| “ | Look, you said that I needed to find meaning in my life, and you were right. And I've wasted so much time asking myself, What do I need?. What do I want? But your story got me asking a different question, like what do other people need? | ” |
— Matt to Betty about doing something better, Back in Her Place
| ||
Matthew "Matt" Hartley is a former main character on Ugly Betty. He is portrayed by Daniel Eric Gold.
He was introduced as a sports writer and Betty's fellow YETI student. Betty was annoyed at him at first while he follows her around through Fashion Week, but the two hit it off and become a couple in A Mother of a Problem.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Matt belongs to a prominent and wealthy family. His parents are socialite Victoria Hartley and business man and philanthropist Calvin "Cal" Hartley (who later becomes the "silent" owner of Meade Publications). His parents divorced acrimoniously.
Brought up within a prestigious and privilege lifestyle, Matt attended Yale University and studied piano at the Turtle Bay Music School. He has an MBA, "half a law degree," and nearly became a large animal veterinarian. He was former sports writer who switched careers frequently, pursuing careers in law, medicine, music, and painting. He also has a brown belt in karate, is a long distance runner, and is fluent in three languages. Matt is introduced as an editor for a sports magazine; at the end of season three, he takes a position as the Managing Editor at MODE, after his father's advice.
Season 3[]
Matt first appears in the third season as a fellow Young Editors Training Initiative (YETI) student when they are paired together as YETI partners on a year-long project that requires them to shadow each other at their respective magazine jobs. Initially, Betty (who is disappointed not to have been paired with a partner at a more serious publication) is frustrated with Matt, who asks her tedious and annoying questions during the stressful periods of Fashion Week at MODE. Betty tells Matt that she's not interested in learning about his work or the sports magazine industry, as she aspires to leave the shallow fashion industry for more serious work. Matt tells her she prejudged him as a "sports guy" which makes her the kind of shallow fashion editor that actually fits right at home at a place like MODE. Later, Betty shadows Matt as he interviews athletes for his job and learns the personal approach that Matt takes to his career, sharing the trials and hopes of athletes who work to support their families as much as their own dreams. They reconcile after seeing each other's real work, and Matt congratulates her on finding her own voice in the fashion world.
In "Things Fall Apart", Matt asks Betty on a date after Betty asks him for help with understanding magazine budgets, given his MBA experience. A clueless Betty turns the offer down, unaware of his romantic feelings. Realizing her own interest in him, she asks him on a date herself, and they go to a bar for drinks, where Matt gives her advice about the suspicious inaccuracies that she found in MODE's accounts. She also reveals her heartbreak over the recent end of relationship with former MODE accountant Henry Grubstick, and Matt patiently listens. Just as they begin to grow closer, Betty decides she's not ready to date again. The next day, Matt shows up at her office, where Betty insists that her pulling back from him is not about Henry, but about her belief that dating a colleague is a bad idea. However Matt persuades her to give them a chance, and Betty agrees.
Betty and Matt's relationship begins strong. He frequently joins Betty's family for meals at their home, and her family enjoy spending time with him, too. However, a recurring pattern in their dates is Matt's forgetfulness. He often tells her he forgot his wallet and Betty accepts this as an innocent issue, despite her sister Hilda Suarez telling her that it's suspicious this has happened more than once. In "Sugar Daddy," Betty's father Ignacio Suarez receives an anonymous check of $10,000 as they face a house eviction. Betty initially assumes the check is from her boss Daniel Meade, but he denies this. Later, when Matt and Betty are on a date where he thanks her again for taking care of their previous dates when he'd forgotten his wallet. He pays for their drinks before going to the bathroom, and while he's gone Betty notices the indiscernible signature on the receipt matches that of the anonymous check. Betty confronts him, and Matt then explains that he comes from a very wealthy family and that he wanted to give her family the money, saying that his family often gives to charities. Hurt and embarrassed, Betty tells him she's not a charity and leaves him, refusing to cash his check. After her family find another way to get the money they need to keep their house, Betty and Matt apologize to each other and decide to continue dating.
In "A Mother of a Problem," Betty meets Matt's mother, Victoria Hartley, who Matt warns Betty has never liked any of the women he's dated. Betty takes this as a challenge. However, when they meet, Victoria at first mistakes Betty for hired help. Later at Victoria's dinner party, Betty tries hard to make a good impression by wittily handling the dinner conversation about opera and fashion, even as Victoria tries to keep Betty and Matt apart. Afterwards, Victoria demands Betty stay out of Matt's life. Shaken, Betty begins to doubt whether or not she should be with Matt, but Matt stands up to his mother's attitude and calls Betty his "girlfriend" for the first time. Victoria continues to give Betty the cold shoulder, but Betty and Matt continue their relationship.
