Amanda Wexler arrived in Springfield in 1978 with her mother, Lucille. A talented classical pianist, whom Lucille sheltered and treated like a little girl, Amanda had been married to a handsome architect named Gordon Middleton, but she lost him on their wedding night because she couldn't bring herself to consummate the marriage. Lucille had filled Amanda's head with the thought that Gordon Middleton was a rapist! Amanda though was now beginning to blossom into a woman, thanks to artist Ben McFarren. Ben did a painting of Amanda that stirred such deep, frightening feelings in her that one stormy night she slashed it to shreds. When Ben witnessed this scene, Amanda admitted to him that she couldn't shake the memory of her being twelve years old and overhearing a man beating Lucille in her bedroom. The horrible episode ended with Lucille telling Amanda firmly that she must never trust a man. Lucille continued to nurture this fear throughout her daughter's life, to the extent that Amanda remained essentially a child, talking to dolls and avoiding intimate contact with men. With Ben's help, Amanda threw away her dolls and became her own person. Meanwhile, a twisted woman, Lucille decided to make Ben and his wife, Eve, her virtual slaves and burned down the art gallery where Ben was having a showing. Had the show been successful, Ben would have been able to send Eve to college so she could fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher. Now, that their hopes were dashed, Lucille came to the "rescue." She hired Eve to manage her real estate holdings and gave Ben household chores to perform at the mansion. But, to Lucille's chagrin, by March 1979, Amanda was obviously smitten with Ben so a twisted Lucille continued to interfere in the McFarren marriage by falsely insinuating to Eve that Ben and Amanda were sexually involved. Since Ben insisted on keeping their friendship strictly platonic, Amanda returned to her estranged husband, Gordon Middleton, and finally consummated their marriage. The next morning, Amanda awoke and realized she'd made a mistake. Amanda divorced Gordon. Unfortunately, very soon Ben and Eve's marriage would start to hit rock bottom.

Around this time, Ben found a letter revealing that Brandon Spaulding and Lucille were former lovers. What neither Ben nor Amanda knew, however, was that Amanda was not Lucille's biological daughter. Brandon had led Lucille, who was his secretary at the time, to believe that the girl was his illegitimate daughter by another woman, and Lucille adopted her in hopes of becoming closer to Brandon, but to no avail. When Brandon fell ill and was hovering near death, Lucille went to visit him at his nursing home. Brandon then admitted to Lucille that Amanda in fact was his son Alan's daughter by a woman whose name Brandon whispered to Lucille. Brandon insisted that Lucille tell Amanda the truth, but Lucille adamantly refused. During the intense confrontation in his room at the nursing home, Lucille slowed down the IV drip to Brandon. When he became short of breath, Lucille brusquely left the scene without summoning his nurse. Moments later, Lucille heard on her car radio that the legendary millionaire Brandon Spaulding was dead. Later that summer, the reading of Brandon Spaulding's will unleashed a furor. Instead of leaving everything to his son Alan, Brandon bequeathed the bulk of his estate to Amanda! When he learned that Brandon and Lucille were once involved, Alan suspected that Amanda was Brandon's illegitimate daughter. As for Lucille, she prayed that no one would learn the truth about Amanda's parentage. At the same, Ben let himself be seduced by the sultry Diane Ballard and he and Eve separated.

In the New Year of 1980, Ben would get renewed hope of reconciling with Eve. Insecure over the renewed bond between Ben and Eve, Amanda secretly paid Carter Bowden a princely sum to subsidize an art contract for Ben. Ross Marler was handling Amanda's business affairs at the time and was quick to tell Lucille that Amanda was evasive about a sizable withdrawal of the money from her account. Lucille rightly feared that the money was a loan for Ben, whom she continued to despise with a vengeance. Amanda continued to pursue Ben until he finally gave in to her romantic overtures. Ben was convinced that Amanda was now a strong woman with earthly desires, not the sheltered girl who retreated into a world of dolls. When Eve visited Ben at the Wexler cottage to ask him to consider reconciliation, it was too late -- Ben and Amanda had just married!

