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Character Profiles > Christina Alessi Gayle Blakeney

Christina 'Chrissie' Alessi (prev. Robinson) 1990-1992, 2019
Lived: 22 Ramsay Street
Parents: Frank and Margaret Alessi
Marital Status: Paul Robinson (1991-?; divorced)
Siblings: Caroline
Children: Andrew
Family Tree: Alessi
Occupation: Lassiter's Gift Shop Manager

The younger of the Alessi twins by twenty five minutes, Christina Alessi at times grew up in the shadow of sister Caroline, who was much more career-minded and academically successful than Christina. Where Caroline was socially confident and outgoing, Christina was always more reserved and awkward under pressure. This didn't ruin the twins' close friendship, however, as they played the typical twin pranks like fooling teachers and boyfriends as they grew up.

When the twins witnessed a murder in 1990, they were placed under the witness protection programme and sent to live at 22 Ramsay Street. The police advised Christina and Caroline to act as the one person, for added protection, and they 'became' Linda Giles. Caroline took a job as Paul Robinson's number two at The Robinson Corporation, and proved to be a great success at her job. However, Paul became confused when 'Linda' would sometimes prove useless and inept around the office. It was on those occasions that Christina was posing as Linda, and Paul uncovered their secret one day when Caroline walked in on him and Christina in the office. They told Paul everything, and he agreed to keep their secret. When the police eventually caught the murderer after he tracked the Alessi twins down to Ramsay Street, the girls were able to rid themselves of the Linda Giles act and resume their normal lives. For extra company around the house, the girls invited Paul to move into their spare bedroom, and he agreed. The move made sense anyway, considering Paul was the owner of No. 22. As the girls spent more time with Paul, they both started to fancy him. After initially battling for his affections, Christina and Caroline decided to make a pact that neither should pursue him.

Christina decided to prove that she was good at something, by managing the gift shop at Lassiter's Hotel, and surprised both Paul and Caroline by making a success of it. When Caroline began seeing medical student Adam Willis, Christina set her sights on Paul again, and was delighted when he announced to her over dinner at No. 22 one night that he had finally found love. Chrissie thought he was referring to her, but Paul was actually talking about Isabella Lopez, a woman he had become engaged to while in Argentina on business. Chrissie was devastated by Paul's engagement, and when Isabella arrived in Erinsborough to stay at No.22, Chrissie took an instant dislike to her. On top of the fact that she was jealous of the relationship between Paul and Isabella, Christina was also suspicious of Isabella's true intentions with Paul, and suspected her of only being interested in Paul's money and gaining Australian citizenship. After much digging, Christina eventually exposed Isabella to Paul and he sent her packing. Chrissie then thought the path was clear for her and Paul to get together, but she was forced to give up on her dreams when he announced he was finished with women for good after the heartbreak Isabella had caused him.

But when Paul and the twins went on holiday to the Gold Coast with Adam and his friend Rory Marsden, Chrissie began to flirt with Rory in a bid to make Paul jealous. It worked, and Paul finally admitted to Christina that he was in love with her. After a short engagement, they married in a lavish wedding ceremony followed by a reception on a cruise ship, which Paul and Christina were then to set sail on for their honeymoon. However, their honeymoon was interrupted by bridesmaid Melanie Pearson, who had fallen asleep on the ship and only woke up after it had left port.

When Christina believed she was pregnant, Paul was thrilled by the news and since his other children all lived away from Erinsborough, excitedly looked forward to finally being able to raise one of his children himself. But when Chrissie was told by the doctor that she wasn't actually pregnant, she felt so guilty about getting Paul's hopes up that she decided not to tell him and instead, slept with Paul at every available moment in the hope of getting pregnant for real. Her efforts finally paid off, and in late 1991, Chrissie gave birth to baby Andrew.

