Sylvia Jones (Verbotene Liebe)

Character's background

Sylvia was the first wife of Martin von Beyenbach (Gerry Hungbauer) and shares two children, Marie (Solveig Duda) and Felix (Stefan Kirch), with him. The family lived together in Hamburg, where Martin owned a shipping company. When Sylvia began an affair with Martin's younger brother Bernd (Ron Holzschuh), who was also working in the company. The company was in serious financial problems and Sylvia planned together with Bernd an insurance fraud. But Marie discovered the affair and everything came out. Martin divorced Sylvia and she had to go to prison, while Bernd fled to Brazil. When Sylvia was behind bars, she couldn't have any contact with her children, which broke her heart. After she spend four years behind bars, Sylvia decided to start a new life in the United States. She married the filmmaker Bradley Jones, which left her his company Daylight Pictures, when he died.

Sylvia comes back to Germany to sell her German studios, when her past comes back to her. She meets Felix, who has become a young adult and is passioned about the film industry. Sylvia wants to help and funding him. But with his application, she realizes that he is her long-lost son. Sylvia decides to not tell him the truth. When Martin realizes, who his son got involved with, he tries to talk Sylvia in to staying away from him. But soon, old feelings between the divorced couple keep coming back and they begin an affair with each other. Sylvia decides to stay in Düsseldorf and wants contact to her two children again. But Marie and Felix don't want have anything to do with their mother. Martin realizes that he needs to tell his children what really happened back then and that their mother didn't just walked out on them, how he told them. Marie and Felix forgive Sylvia and it seems like the family is reunited. But Martin is still married to Beatrice (Jeannine Burch). When Sylvia tells him that she wants him back, Martin isn't ready to walk out on his marriage and decides to stay with Beatrice.

While Martin tries to rescue his marriage with Beatrice, Sylvia meets the attractive young lawyer Lars Schneider (Herbert Ulrich). Lars is fascinated by Sylvia and they begin a relationship. But when Sylvia's little sister Hanna (Katharina Dalichau), Lars stars to fall for her. The two sisters hate each other for years, because Hanna thinks Sylvia is responsible for their mother's death. Sylvia tries everything to protect her man and begins scheming against her sister. Hanna finds out that Sylvia isn't really interested in Lars and uses him to make Martin jealous. While Hanna tries to let Lars see Sylvia's true intentions, her sister bankrupts her catering service. When Sylvia's scheme against Hanna comes out, Lars breaks up with Sylvia and confesses his feelings for Hanna. After that Sylvia tries once again to get Martin back and the two of them start another affair with each other. But Sylvia is once again left for Beatrice. When she finds out about Martin's affair she ends their marriage and Martin tries to reunite with Sylvia. But she already knows that Beatrice ended the marriage and not him, so she throws him out, believing that she would just be his second choice.

As a shock to everyone, Bernd comes back to town and tries once again to ruin his brother. Sylvia isn't happy to see Bernd again, after she spent years in prison, while he enjoyed his life in South America. She teams up with Martin and moves in with him, Beatrice and the rest of the family, when Bernd starts using Beatrice to get what he wants - even marries her. When Beatrice wants to sell her shares of Martin's company Beyenbach AllMedia, to spend more time with Bernd, he tries everything to obviates the sale. When he can't convince Beatrice, he plans to kill her on a masked-ball. Thanks to Sylvia, Beatrice survives the attempted murder, but falls into a coma. When she wakes up, Sylvia and Martin hope that Bernd will finally get what he deserves, but Beatrice suffers amnesia and can't remember anything. While their alliance against Bernd, Martin and Sylvia realize how strong the feelings for each other still are and finally come together again. Soon Beatrice starts to remember that Bernd tries to kill her and wants revenge - she tries to kill him. Martin and Sylvia discover Beatrice's dangerous plan and try to detain her. The plan goes wrong and Martin follows Beatrice to a yacht. Beatrice is expecting Bernd and lets start a countdown for an explosion. She is shocked, when Martin appears. They both try to rescue themselves, but Beatrice falls and when Martin tries to help her, they both get killed in the explosion. Sylvia has lost Martin forever and is heartbroken that her great love died. She makes Bernd responsible for their death. Together with Felix, she tries to destroy Bernd and is happy, when she discovers that Beatrice changed her will before she died and Bernd gets nothing in the end. Felix becomes the sole heir and fires Bernd from the company and throws Bernd from the manor. Because in the manor, Sylvia and Felix feel the memories of Beatrice and Martin, Felix decides to sell the manor.

Sylvia leaves town with her new lover Hagen Berg (Joachim Raaf) in April 2005 and returns for her son's wedding in June 2006.