Then Lucille and Ross conspired to break up the couple by trying to get Ben and Eve together again, but there was a sinister undercurrent to the scheme. Ross was too blinded by ambition to admit, even to himself, that he had feelings for Eve, and he had no idea Lucille was plotting to kill the unsuspecting Ben. Lucille was deathly afraid that Ben would somehow discover the truth about Amanda's parentage. For a year earlier, as he lay dying, Brandon had whispered the name of Amanda's natural mother to Lucille. It was Jane Marie Stafford. Lucille investigated the woman's background and discovered that her sister, Janice, had been involved with Alan. Janice drowned in a lake after discovering Alan in a tryst with Jane Marie. Lucille traced Jane Marie's widowed father, Logan Stafford, to Toronto and paid him a visit. Logan gave Lucille a chilly reception and tersely informed her that Jane Marie was dead. Enter, Jennifer Richards, the new manager of the Wexler estate. To Lucille's dismay, Jennifer formed a natural bond with Amanda who looked to Jennifer as a sort of role model. Little did anyone know that Jennifer was in fact Jane Marie Stafford! Meanwhile, Ross started to have second thoughts about working for the Wexler family when Ben was almost gassed to death in his cottage. Ross secretly -- and rightly -- suspected Lucille. He was soon to be knocked for a loop when his ex Vanessa Chamberlain came to Springfield. Pragmatic to the core, Ross told Lucille he'd picked up on Vanessa's attraction to her son-in-law and planned to use it to break up Amanda and Ben -- a move that pleased Lucille. Ross soon discovered that Amanda had secretly paid Carter to bankroll Ben's contract at the art gallery. When Ben politely rebuffed Vanessa, Ross relayed this information to her and she took the liberty of telling Ben! Feeling emasculated and deceived, Ben flew into a rage and left Amanda, who later found herself pregnant with his child!

Meanwhile, Alan hired P.I. Joe Bradley to find Jane Marie while at the same time Ross located Logan Stafford and his son, Chet, who admitted that Jane Marie was alive but missing. Chet told Ross that Jane Marie had a distinctive birthmark on her arm. By now Jane Marie/Jennifer was forming such a close bond with Amanda that Lucille was becoming insanely jealous of their relationship. Lucille also knew that Jennifer had caught on to her scheme to separate Ben and Amanda. A deranged Lucille began terrorizing Amanda with anonymous phone calls and hanging up whenever Amanda answered. She also began to remove items from her mansion so that she could frame Jennifer for theft. Lucille then spotted a picture in the hotel room of Chet, who had come to Springfield to look for his missing sister, and recognized her as Jennifer. Raving mad, Lucille rushed home and confronted Jennifer, while she was playing the piano and confronted her. Shrieking, "Jane Marie Stafford!", Lucille lunged at Jennifer with a gold plated letter opener. As the two struggled, Lucille fell on the blunt instrument. When Amanda heard the commotion and rushed in, Lucille weakly murmured that Jennifer had tried to kill her. Lucille died on the operating table, and Jennifer was booked for murder. Meanwhile, Ben learned he was going to be a father and reconciled with Amanda, who had completely turned against Jennifer. Ross, the district attorney, and Mike Bauer both had doubts and suspected that the whole reason for the unfortunate turn of events might have been because of the missing Jane Marie Stafford. When Jennifer took the stand in late March 1981, she was shocked when Alan and Chet walked into the courtroom. Realizing that she had been found out by both as Jane Marie, Jennifer confessed that Alan had been her teenage lover and that Amanda Wexler McFarren was the result of that affair!

