Roxanne "Roxy" Louise Lipschitz Balsom
Actor History
Ilene Kristen (November 2001 to November 2004 [contract]; November 2004 to present [recurring])
Occupation
Beautician
Proprietor of Foxy Roxy's Hair Haven
Co-owner of the Angel Square Hotel
Resides At
Angel Square Hotel
Formerly Atlantic City
Marital Status
Single/Divorced (Max Holden)
Past Marriages
Walter Balsom (deceased)
Max Holden (Married: May 16, 2002; Divorced: January 24, 2003)
Relatives
Stella Lipschitz (mother)
Children
Rex Balsom (son)
Natalie Buchanan (adoptive daughter)
Flings & Affairs
Greevy
Nigel Bartholomew-Smythe (under hypnosis)
Crimes Committed
Fraud; Lied about being Jessica Buchanan's birth mother
Fraud; Claimed to be Natalie Buchanan's mother
Fraud; Hired an arsonist to burn down her hair salon for insurance money
Attempted to kill Rex's father by disconnecting his life-support equipment [Apr 2009]
Brief Character History
Roxanne Louise Lipschitz Balsom popped up in Llanview in November 2001 as Jessica Buchanan's long-lost mother. She had raised Natalie and was thrilled to find out that rich heiress Jess was her daughter. Roxanne hoped to get money out of Jessica and when she realized all of Jessica's money was Natalie's now, she wanted nothing to do with Jess. Allison Perkins, who had switched Jessica with Viki Buchanan's real daughter Natalie, appeared at Roxanne's house on Christmas Eve and convinced her that they could still get money out of Jess by having Roxy fake a genetic illness. Roxy went along with Allison's plan and told Jessica that she was sick and Jess might have it too, hoping that Jessica would give her money for the very expensive treatments. Roxy planned to split the cash with Allison. However, the plan failed and Roxy's ultimate secret was exposed: she had never given birth to Jessica, who it turned out was Viki's biological daughter by Mitch Lawrence. Facing jail time, Roxy got a reprieve when she took a deal to hand over some of her late husband's papers.
In Las Vegas, Roxy ended up running into her former lover, Max Holden, who was in Vegas and drinking heavily. Roxy was a hard partier and helped Max guzzle away his troubles. The next morning Max woke up in bed with Roxy and, to his horror, saw matching wedding bands. Roxy had tricked him into a quickie marriage with prenup, and even had a video of the whole thing. In the sober light of day, Max despised the trashy, slovenly, pathetic Roxy, and he went out of his way to be cruel to her in hopes that she would divorce him. His and Al's various attacks on her spirit went nowhere, but suddenly luck was on Max's side when Roxy up and vanished one day. She tried calling him, but he hung up on her each time, feeling only slight pangs of remorse. A few days later Max found out that Roxy had been held hostage and nearly killed by Allison Perkins, but he was more interested in keeping Roxy out of the way a bit longer in order to claim abandonment and win a fast divorce with fortune intact. He showered love on his bride and tried to keep her away from the courthouse long enough to win his freedom. But Roxy showed up and exposed his lies, and Judge Fitzwater gave her the opportunity to dump Max and take everything he owned. To everyone's surprise, Roxy chose Max over the cash. Max continued to shun Roxy, even making a deal with old enemy Asa to help Asa escape his sham marriage to Rae if Asa would do the same with Roxy. Max tracked down Roxy in Philadelphia, assuming she was cheating with Asa. Instead, she was visiting her vile, hateful mother, who passed up no opportunity to make Roxy feel like garbage. Max stunned both himself and Roxy by barging into the room to defend her. Max realized that he was falling in love with Roxy and called off the deal with Asa. But Rae had already figured out the plan and manipulated Roxy on every level, even flinging herself on Max so Roxy would catch them in a compromising position. Roxy's heart was shattered and she could no longer trust Max. In spite of his fervent pleas, Roxy divorced him and was awarded everything he owned. With that money, Roxy was able to buy her own hair salon, Foxy Roxy's Hair Haven.
Being a lover of all things gambling, Roxy wasted away all her money and ended up in financial trouble. She owed a bookie $10,000 and didn't know where to turn. Nigel, one of her only friends, sold his coin collection and loaned her the money to pay off the bookie. Roxy then went to Atlantic City to pay her loan but gambled away the $10,000. She returned home in even more trouble. Rex and Roxy then worked up a plan to hire an arsonist to burn down Foxy Roxy's for insurance money. Having terrible luck, the arsonist left the gasoline cans out in visible sight. Becoming paranoid, Roxy had the arsonist move the gasoline cans to the Love Center in order to hide them. Roxy and Rex ultimately were caught in their scheme to burn down the salon. The DA was lenient with them both and they were sentenced to community service at the Love Center.
Throughout this ordeal, Roxy and Nigel continued to grow closer in their friendship. Nigel even quit his job as Asa's butler in order to be with her. In the end, Nigel gave up his deed to the Angel Square Hotel to Roxy and went back to work for Asa. Roxy then started to manage the Angel Square Hotel as well as work at Foxy Roxy's Hair Haven.
