editor-In-Chief; Her death resulted in Daniel being named the successor, a move stopping Wilhelmina from getting that job. He is also drawn into the mystery surrounding Sommers via a series of phone calls (made by Alexis, his sister) warning him to "watch his back" when he is around his father.
Appearances[]
- Daniel Meade appeared in all 85 episodes on Ugly Betty
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References[]
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| The Meade Family | ||||
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