Jennifer was subsequently acquitted of Lucille's murder, while a guilt-ridden Alan vowed to be a father to Amanda, Amanda was so shocked by the revelation that she suffered a miscarriage but she wanted to get to know her new parents. Before the end of the trial, Eve was stalked by someone who was following her, sending her death threats and even sent her a dead rat in the mail. There were many suspects, including Amanda or Ben. Soon, Amanda noticed that many of the items missing from her bedroom were from her childhood. Amanda also noticed that many of the items went missing shortly after her new found Uncle Chet came for a visit. Soon after, Amanda visited Chet in his hotel room at the Springfield Arms. There Amanda found all of the items that had been stolen from her house, including a fur hat and muff she'd worn as a little girl! It was now clear that Chet was a deeply disturbed man who had obviously built a shrine to his niece. Amanda also discovered a letter from Chet confessing to terrorizing Eve because she was a threat to Amanda's love for Ben. He ended the letter by saying that he planned to get rid of Eve once and for all! Knowing something bad was about to happen, Amanda ran to the cottage at the Wexler Estate in search of Chet or Eve. Just as she arrived, Chet appeared and pulled out a gun. Amanda started struggling with him to keep him from shooting Eve. Luckily, showed up with the police, and Eve was saved from imminent death. Chet fled and was shot and wounded by the cops. As he lay in Cedars, Chet told Amanda that all he wanted was to make her happy. Meanwhile, Ross admitted to Amanda that he had only used her for her money, so a shocked Amanda began to act like a child again but Ben was able to help her. At this time, Ben and Amanda tried to save their marriage but both realized that Ben's true love was Eve, so they divorced.

Meanwhile, Amanda began working at Spaulding and when Alan was temporarily imprisoned, 1982, for helping fugitive Roger Thorpe fake his death, Amanda became president of Spaulding. Not long after, a man named Mark Evans married Jennifer and while Amanda was a bit suspicious of how quickly her mom had married Mark, she wasn't suspicious enough of Mark. Soon, Mark sweet talked Amanda in giving him a position at Spaulding. Unfortunately that would turn out to be one of the worst mistakes Amanda ever made! As all of this was going on with the shady Mark, Alan was being chased after by a mysterious, one-eyed man, named Lucien Goff. Though Goff and his accomplice, Wayne Jennings, both died after having failed to kill Alan, it was obvious that at least one other person was involved in the scheme. FBI agent Ivy Pierce believed that person was Samuel Pasquin, a former cohort of Goff's who had disappeared after his wife, the former Mona Enright, had fallen off a cliff to her "death." Unbeknownst to everyone, the "Samuel Pasquin" alias belonged to Mark. At the same time, Amanda let herself be seduced by Mark and the two carried on an affair behind Jennifer's back. It wasn't long before Mark became verbally abusive to Jennifer. Mark's ultimate plan was to kill both Alan and Amanda and make Spaulding his own! Amanda was torn between her love for her mother and her intense attraction to Mark. Her personal life in shambles, she began making costly mistakes at the company. Amanda's biggest snafu was a Madrid oil-drilling operation in association with Lewis Oil that failed when a storm destroyed the rigs and killed several workers. Henry Chamberlain was livid and convinced Quint to organize a stockholders' revolt against Amanda. When Amanda almost sunk the company along with Lewis Oil, though, Alan could not sit back and watch his empire be destroyed so behind Amanda's back, Alan made a deal with Josh Lewis' older brother, Billy Lewis, to merge Lewis Oil with Spaulding. Amanda then left Spaulding and went to work for LTA full time.

In 1983, Alan and Morgan eventually discovered Amanda and Mark's affair, but held off telling Jennifer because she was pregnant with Mark's child. However, Morgan tried to get Amanda to end the affair for Jennifer's sake. Meanwhile, Mark finally showed a trace of humanity when he realized he was truly in love with Amanda. He confessed to her that he hated the Spaulding family because years earlier, Brandon had swindled Mark's father when they were partners in the shipping industry. The betrayal drove his father to suicide -- or so Mark thought. Mark believed he was entitled to half of Spaulding by virtue of his father's prior relationship with Brandon. Amanda was sympathetic and helped Mark investigate the matter, only to discover that the senior Mr. Evans hadn't killed himself after all. He'd been murdered by Bryan Lister, one of Brandon's white-collar henchmen, who was now working for Mark to finish the job of killing Alan and Amanda,. Unbeknownst to Mark, Bryan turned against him and decided to kill Mark, Jennifer and Amanda and get control of Spaulding. Meanwhile, Mark and Amanda had gone to find proof of Mark's claim that his family was entitled to half of Spaulding Enterprises. Brian followed the pair there. Amanda went by herself to the boathouse at night and encountered Brian there. Brian, holding a gun on her, tried to tell Amanda about all the things Mark had done, but Mark arrived himself with a gun (which was empty but Mark didn't know that).. Mark told Amanda to leave, and when he and Brian argued. Mark found out that Brian had killed his father.