In "The Sex Issue," Matt seems a little shy about taking his romance with Betty to the next level. After they share a kiss and she indicates that maybe she will spend the night, he promptly shoves her into a cab. Betty leaves confused. Betty is given tips by her coworkers Marc St. James and Amanda Tanen-Sommers and tries to seduce Matt at her former apartment. Matt is clearly uncomfortable and leaves again. The following day, Betty sees Matt hugging a woman and assumes the worst. However the woman is Matt's therapist and Matt reveals that he has slept with a lot of women and used sex as self destructive behavior. He and his therapist made a contract for him to only have sex if he was committed to his partner. Betty at first accepts his cautions, but later finds that she is freaked out by the idea that he has slept with "hundreds of women" and hallucinates seeing women around Matt wearing T-shirts with different numbers. She tells Matt that they should just be friends, as she wanted to be special for him and doesn't think they can get past this mental block in their relationship. Matt tells her that she's a number to him also: his "number one." He then asks her to his apartment to see his "wall color."
In "Rabbit Test," Betty learns that Matt's father is the billionaire philanthropist Calvin "Cal" Hartley after receiving an "egg-vite" to Cal's extremely exclusive annual Easter Egg Hunt, on account of being Matt's girlfriend. She suggests to Daniel that they approach Cal to discuss Meade Publications' financial problems, but when Matt explains how bad his relationship with his father is, she tries to keep Daniel and Matt from meeting so that she can avoid putting Matt in a bad position. Torn between her loyalties to Daniel and MODE and her commitment to Matt and his complicated family life, Betty ultimately decides to try to reason with Cal at the party, helping Daniel sneak in behind Matt's back. Matt tries to throw Daniel out when he finds them, then changes his mind after Betty confesses how bad the situation is at MODE and asks for his help. However, he warns Betty that his father is powerful and controlling, and will always hold favors over people's heads. He then introduces her to his father, who finds Betty impressive, but manipulates Daniel into dressing up as the Easter Bunny for the hunt, humiliating him. Daniel tells Betty later that he knows how to handle egos like Cal's and is willing to do whatever he can if Cal will agree to help them. In the end, Cal agrees to bankroll Meade Publications as a "silent" owner, sending a gift basket of carrots to Daniel and Betty to quietly remind them he now owns them for the favor he granted, just as Matt warned he would.
By the events of "Curveball," Matt and Betty have completed the YETI program, with Betty seeking the next step in her career and Matt deciding to leave the publishing industry to pursue his passion for painting. Matt asks Betty to move in with him and she accepts. However, Betty also discovers that her former flame Henry is back in New York City and Facebook stalks him, learning that he has a new girlfriend now named Chloe. Later, Betty accidentally bumps into Henry and they agree on a double date to a Mets baseball game. At the game, Betty questions her feelings with Matt and Henry via a fantasy Jumbotron, seeing the differences between them. Matt grows uncomfortable by how friendly Betty and Henry are, especially after Betty announces she's been offered her dream job with the New York Review. Afterwards Matt asks Betty why she didn't want to tell Henry about their other big news: that he and Betty are moving in together. Betty tells Matt she is committed to him, while also telling Hilda later that night that she was shaken by how suddenly her feelings for Henry returned when she saw him again, even though she knows how much Henry hurt her and that she truly does love Matt. The next day, Betty learns that her job offer at the New York Review was given to Jodie Papadakis, her YETI mentor, and she is devastated. She and Henry meet to catch up, after which they realize their differences and again say their goodbyes. They kiss one last time; unfortunately, Matt watches this from afar.
In the finale of the third season, Matt waits for Betty to tell him the truth about her kiss with Henry. When she continuously deflects his questions and becomes more preoccupied by the pressures of her job and her attempts to seek a promotion to editor, Matt finally confronts her with the fact that he saw the kiss. Betty explains that it was mistake and she and Henry were just saying goodbye, but Matt doesn't believe her. Betty attempts to make amends, while Matt tells his father Cal about the situation. Cal gives him some advice: to channel his emotion into work, and then offers Matt a job at MODE (Cal became a "silent" owner at Meade Publications after saving the company from bankruptcy). Betty is promoted to Features Editor, and Matt comes to her new office, where he tells Betty that she was his first love and that the relationship is now over, then stuns her with another surprise: he will now be working at MODE as her new boss.
Season 4[]
In two-part premiere of season four ("The Butterfly Effect Part 1" / "The Butterfly Effect Part 2"), Matt treats Betty harshly at work and constantly puts down her ideas as her new boss, favoring others on the Features team while refusing to give Betty any assignments. Betty tries to talk with him to discuss their personal and professional issues, but he ignores all her efforts, even rejecting her when she tries to confront the possibility of his lingering feelings for her as the reason that he took the job at MODE. When Daniel returns to work and publicly shows his support for Betty in front of Matt and the other Features Editors, they view this as preferential treatment and Matt resents her even more. At a shoot in the United Nations that Betty is struggling to manage, Matt asks Betty if she is sleeping with Daniel; Daniel overhears and punches him in the face to defend Betty. Eventually, Matt and Betty reconcile. She tells him that she will respect their new professional dynamic and his role as her boss, but that she has also moved on from him, and hopes he can do the same.