Roxy began to get nervous when Rex started asking questions about the identity of his father, after learning from his Aunt Corinne that Walter Balsom probably wasn't his real father. Roxy lied that Charlie Banks was Rex's father and convinced Charlie to go along with the lie, arguing that the truth would devastate Rex. The lie was exposed when Charlie was revealed to actually be the father of Jared Banks. Rex told Roxy he would never forgive her. When Rex learned he was Shane Morasco's father, and Shane wanted nothing to do with him, Rex turned to Roxy for comfort.
In February 2009, Rex was stunned when DNA tests performed on David Vickers, the presumed son of Asa Buchanan, showed that David was Rex's father! It turned out that the tests were wrong, but not before Roxy confirmed to Rex that David was his father. When Rex confronted Roxy for lying once again about his father, Roxy broke down and admitted to Rex that his father was dead, and that she had killed him! Rex was grateful for finally knowing the truth, unaware that Roxy was lying yet again to protect the identity of Rex's true father, who she said was walking around town and closer than anyone realized. Roxy went to a nearby long-term care facility and confronted a seemingly comatose person in a hospital bed, telling this unseen person that she had lied to their son once again to keep the truth of Rex's father from him. When Shane was diagnosed with leukemia, Roxy returned to the facility to get a sample from the person to see if the person could be a bone marrow donor. Gigi's sister Stacy Morasco followed Roxy to the facility and quickly discerned that the person in the bed was Rex's supposedly dead father. When Stacy came face to face with the person, she was shocked by what she saw. She wrote down the patient's name so she could find out exactly why Roxy wanted to keep the truth from Rex.
Roxy took the sample from Rex's father to hospital lab technician Kyle Lewis for testing, saying that the donor wished to remain anonymous (or, in typical Roxy speak, "androgynous"). When it turned out that that the mystery donor was a match, Kyle told Roxy that the donor could remain anonymous. But Roxy knew that Rex wouldn't rest until he found out who saved his son's life. When Stacy overheard that the mystery person was a match, she threatened to expose Roxy's secret unless Roxy let everyone think that Stacy was the real donor. Roxy agreed, knowing that the truth about Rex's father would be devastating. Roxy soon realized she was dealing with a whole new level of manipulation when Stacy forced Gigi to break up with Rex in order to get the bone marrow for Shane, even though Stacy wasn't the donor at all. Roxy hated lying to her family, especially since it was tearing Rex and Gigi apart, but she continued the charade. Roxy and Kyle went to the long-term care facility and harvested the bone marrow from Rex's father, then Roxy switched out Stacy's bag of donated blood for the blood from the real donor before Dr. Michael McBain collected it for Shane's transfusion. The switch went off without a hitch, although Stacy's ex-boyfriend Schuyler Joplin saw Stacy throw away her bag of blood and retrieved it.
After Shane's successful operation, a drunk Roxy returned to the long-term care facility and told Rex's comatose father that she wouldn't need to see him anymore. Suddenly, the man reached up his arm and tried to choke Roxy. Roxy managed to break free and told a nurse that the man tried to attack her, but the nurse wrote Roxy off as a drunk, saying that the patient was brain-dead. Roxy later returned, this time armed with a manual for disconnecting the patient's life support system. She successfully shut off the machines, pulled the covers over Rex's father's head and then rushed out of the room. Later, Roxy was at the diner when she got a call from the nurse, saying that the patient she frequently visited had died of natural causes. Roxy breathed a sigh of relief, not realizing that Rex's father was very much alive and that the nurse was only doing what Rex's father had told her to do.
Kyle Lewis blackmailed Roxy into giving him a free room at the hotel, threatening to expose her secret if she didn't comply. While drinking at Rodi's, Roxy got to talking to Schuyler about Stacy and nearly let it slip that Stacy wasn't the one who donated her blood to save Shane. Schuyler could tell that Roxy was hiding something, and told Gigi that Stacy had obviously blackmailed Roxy just like she had blackmailed Gigi. Gigi and Schuyler had figured out that Stacy was not Shane's donor, but Gigi couldn't get Roxy to open up about what Stacy was holding over her head.
Natalie and Jared learned from Kyle that he had drawn extra blood from the stem cell donor and given it to Roxy. But when they arrived at Roxy's hair salon, they found Roxy on the floor and the blood gone, stolen by a nurse from the clinic where the donor had been. After Rex and Gigi traced the blood to Stacy and managed to trick her into revealing where the blood had been stored, Rex confronted his mother about her role in Stacy's evil plot. Roxy admitted that the real stem cells came from Rex's biological father and that she had killed him after drawing his blood. Rex cut off all ties with Roxy.
Roxy eventually warmed to Kyle, especially after learning that he was pining after a guy whose picture he kept in his wallet. Kyle admitted to Roxy that he and Oliver dated in college but that he had gone back into the closet because he was scared about what his parents and everyone else would think if they knew he was gay. When Roxy let it slip to Oliver that she knew his secret, Oliver confronted Kyle and the two ended up in a passionate kiss that was witnessed by Cristian.
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