Furious, Mark struggled with Brian, got his gun, and shot him. Amanda heard the shot outside and returned to the shack where she saw Brian dead. Mark sent her away again and hid the body and the gun under the floor of the boathouse figuring that the authorities would believe that Brian had committed suicide. Brian was spotted by his former lover, Mona Enright who later, took the gun, and alerted authorities about the body. Mark was soon arrested for murder. After Mark was released from jail on bail, Mona abducted Amanda and took her to the cliff. Mark found them there. As Mona prepared to kill Amanda to get revenge on Mark for his mistreatment of her, Mark pulled Amanda away. He and Mona struggled and then fell over the Cliffside! Mona was killed instantly while Mark lived long enough to tell Amanda that he really had cared for her.

After Mark died, Jennifer gave birth to a son, Matthew but was so embittered that she told her daughters she wanted to give the baby up for adoption. She hurriedly left Matthew in Amanda's care and left Springfield for New York. Amanda wanted to adopt Matthew and while Alan's wife Hope supported her decision, Alan didn't and he wanted to stop Amanda's plans. Meanwhile, Amanda reunited with Ross, while Jennifer announced her return to get Matthew back. Afterwards, Amanda left Ross, sold her shares of LTA, and left Springfield to start a new life.

In Christmas of 1987, Amanda returned to Springfield at Phillip's request as a surprise for Alan. After paying a visit to her family and Ross, Amanda gave Phillip her shares of Spaulding at his request and then returned to California. Unbeknownst to Amanda, with her shares, Phillip would later wrest control of Spaulding from Alan.

In 1995, Alan left Spaulding and Springfield and left his Spaulding shares to Amanda so, in October, Amanda returned to Springfield. Amanda moved into the mansion with Alexandra but their relationship was immediately strained because Alex disapproved of Alan's decision, while Amanda wouldn't support one of Alex's company projects. By now, Amanda was a bitter, selfish woman who thought she could buy everything with money. No longer the sweet and shy young woman she once was, Amanda was tired of being stepped on and resorted to scheming and lies to get what she wanted. Over the years, she had lived in Malibu, California, and claimed that she had established some independent companies; however she had been so broken in the end that she considered suicide. Now years later, Amanda was surprised to learn that Ross was married. That didn't stop Amanda because she wanted to win Ross back since regretted how she had left him in the past, so she flirted with him which made his wife, Blake, jealous. One day, Amanda accidentally overheard Alex telling her lawyer her plans to get Alan's shares for herself, so Amanda hired Ross to stop her. When Alan suddenly returned, Amanda offered him his shares back but Alan refused while Amanda accepted Alan-Michael's offer to return to Spaulding. At the same time, Amanda tried many things to be near Ross and finally tried to seduce him in his office by only wearing a coat. However, Ross turned her down and stated that he only wanted to be her friend. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everyone, Amanda shared a past with Vanessa Reardon's husband Matt and, although Matt warned her to leave Ross and Blake alone, Amanda didn't listen.