Later in the season, Matt begins flirting with Amanda, who reciprocates but also is confused by his mixed signals. In "Blue on Blue," Matt and Amanda go to dinner at the same restaurant as Betty who is there interviewing a designer, which Matt assumes is a date. After Amanda witnesses the tension between Matt and Betty, she accuses Matt of using her to make Betty jealous and leaves. Afterwards, Matt apologizes to Amanda at her apartment, where they admit they are interested in each other genuinely and begin dating. In "The Bahamas Triangle," Amanda figures out that Matt still loves Betty. Amanda tells him that he should get Betty back. Matt decides to pursue Betty again, and the two spend the night together, resuming their relationship
In "Be-Shure," both Suarez sisters have their own pregnancy scare. They take tests but a mix up leaves one test positive and one test negative, though they do not know which test belongs to which sister. Just then, Matt walks into the bathroom to see Betty holding the positive pregnancy test. Matt questions Betty, but she isn't sure who is actually pregnant. Matt bursts out that he hopes that it is them and goes to get another test just to make sure. It's then revealed that Betty is not pregnant, and Matt is shown to be disappointed. He tells Betty he looks forward to his future with her and the road that lie ahead of them as a couple.
In "The Passion of the Betty," Betty becomes concerned that she and Matt are spending too much time together at the expense of their professional lives, as they see each other all day at work and also the rest of the day after work. Seeking a better balance with her personal life while also hoping to support Matt's dreams, she tries to encourage him to pursue his passions for art. She arranges for a curator, Frances, to see Matt's art (which he usually keeps private), and surprises him with a date to a gallery opening of his own artwork. The gallery show features pieces he made while he and Betty were broken up, which Betty hadn't seen before as Frances did not tell her which pieces she planned to show at her gallery. Betty is humiliated to see the way Matt painted her, while Matt accuses Betty of not understanding his work or how hard the break up was for him. Later, Betty shares with Matt her personal diaries, where she had written passionately about her heartbreak over their break up, telling him that she was just as torn up as he was even if she expressed this differently than he did. They reconcile, and Matt decides to quite MODE so he can pursue his dreams and find a better balance in their time together.
In "Back In Her Place," Matt helps Betty discuss their future together. He helps her start a blog to feature her writing, with her first piece being about "walking a mile in someone's shoes," in which Betty interviews ordinary New Yorkers about their lives and experiences. One of the woman they interview describes her experiences helping people in Botswana, which inspires Matt to commit to a life of helping others with the resources he has. He decides to leave on a six-month volunteer trip to Botswana and only informs Betty of his decision after making his plans. Eventually, Betty encourages Matt with his decision. They break up as friends, sharing one final kiss.
Relationships[]
Betty Suarez[]
Matt and Betty have an on-again, off-again relationship throughout the third and fourth seasons. They meet in the Young Editors Training Initiative (YETI) program as partners on a project where they shadow each other at their respective magazines, learning more about one another professionally and personally. Early in their relationship, Betty discovers that Matt comes from a very wealthy family and the class differences bother her. Eventually, they pursue a serious relationship which is derailed when Betty's former boyfriend briefly returns. Matt breaks up with Betty as he believes she's not over her ex, and takes a job as Betty's new boss. In this position, he makes Betty's work life miserable as he blames her for breaking his heart. Eventually, they admit their mistakes and regrets and decide to renew their relationship. Ultimately, Matt decides to quit his job and pursue a new career in Botswana, and they break up amicably.
Calvin Hartley[]
Cal is Matt's domineering father. They have an uneasy but respectful relationship. Cal is extremely wealthy and uses his money and influence to exercise power over others, including those he appears to help or support with his philanthropy. He advises Matt to curb his passions and emotions and be more dedicated to his career. Cal and Bradford Meade were ones best friends. While Cal was still married to Matt's mother Victoria, he had an affair with Bradford's wife Claire Meade, fathering an illegitimate son with her that Claire secretly gave up for adoption.
Victoria Hartley[]
Victoria is Matt's bitter mother. She and her husband Cal had a bitter divorce after his numerous affairs and discovering the illegitimate son that Cal fathered while they were married. Years after their divorce, they continue to resent each other, frequently putting Matt in the middle. Victoria has never approved of Matt's relationships and is particularly judgmental of Betty. Matt continuously sticks up for Betty in front of his mother.
Amanda Tanen-Sommers[]
Amanda is the receptionist at MODE as well as Betty's former roommate. She and Matt briefly date in the fourth season, until Amanda realizes that Matt still loves Betty. While heartbroken, as her feelings for Matt were genuine, Amanda tells Matt to get Betty back, and they end their relationship and become friends.