In 1987, Renee Divine came to Llanview, where she ran into an old friend, Asa Buchanan. When Asa and Renee were younger, they had an affair with each other. When she met Asa again, she decided to stay in Llanview. During this time, Patrick London was impersonating Bo Buchanan, Asa's son. He had kidnapped Bo and was having him held in England. Patrick wanted Renee out of Asa's life so he could get closer to Asa and his plan almost worked. Asa believed that Renee was trying to poison him, but Patrick was the one who was really doing it. Asa brought charges against Renee, but then dropped them when he came to his senses.

In 1988 Asa and Renee were married in a double wedding with Asa's grandson Cord Roberts and his soon to be wife, Tina Lord. Renee and Asa's marriage didn't last long, Blair Cramer came and broke it up. Renee and Asa remained friends, though, and in 1998, they started secretly dating again. They told everyone after Asa had a heart attack when Todd Manning held everyone hostage at the Buchanan Lodge.

Later Renee told her friend, Nora Buchanan that she had a son that no one knew about. She asked Nora to find her son for her. Nora looked, but couldn't find him. Renee told Asa about the son and that it was his right to know before they got married again in May 1999. They thought they found him and that it was Max Holden, but it was just a scheme Max and Blair had come up with to steal Asa's money.

In November of 1999, Renee was truly crushed when Max admitted to her that he wasn't her real son. She slapped him, causing his aneurysm to explode. Renee felt guilty when Max was in a coma for a long while. After Max woke up he faked his brain damage, so he lied when he said he didn't remember his confession, and faked "episodes" of brain damage, Renee felt sorry for Max and decided to keep the truth from Asa.

Renee launched her own search for her real son and walked out on Asa because he wouldn't confess to setting Will Rappaport up and would stop his feud against the "Rappa-Davidson." Renee's son turned out to be closer than she could have imagined. In February 2001 to get revenge on Max, Todd announced at his non-wedding to Blair that Max Holden was not really Asa's son, that Ben Davidson was. Asa was furious with Renee that she didn't tell him the truth that Max wasn't his son for all those months and was barely speaking to her. Renee was torn about Ben, she'd finally found the son she's been searching for, for so long, but she's angry that he kept the truth from her even though he could see how much not knowing was hurting her.

Renée and Asa were eventually able to get back together, and wed in February of 2004. Although their marriage seemed to finally be lasting, Renee later found out that Asa may have had a child with a former girlfriend of his, Emma. Spencer Truman claimed to be a Buchanan and this caused a bit of tension between Renee and Asa. Luckily, Spencer was mistaken and he was not a Buchanan. As the arsonist terrorized Llanview, Renee and Asa opened up their home to Nora and Matthew when their home burned down. Renee did everything she could to help them feel comfortable in their home. Unfortunately, during their stay, Asa passed away and left Renee single again.