At a party on New Year's 1996, Amanda locked Blake in a bathroom so she could be near Ross but Blake was able to get free in time and threatened to drive Amanda out of town if she didn't give Ross up. Thanks to another threat by Matt, Amanda decided to back off. Not long after, Amanda went to the construction site to meet with Matt but found Blake instead and after another argument; Blake locked her in the cold construction shack. Though she was freezing, Amanda didn't want to call for help with her cell-phone since she wanted to get revenge on Blake. Eventually, she was able to free herself and went to the Country Club to have a few drinks with Ross's daughter, Dinah, and returned to the shack where she collapsed due to hypothermia. When Matt found her, he brought her to Cedars and Amanda pressed charges against Blake. However, Matt forced her drop the charges against Blake because he suspected the truth. Meanwhile, furious with Blake, Ross went to the Bauer cabin to be alone, but Amanda followed him and they shared a kiss. Amanda then offered Ross a night of passion with no strings attached but Ross gently refused. At this moment, Matt arrived and told Ross that Blake had witnessed his and Amanda's kiss and he spitefully told Ross everything about Amanda's past in Malibu.

Apparently, while struggling to build a life in Malibu, Amanda resorted to running an exclusive escort service in order to live comfortably. Known as Mandy Harper, the Malibu Madam, she hired many young people for her escort service and one of them was Matt himself. Angry with Amanda, Ross couldn't believe that she had changed from a lovely woman to a "monster" and he walked away from her. Devastated, Amanda let herself be comforted by Alan, whose love she had always longed for and, though afraid that her family would learn about her shameful past, Blake, Ross and Vanessa and Matt decided to keep her secret for Matt's sake. Amanda was about to get a higher position at Spaulding but before she was able to take it, Alex told her that she had learned everything about her past with help of Hawk Shayne and Amanda's former assistant, Misty McCloud. Not only that, Alex also learned that Amanda hadn't been paying taxes and so owed a lot of money to the IRS. To get Alex to keep quiet about everything, Amanda had no choice but to comply and turn down her new position.

Afterwards, Amanda began working for Alan's new company, Advantage Systems, which Alan had only created to "revitalize" 5th Street. Amanda helped him in his schemes, while Alex continued to argue with her and wanted to get her out of Alan's life. Alex even convinced Phillip to return because she knew that he had always been Alan's favorite child. Finally, Alex told Alan about Amanda's past and though Amanda tried everything to get Alan to forgive her, a cold Alan refused. Not long after, Buzz Cooper and Reva Shayne also learned about Amanda's past and threatened to expose her if Alan didn't stop his 5th Street project. Amanda begged Alan to do so to save her reputation but, to her shock, Alan refused. Soon after, Buzz gathered the 5th Street residents and the press and began to talk about Amanda's past. Amanda arrived to deny everything but suddenly Alan-Michael and Matt stepped forward and confirmed Buzz's story. Amanda's reputation was now ruined and the IRS learned about everything, they wanted to check Amanda's income of the last seven years. Amanda manipulated documents and though the tax investigators were about to let her go, Misty suddenly arrived with the real documents and, as a result, a shocked Amanda was forced to pay $ 12 million in back taxes. However, Amanda refused to take Alex's offer to sell Alex her Spaulding shares.

Meanwhile, Phillip was obsessed in finding the "A. Spaulding" who had paid his late rival, Neil Everest, to set Phillip up to be falsely accused of the Towers bombing. Phillip soon learned that Neil had once been one of Amanda's clients, so Amanda had to confess that she and Neil had been friends and that she had told him everything about Phillip and Beth but she had no clue about Neil's plans. Meanwhile, though she had begged for his love and supported his schemes, Alan was still cold to Amanda, so she spitefully told the family that Alan and Neil had been cellmates for a short time. Not long after, Amanda spitefully told Ross what she overheard at Cedars—that Blake had a one-night stand with Rick. Unfortunately, Phillip, Rick and Blake arrived just in time to convince Ross that Amanda was lying and Phillip threatened to expose Amanda's illegal business schemes to the police if she didn't stop hurting Ross and Blake. Meanwhile, Alan continued to treat Amanda like trash and so Amanda got one of Neil's old letters from Neil's brother Carl and made it look like Alan-Michael had been in cahoots with Neil. Eventually, it was discovered that the real "A. Spaulding" and although Amanda tried to blackmail him in exchange for her silence, Alan finally exposed himself as A. Spaulding.

