Elizabeth Wakefield

Elizabeth Wakefield was one of the two main fictional characters in the book series Sweet Valley High. She was portrayed by Cynthia Daniel in the TV series of the same name. Her twin sister, Jessica was portrayed by Cynthia's twin, Brittany Daniel.

Character
According to the SVH novel Last Wish the twins' birthday is June 13, which would place them at Gemini, the sign of the twins on the zodiac.[2]Despite being more sensible and down to earth than her twin sister, Elizabeth was one of few students in Sweet Valley who rivaled Jessica in the popularity stakes. She was known for being practical and a good listener, and her peers often confided in her. Elizabeth was born four minutes before Jessica. Like her sister, she was named after one of her ancestors, Elisabeth Johnson.[3]

Although Liz has many friends, her best friend was Enid Rollins and later Maria Slater, a close friend from middle school. Her first boyfriend and first love was Todd Wilkins. She first fell for him in a way when she saw him in kindergarten and offered him a tissue when he was crying. She felt some sort of kismet with him ever since. It wasn't until high school that her goal of being with Todd became a reality.

Another dream of Liz's is to be a professional journalist and she was a dedicated staff member of her school newspaper The Oracle in which she wrote several features stories. She considered Oracle editor in chief Penny Ayala, arts editor Olivia Davidson, cartoonist Abbie Richardson; and, for a brief period, sports editor John Pfiefer amongst her closest friends. Staff advisor Roger Collins was her mentor. She also worked as an intern briefly at a magazine entitled "Flair" where she started to ignore Todd for work only to find out Todd himself got discovered as a model and was having an affair with his modeling partner, supermodel Simone. She furiously ended her relationship and Todd began a serious relationship with her as two professional models.

At the insistence of her twin sister, Liz pledged and was accepted into Pi Beta Alpha,[4] but she considered herself a member in name only.

Liz was close to Regina Morrow and her brother Nicholas, which was unusual, since she usually doesn't like to mingle with the wealthy, finding many of them to be selfish snobs. However, their sincerity swayed her and they became two of her closest friends. She was the recipient of Nicholas's affections when he first moved to Sweet Valley, but she insisted that she loved only Todd and the two stayed good friends. Regina's death affected her deeply, particularly since they had fought the last time they spoke.

Other friends of Liz's include Julie Porter, whom she also knew since middle school; and Caroline Pearce. She initially had little time for Jessica's friends although she and Cara Walker developed a friendship after she began dating Steven. Liz tolerated Lila for Jessica's sake, and even sprang to her rescue when Lila was arrested for shoplifting.[5]She unbent more towards Lila after she was nearly raped by John Pfeifer; and was firmly on her side during the nightmare. Although she still didn't get along with her, Elizabeth and Lila did become more civil towards one another.

After Todd moved to Vermont, Liz began dating new student Jeffrey French, a photographer for The Oracle and star of the soccer team. They broke up when Todd returned to Sweet Valley. Elizabeth got back together with her first love and first boyfriend. The couple stayed together for a long time, until the Jungle Prom when a jealous Jessica spiked Elizabeth's drink to keep her from winning Prom Queen. The alcohol led a drunken Elizabeth to get into a car with Jessica's boyfriend Sam, ultimately leading to his death in a drunk driving accident. Jessica then has an affair with Todd. But after Liz and Todd work things out, they get back together and are a couple again. At the end of the series she was torn between old flame Todd and sexy bad-boy Devon Whitelaw, who turned out to be a liar and a coward. She cheated on Todd with him, but then broke up with Devon when she saw him for what he really was. Liz broke up with Todd again in the last book of the Sweet Valley High series, Aftershock.[6]Liz and Todd were often unfaithful to each other, but Liz was the one truly betrayed when she found out Todd had been having a long-time recurring affair with Jessica which eventually led to their marriage in "Sweet Valley Confidential."

The Secret Diary Super Editions reveal that Liz had secret flings with two of Jessica's boyfriends, Ken Matthews and Sam Woodruff, although both relationships occurred before Jessica began dating them.

Sweet Valley High Senior Year
Elizabeth became more outgoing in this series. She also became the editor-in-chief of The Oracle. She had moved out of the house for a while when they were staying in Lila Fowler's house. Her love interests were Conner McDermott and Jeff French. Another one of her love interest was Evan Plummer. She dated him for a while after Conner left for rehab. Her best friends in this series were Maria Slater and Tia Ramirez and Andy Marsden.

