Dive Deep into Creativity: Discover, Share, Inspire
TW: divorce, self doubt, abandonment, blame
Since childhood, Daphne has been in the shadow of her fashion designer mom and her musician dad. While she was proud to be the daughter of two icons in their respective fields, she always wanted to be more than ‘Donita’s daughter’ or “Henry’s kid’. She didn’t get any of her father’s musical talent or her mother’s eye for fashion trends, leading her to believe she could never be successful. When she saw the internet become more popular, she capitalized on her chance to be a star, independent of her parents joining social media at a young age and becoming a large influencer with her good looks and sassy charisma. Daphne modeled all of her mother’s clothing except for her designs featuring live animals, instead encouraging her to use animal-inspired designs, which she did later at her daughter’s insistence. She tried to convince her father to allow her to use him in videos, but he always refused, so she eventually stopped asking and made travel content from her being with her mother constantly. Daphne loves to travel and is fluent in Greek, Spanish, and French in addition to English, something she has been able to use to her advantage in her travels.
As Daphne grew older and more mature, her relationship with her mother blossomed while her relationship with her father struggled. She always viewed her Dad as her protector and #1 fan, even when he was off on tour in a faraway land. Henry always took her side when arguing with her mother, and insisted that everything he did was for her. Their relationship completely changed when her parents divorced and he married Allison. Daphne saw the whole ordeal as a total blindside and was upset with her mother, wanting to live with her dad full-time. Allison was another fashion designer, although much less established and respected than Donita, and often compared their work, insisting her’s was better. Allison hated the idea of Daphne and how she was a link to Henry’s more successful ex-wife and took it out on Daphne, saying she would leave Henry if Daphne lived with them. Daphne tried to convince Henry that she didn’t like her and was mean, but Henry refused to listen to her and asked her why her mother was filling her head up with lies, choosing Allison over Daphne, a recent pattern. They began to see each other less and less, particularly after her half-siblings came into the mix. The only reason Daphne comes over anymore is to play and interact with her little siblings, who are obsessed with her and want to be just like her, much to their mother’s disappointment. Henry was too busy with his new family for Daphne, and that shattered her heart. She began to question if love like the fairytales was even real if it was all made up or worse, not made for her. All the relationships she had, felt like the boy was using her for fame or money, making her question her own sense of self, independent from her job and family. She felt like she didn’t have hobbies of her own separate from her work, and her friendships felt one sided, with her putting in more work than she was getting. Who is Daphne Donata? Why couldn’t she answer such a simple question?
Henry felt bad about his relationship with his oldest daughter but truly believed that Daphne was lying about Allison and was jealous of her half-siblings. He instead began to focus on teaching his other children his talents, trying not to think about Daphne too much, even going as far as to delete his social media to not see her on his feed anymore, at Allison’s request. He also feels a lot of pent-up anger towards Donita for putting him in an impossible position, pushing his daughter away from him because of her issues with him. He resented her for never compromising in their marriage and for putting her work ahead of her family and marriage. The divorce wasn’t entirely his fault and he needed her to stop acting like it was and to get over her superiority complex over everyone, especially him. One day he wants to reunite his two families together and have everyone get along, but in the meantime, he is focused on being a better husband and father to his new family.