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Character Profiles > Lauren Carpenter Sarah Vandenbergh

Lauren Carpenter 1993-1994
Lived: 24 Ramsay Street
Parents: Lou and Kathy Carpenter
Marital Status: Mark [alternatively Craig]
Siblings: Ling Mai and Guy; Louise (adoptive)
Children: Mason
Occupation: Riding Instructor, Coffee Shop Assistant

The youngest child of Lou and Kathy Carpenter, Lauren Carpenter grew up in Brisbane, Queensland, and whereas her older brother, Guy, had a strained relationship with their father, Lauren was always the apple of Lou's eye. When Lou and Kathy divorced, Lauren was devastated, and to make up for his daughter's suffering, Lou indulged Lauren's love of horses by buying her a pony. Horse-riding was Lauren's true love, and she dreamed of one day owning her own horses and stables.

As she grew into a young woman, Lauren saw less and less of her father. So when Lou settled in Erinsborough, Lauren decided to head down to Ramsay Street to live with him. By that stage, Lou's little girl was a beautiful young woman who immediately had the men of Erinsborough vying for her attention. But Lauren fell in love the minute she rode into Erinsborough on her beloved horse, Chucka Mental. Before arriving on Ramsay Street, Lauren had taken Chuckie for a ride along the beach, where she caught the eye of a hunky surfer. The two met again a few days later as Lauren got to know her new neighbours, and it turned out that the surfer was Brad Willis, who lived two doors away on Ramsay Street and was the fiance of Beth Brennan, who was
lodging with Lou and had become close friends with Lauren. Due to this friendship with Beth, Lauren resisted giving into her feelings for Brad for as long as she could, but the two finally succumbed to temptation one day when they were at the beach together, and they had sex. Lauren was ridden with guilt over her betrayal of Beth, and the guilt increased as she and Brad started to see more of each other behind Beth's back.

When Cameron Hudson, Brad's cousin, asked Lauren out on a date, Lauren accepted in order to ward off any suspicions anyone in the neighbourhood was having about her and Brad. She soon found herself dating Cameron, but when Cameron found out about Lauren's affair with Brad, he left Erinsborough in disgust. As Brad and Beth's wedding day approached, more pressure was placed on Lauren after Beth asked her to be her bridesmaid. She and Brad eventually agreed that they couldn't see each other anymore, and it was time for them to put what they had behind them. But on the day of the wedding, Beth herself realised that there was an attraction between Brad and Lauren, and she called off the wedding just as the ceremony began, before taking some time away from Erinsborough.

Brad and Lauren decided to start seeing each other again, but agreed that for the time being, they should keep the relationship under wraps to avoid causing any further hurt to their families and friends. Soon afterwards, Lauren suspected she was pregnant, but after a visit to the doctor, she was told that she wasn't pregnant, but actually suffering from a pelvic disease which left her with only a ten percent chance of ever having children. Brad comforted Lauren as she tried to come to terms with the news, but Lou was angry with Brad, and accused him of messing about with Lauren's life. Brad decided that he needed to prove he was serious about Lauren, and so pledged to bring their relationship out into the open. But Beth returned to Erinsborough before the couple went public with their relationship, asking Brad to try again and even asking Lauren to put things behind them. With renewed pressure on their relationship, Brad and Lauren continued to see each other in private, and had several near-misses, including nearly getting caught by Brad's parents at the Willis house, and in the bush by Wayne Duncan. Lou and Brad's sister, Gaby, were the only two who knew about the secret relationship, but the couple finally grew tired of sneaking around after Gaby walked in on them half naked in the empty No. 22 as she was showing some prospective tenants around. Brad finally realised he would have to tell Beth that there was no hope of a reconciliation, and make it clear that he and Lauren were an item. Beth actually took the news quite well, paving the way for Brad and Lauren to see each other publicly at long last.

Only one minor obstacle stood in the way of their relationship, however - Lauren's horse was jealous of Brad! The cost of Chuckie was also starting to take its toll on Lauren, and she was forced to enter into a part-ownership with Lou, Cathy Alessi and Pam Willis. After Raymond Lim bought into the syndicate, he quickly placed an offer of $35,000 for Chuckie on behalf of his company, Brighton Oaks. But Lauren was determined not to sell Chuckie outright, and was desperate to keep some hold on him. The rest of the syndicate wanted to sell, though, and Lauren was eventually forced to give up her beloved horse.

