Cheryl West (Outrageous Fortune)

Cheryl West is a fictional character on the New Zealand television series Outrageous Fortune. The character is played by actress Robyn Malcolm who has won numerous acting awards for this role.

Storylines

Backstory

Cheryl, the daughter of dairy owners in West Auckland was raised alongside her two sisters, Mandy and Jeanette, the latter who is part of a religious brotherhood in the Wairarapa.

Cheryl met Wolfgang West at a young age when her sister Jeanette was dating him. She stole him off her sister and got pregnant at the age of 16. The baby died and its ashes were spread at Tutaekuri Bay. From that day on, the whole family travelled there at Christmas. Cheryl and Wolf went on to have twins, Van and Jethro and two daughters, Pascalle and Loretta.

Season 1

Near the end of the first episode Cheryl made the decision to turn her family away from crime as Wolfgang had just been imprisoned for four years. it was later discovered that Detective Sergeant Judd had framed Wolfgang. Near the end of the season Cheryl started Hoochie Mama a knicker company. She also started her affair with Judd.

Season 5

Season 5 detailed Cheryl living with Judd and coping with another pregnancy. It also showed Cheryl trying to save her company, "Hoochie Mama" from going down the drain. Cheryl promoted Van's scheming and manipulative girlfriend, Sheree, to General Manager early in the season. Cheryl had been putting too much stress on the baby and she started bleeding from inside. She had to sit down for weeks. Cheryl handed management of Hoochie over to oldest son, Jethro who then fired Sheree and slowly started to turn Hoochie successful, unfortunately he did this by exploiting young girls.

After Sheree attempted to murder Van and revealed he was a nark to several dodgy people, he went to stay with Ray Judd, Wayne's father. Cheryl got on well with Ray and invited seventeen-year-old Deleesha, Wayne's half-sister stay at the West house. But she eventually moved in with boyfriend, Isaac Anesi.

Towards the end of season 5, Cheryl gave birth prematurely and tragically, the baby was stillborn. Unable to deal with the loss, Cheryl went to Tutaekuri Bay, without a word to the family. Wolf reappeared at the bay and eventually the audience learned that Wolf's return was just a hallucination, triggered by the traumatic memories of the death of their first baby, daughter Helena. We then flashback to Wolf and Cheryl's trip to the bay at age 16, to spread Helena's ashes. Cheryl returned for the funeral of the baby, now named Tama, but it seems something has now changed between her and Judd, after the baby's death.

Cheryl refused to give up custody of Jane, Loretta's daughter, unless Loretta married Hayden, which she eventually did. At the wedding reception, Detective Zane Gerard, under false circumstances arrived and attempted to arrest Pascalle. A huge fight ensued, but Gerard snuck out pulling Pascalle along with him. Cheryl noticed and followed with a wine bottle. Cheryl yelled at Gerard telling him to let Pascalle go, but he refused to listen. Cheryl annoyed and scared swung the bottle into his head causing it to break. Pascalle carried on to knee him in the testicles. But Gerard continued and Cheryl lunged at him with the broken bottle, cutting him in the neck very badly. As he fell, Gerard fired 3 shots from his gun towards the devastated Cheryl and Pascalle.