The lead up to Andrew's birth proved full of drama, however. First, Paul started making plans to enrol their child in a specialised school catering for extremely intelligent children. But after they met a young child from the programme one afternoon and saw how starved of a real childhood he was, Paul and Christina opted to raise their child as normally as possible. A failure to agree on baby names followed, and Christina also experienced a period of severe nerves in anticipation of giving birth. After Christina had a false alarm at Melanie and Joe Mangel's wedding reception, Paul was so panicked by the ordeal that he vowed to have everything perfect for the real thing and started mapping out the best route to the hospital. When Christina finally went into labour for real, Paul confidently drove her through back-roads to get her to the hospital in the quickest possible time - but failed to notice the petrol tank was almost empty beforehand, and the car came to an abrupt halt along the way. As Christina's contractions intensified, Paul managed to persuade an ice cream van driver who had stopped nearby to bring them to the hospital in the back of his van.

The months following Andrew's arrival proved to be some of the toughest the couple would ever face. After severe financial difficulties with the business, Paul suffered a nervous breakdown, and Christina was forced to look after Andrew on her own for several weeks after Paul took off without saying where he was going. On his eventual return, Christina was shocked to find Paul had his estranged seven-year-old daughter Amy in tow. At first, Chrissie and Amy bickered incessantly and failed to get on, but they made up before Amy returned to her mother in New Zealand.

When Caroline packed up suddenly and left Erinsborough to run a hotel in Milan, Christina was totally surprised by her sister's decision. But Christina realised the real reason behind Caroline's departure when she overheard Paul and his grandmother, Helen Daniels, discussing a brief affair Paul had had with Caroline. A disgusted Christina threw Paul out of No. 22 and flew to Milan to confront Caroline. After much arguing and soul-searching, the twins made their peace and Christina returned to Erinsborough. However, she wasn't to be so understanding with Paul, and as soon as she got back, filed for divorce and full custody of Andrew. Paul desperately tried to convince Christina that she was the only one he loved, and that she and Andrew were the most important things in his life. Christina slowly started to come round, and after the tragic death of Paul's cousin, Todd, she realised how precious life is, and agreed to give her marriage to Paul another chance. After renewing their marriage vows in a surprise ceremony at No. 22 organised by Paul, they left Ramsay Street for a fresh start running a major hotel complex in Hawaii.

But the family didn’t remain there long as within a year, Paul was forced to go on the run after framing his brother-in-law Phil Martin for fraud. Christina and Andrew joined him in exile in Brazil for a time, but after a few years, Paul returned to Australia to face a stretch in prison. Christina, meanwhile, found a career for herself, spending time living in Scotland and Malaysia, before she resettled in Sydney where Andrew grew into his teenage years in considerably less dramatic circumstances than in the first few years of his life. As Paul had settled back in Erinsborough, Andrew decided that he wanted to get to know his dad, ending up spending a few years living with him before going travelling.

With the only contact between Paul and Chrissie being about, and through, their son, it came as a huge shock to Paul when he came face to face with his third wife during a trip to Queensland - where he was planning to marry sixth wife, Terese. For a number of weeks, Paul had been haunted by his exes as he and Terese planned their wedding, with Gail, Rebecca and Lyn all turning up in Erinsborough at the same time, and even a photo of Paul’s dead first wife Terry turning up. Though they all claimed that it was just a coincidence, as they all had reasons to be in town, Paul and Terese decided that they had to get away, as the ex-wives were all making Terese have second thoughts about the man she was marrying. So when Christina, along with Caroline, appeared at the very same resort where Paul and Terese were hoping to marry, he began to think that it was all an omen, and that he shouldn’t be marrying Terese at all.

The whole things had been orchestrated by Paul’s daughter, Elle, who wanted to stop her father from making another mistake, and hurting Terese further down the line. Having learnt about the plan, and having failed to talk Christina out of it, Caroline had followed her and revealed everything to a stunned Paul and Terese, who had been ready to call off the wedding. Though Christina was still unhappy with Paul, she agreed to act as witness as the wedding went ahead. Later, she admitted to Caroline that she’d been holding on to a lot of resentment towards her for years, feeling that she could have been as successful as her sister, but Caroline’s affair with Paul had been the catalyst for everything going wrong in her life. Having finally let go of those feelings, Christina and Caroline decided to stay in Queensland for a few more days and make up for some of the sisterly bonding they’d missed out on for so many years.

Tenure
1119-1737, 8185-8187

Biography by Moe

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