Lauren's relationship with Brad came under an intense strain when he developed a gambling addiction, and he ended up leaving Erinsborough for a couple of months to work on a cruise ship in an attempt to combat his problem. Before he left, Brad did manage to make his peace with Lauren, but while he was gone, Lauren began to feel that their relationship was coming to an end. Her doubts were confirmed when Beth mentioned she had received a postcard from Brad at one point during his absence, and Lauren even found herself being drawn to Connor Cleary, an Irish jockey she met at the stables where she worked. Connor asked Lauren to move to Hong Kong with him to start over, and Lauren seriously considered his offer. But when she heard Brad was back in Erinsborough, she hurried over to the Willis house to see him and find out exactly where they stood with eachother before making a decision about Connor. However, Lauren was shocked to walk in on Brad zipping up the back of a dress on a mysterious blonde girl, and she ran off before he could offer any explanation. When Brad finally caught up with Lauren, he explained that the girl she had seen him with was Lucy Robinson - his ex-girlfriend, who he had bumped into while he was away. Despite Brad assuring Lauren that nothing was going on between him and Lucy, he did admit to Lauren that he felt they should end their relationship. The excitement and passion that had been evident when they first met had long since died out, and deep down, both Lauren and Brad knew this. Despite being single again, though, Lauren declined Connor's offer of joining him in Hong Kong, and opted to stay in Erinsborough.

It was quite a blow to Lauren when Brad and Beth got back together again, and she started to feel depressed and downbeat. Further trauma followed when Lauren fell of her horse while out riding with Lou one afternoon, and damaged her spine. While Lauren awaited the test results on her back, she and Lou swapped jobs - with Lou having to contend with early start at the stables and Lauren throwing herself into sorting out the accounts at Lou's car yard. But Lauren was shattered when the doctor rang her with the test results and told her that she had damaged a disc in her spine and wouldn't be able to ride for at least a year. Aside from not being able to ride, Lauren was also forced to give up her job at the stables because it would have been too strenuous for her, and instead, she had to make do with working at the Coffee Shop.

It was at the Coffee Shop that Lauren made two new friends, Jacob Collins and Ruth Avery. They were two customers who she got to know from calling in each day, and when they asked her out with some more of their friends one day, Lauren took them up on their offer. A week later, Lauren was asked to another gathering of friends by Ruth and Jacob, and she let them meet at her place. Lou was initially pleased to see Lauren enjoying the company of her new friends when he met them, but found them a little odd when they lectured him on the perils of alcohol. Lauren, too, started to feel uneasy when the group began reading excerpts from the bible. However, after spending some more afternoons with the group, Lauren started to feel more and more comfortable and welcome by them, and her confidence in herself was restored after months of personal trauma. It was at this stage that Jacob and Ruth explained to Lauren that they were all part of a religious group called the Children of Barabbas, and Lauren was no longer put off by the group's religious tendencies now that she was so firmly ensconced in their world. Lou, however, began to grow concerned about his daughter when she started preaching to all and sundry about how wonderful the Children of Barabbas were. And Lou ended up confronting Lauren about her new friends when she took to trying to convert Coffee Shop customers. Lauren sought support from her new friends after her row with Lou, culminating in Jacob and Ruth telling her that the Barabbians were her real family now.

Lou, meanwhile, was shocked to learn from Reverend Richards that the Children of Barabbas was actually an extreme cult, and he desperately urged Lauren to stop seeing them immediately. Helen Daniels even arranged for Lauren to meet with a former member of the cult, but Lauren rejected everyone's concern, and insisted that the Barabbians were her spiritual family. It was only when Lauren went to the Barabbians' country retreat for the wedding of Ruth and Jacob that she discovered how corrupt and evil the group was. After the wedding ceremony, which was conducted by the leader of the sect himself, Lauren fled in terror after Barabbas tried to make her have sex with him. As soon as she found a phone, Lauren called Lou to pick her up. While she was waiting for Lou, Barabbas and Ruth caught up with Lauren and tried to force her back to the retreat. But Lou and Brad showed up just in time, and as Brad brought Lauren to the safety of the car, Lou warned the Barabbians never to come near his daughter again.

After Brad and Beth married, Lauren had a brief romance with Wayne Duncan, who was also nursing a broken heart over the Brad/Beth union due to a past relationship he had had with the bride. When Lou moved his new love, Cheryl Stark, into No. 24 with her two teenage children, Brett and Danni, Lauren started to feel out of place - especially after feuding with Danni. After calling her old boss in Queensland, Lauren was thrilled when he offered her her old job back, and she returned to live with her mother. Lauren eventually opened her own riding school there and she later married, before presenting a proud Lou with his first grandchild - a son called Mason. When she experienced marital problems and left her husband, Lou rushed up to Queensland to mediate between Lauren and Mark, eventually succeeding in getting them to reunite.

Biography by Moe

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