Sweet Valley University
Elizabeth goes through a lot of changes in college, ending both her relationship with Todd Wilkins and her friendship with Enid (now Alexandra) Rollins. Both Todd and Alexandra begin seeing each other. She gains a friend in African-American student, Nina Harper, whom she bonds with because of them being studious. She soon falls in love with Tom Watts, who is a fellow journalist at the campus news station and a former football star. Elizabeth and Tom have a serious relationship; their most serious challenge comes when Elizabeth tells Tom that his recently discovered biological father has been hitting on her and he refuses to believe her, causing their breakup. After her split with Tom, she finds comfort with Todd and the two revive their former feelings for each other to some extent. This ends when Todd's ex-girlfriend is diagnosed with cancer and he decides that he must be with her. Tom and Elizabeth get back together again once he learns she was telling the truth, but irreparable damage has been done to their relationship. She eventually patches things up with Alexandra, and even though they are friends again, they are no longer as close as they were in high school.

During sophomore year, Liz endures a tempestuous relationship with her roommate, Sam Burgess, which later turns into romantic involvement. Convinced that Sam is a cheater and not good enough for her twin sister, Jessica sets out to prove this to Liz by getting Sam to kiss her. Liz catches her boyfriend making out with her twin sister and, without waiting for an explanation, sets off for London, where the Elizabeth series took place.

Elizabeth
After her parents failed to convince her to talk to Jessica and let her explain, Liz gets support from Steven to move to England to continue her education. She gets a job as a maid under a pseudonym as Elizabeth Bennett. However, she finds herself falling in love with a duke named Max and nearly loses her job due to several disgruntled maids. In the final book, Elizabeth is confronted by Jessica (who was reprimanded by Steven) begging her to come home and let her explain herself there. When she refuses and tells her sister to leave, Max convinces Jessica to explain herself in London and Liz to listen to her. When Elizabeth finally does, she learns about Sam's two-timing ways with the other girls at SVU and realizes Jessica was only watching out for her.

Sweet Valley High Confidential
Ten Years in the future, Elizabeth is living in New York after discovering that Jessica and Todd were having an affair (while Todd was engaged to her), and vowing never to speak to either one of them again. She then returns for their grandmother, Marjorie's, 80th birthday. Elizabeth conspires to break them up in a form of revenge by using her friend Liam to try to seduce a reluctant Jessica. The result turns out a failure as Jessica maintains her love for Todd and Liz unintentionally humiliates her own family for it that leads to a food fight. She also learns that Liam has a crush on Steven (who comes out as gay) and his feeling are mutual. After Marjorie's 80th birthday party ended in disaster, Ned and Alice has a heated confrontation with Elizabeth for being irresponsible. When Liz tries to defend herself, Alice points out that Jessica, Todd and their family didn't deserve her humiliating them on her grandmother's birthday. Angered over the lack of support, she prepares to leave for New York. Before leaving, a humbled Bruce Patman talks to Elizabeth and wisely advises her to take a long hard look at herself. After hearing him out and learning what happened to Winston, she takes Bruce's advice to heart. On her way home to New York, she comes to the realization that her long distance relationship with Todd wasn't working and that they were over a long time ago. However, Liz was too selfish and a commitment control freak to admit it. When Jessica shows up at her doorstep in New York to apologize and help her reconcile with Todd, Elizabeth surprises her by admitting that she had forgiven them. Jessica asks why the sudden change of heart and admitted she knew how much Liz loved him. She admitted that Bruce talked some sense into her and she realized that her relationship with Todd was over a long time ago, but was too much of a commitment control freak to admit it. Elizabeth gives her blessing to Jessica to marry Todd.

During this time, she realizes that Bruce, a long time presence in her life, was deeply in love with her.

The Sweet Life
Three years after the events of Sweet Valley Confidential, Elizabeth is back in Sweet Valley and she is in a serious relationship with Bruce Patman. She is involved in a scandal when Bruce is accused of rape. This echoes back from when Bruce attempted to rape Elizabeth herself in high school when she was acting differently following a head injury. Elizabeth confronts Bruce, still having strong feelings for him—hoping he feels the same way. But Bruce confesses to having feelings for another woman—Annie Whitman. Although hurt by this, Elizabeth agrees to let him pursue Annie. As she leaves the relationship, Elizabeth realizes that while hurt by the betrayal, she can overcome it with her family's support