Still feeling unwanted in the Spaulding family, a frustrated Amanda entered into a relationship with Roger Thorpe that was more about business than love, since they both had the same goal: power! Although Amanda claimed that she would take this opportunity to cement her place in the family and the business during Alan's stay in Cedars, Roger thought she wanted to take control of Spaulding. Roger asked her if she had thought about making him Vice-President of Advantage Systems, which Amanda currently headed, and Amanda told him that he had to prove to her that he hadn't lost his instinct for business. Roger welcomed the chance to prove himself and Amanda asked him to acquire a piece of property that she wanted to develop. Roger succeeded and was named VP of Advantage Systems, Meanwhile, Roger and Amanda had plans to take over Spaulding. On Christmas Eve, Amanda came in to Alan's bedroom with the document that she said gave her the power to replace him with Roger as her partner. Roger explained that there was a clause in Alan's agreement with Amanda that said if one of the partner's was incapacitated, he could be replaced. Since Alan was paralyzed that meant Amanda could usurp him. Unfortunately, Alan had the upper hand and got Amanda arrested for her activities in California. Alan then explained that if either of the partners of Advantage Systems were arrested all of the assets reverted back to the original partner. Luckily, Roger used blackmail to secure her release. On the plane back home, Amanda and Roger decided to deepen their alliance, so arriving home, they announced their engagement.

In January 1997, when the takeover of Advantage Systems by Spaulding was publicized, the Spauldings had no choice but to welcome Roger back at Spaulding since they would lose stock otherwise. Not long after, Amanda learned from Roger what he'd learned in Switzerland-- Alex had stolen some files as an insurance policy before Henry Chamberlain died years ago. Henry knew that whoever controlled those files would have the leverage to bring the Spaulding family to their knees. Apparently, Alex had them hidden somewhere on the grounds. At the same time, Amanda was jealous of Roger's relationship with his ex-wife, Holly. Meanwhile, to break Roger and Amanda up, Alan and Alex confronted her with the fact that Roger had missed a big business deal because he was too busy with his private life, but an angry Amanda defended Roger. Suddenly Amanda learned from Roger the big secret: she was not Alan's but Brandon's daughter, a fact that Alex had known all along since she had Amanda's birth certificate. That meant that Amanda legally owned one half of all of Brandon's property. Shocked, Amanda tried to call Jennifer without success and later confronted Alex with the truth and forced her to leave town. Amanda vowed that no man would ever control her again and though she continued her cooperation with Roger, she also threatened to ruin him if he ever betrayed her. Meanwhile, Roger had asked his lawyer Leo to look into Brandon's will and Amanda learned that Brandon had two wills. Since Brandon faked his death after being visited from Lucille, that will was invalid. The valid one named Alex and Victoria as beneficiaries. Victoria did not want the money, and Alex got all of it.

At about the same time, Roger froze all of Spaulding's assets at the annual meeting of the Spaulding board where he told everyone the truth. At this moment, Alex arrived and confirmed everything before she left town. Amanda broke her engagement to Roger and, to make up with Ross, she convinced a politician, whom she supported financially, to help Ross to become D.A. again. Proud of her actions, Amanda unfroze the Spaulding assets and welcomed Alan back at Spaulding as her partner to reunite the family. Not long after, Roger convinced Amanda that he truly loved her and they got engaged again. Later, without Amanda's knowledge, Roger planned to leave her for Holly in January 1998 but since Holly turned him down, Roger stayed with Amanda. After Amanda, with Alan's blessing, married Roger, they moved to California where they headed Spaulding's office.

In 2004, a lonely Alan called Amanda and was surprised when she didn't mention Roger. A month later, Blake learned that Amanda was now living in Italy. Not long after, the people of Springfield discovered that Roger had died of a lingering illness. In February 2007, Alan was shot and left comatose. Though she didn't go to see him, Amanda kept apprised of his condition through phone calls to Alex.