Charlotte Drake

Biography

Charlotte DiLaurentis was born on May 21, 1988, at Radley Sanitarium as Charles Drake and assigned male at birth. She was born to Mary Drake, a patient at Radley Sanitarium, and her ex-boyfriend, Ted Wilson, who was unaware of Mary's pregnancy. Mary's sister, Jessica and her husband, Kenneth DiLaurentis, adopted Charlotte as their daughter. She lived with her father, mother, adoptive sister and cousin Alison, and her adopted brother and cousin Jason until she was six-years-old.

One day, her mother was playing in the garden with Jason when Alison began crying in her crib. She told Alison she would get help and tapped on the window for her mom to come help, but Jessica didn't hear her because she was talking to a neighbor in the yard. Charlotte then took it upon herself to make Alison feel better. She told her she would run her a bath, as that always made Charlotte feel better. Charlotte took baby Alison to the tub and dropped her in; however, Alison started to drown. Mr. DiLaurentis ran in and saw Alison in the tub and Charlotte, not knowing what to do, just standing next to it. Kenneth freaked out on Charlotte, as he thought Charlotte was trying to intentionally hurt Allison. According to Charlotte, as a child, she always asked her mother to buy her dresses but her dad wouldn't let Jessica. Charlotte surmises that her dad sent her to Radley because of her insistence that she was a girl and not a boy and that he knew that the bathtub incident was an accident, but he just used it as an excuse to send her away.

Mr. DiLaurentis and Jessica decided to send Charlotte away to Radley Sanitarium. In Radley, Jessica would visit Charlotte regularly. Jessica bought Alison a yellow dress for Christmas when Charlotte was 12 years old. After that, for every outfit she bought for Alison, she would buy the same one for Charlotte. Later, Charlotte was on the roof of Radley with her best friend Bethany Young. Charlotte had the yellow dress on and a scarf and was twirling around. She then sat beside Bethany on the ledge of the roof, where they talked. Charlotte says that she wishes they could find a way out of here. Bethany says that getting out is easy, staying out is what's hard. Charlotte says that they need to come up with a really great story that is fabulous and devastating at the same time. Suddenly, Marion Cavanaugh came on the roof and Charlotte went to go hide behind a power box so Mrs. Cavanaugh wouldn't see her as a girl. Mrs Cavanaugh went up to Bethany near the ledge and Bethany pushed her off the roof. Charlotte ran over to Bethany and asked her why did she do that. Bethany then said that Charlotte did it. Everyone believed that Charlotte pushed Mrs Cavanaugh because she was the boy in the dress. Jessica paid off Wilden to make sure Mrs Cavanaugh's death was ruled a suicide.

Later, Charlotte was misdiagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder (IED), because everyone thought she pushed Mrs Cavanuagh. However, Bethany was the one with IED, not Charlotte. For the next several years, Charlotte was medicated with tranquilizers until one day, as Charlotte describes it she almost "drowned in her own drool". At some point, Charlotte attended a summer camp for troubled boys, that was run by her biological father, Ted Wilson. Neither of them knew that they were father and child, it was also at this camp that Charlotte befriended Lucas Gottesman, a boy a few years younger than Charlotte and who would one day end up a bullying victim of Charlotte's adoptive sister/cousin, Alison.

According to Charlotte, she was let out of Radley for a funeral because the doctors felt bad for nearly killing her. The funeral was for "Charles". Jessica and Charlotte buried "Charles" in the grave at Aunt Carol's and then Jessica finally accepted her daughter and called her Charlotte. Charlotte then thought she would be able to go home to her family, but Jessica took her back to Radley and readmitted her under the name "Charlotte DiLaurentis".

After Bethany lied about Mrs Cavanaugh, Charlotte couldn't trust anyone. She needed to get out of Radley. She dedicated herself to math, which kind of made her feel like she wasn't locked up. Jessica then came to visit her and told her that the Board of Directors of Radley has given her permission to attend classes at the University of Pennsylvania.

Charlotte thought going to school would be fun but it was easy for her as she already knew what she was being taught. One day, she called in a bomb threat to cancel classes. She used the opportunity to go to Rosewood High School for yearbook picture day where she met Jason. He didn't recognize her and just thought she was beautiful. She told him she didn't go there but that she wanted to get her picture taken as she would be the hottest girl in the yearbook. She then told him her name was CeCe Drake.

In her confessional to Alison, Charlotte says that she did date Jason, but that she didn't have sex with him because he is her brother. She said that Jason was mad all the time because CeCe wouldn't have sex with him. She said, "who could blame him because I'm gorgeous."

Jessica didn't know that CeCe Drake and Charlotte were the same people until Alison and her family left for Cape May. Before Alison arrived, Charlotte admitted that she wasn't attending classes and that she was running around Rosewood with Alison and Jason. Jessica told Charlotte that Kenneth thinks 'Charlotte' is dead. Charlotte believed that the grave was for her new beginning but, in actuality, Jessica used it for her own purposes: to lie to Mr DiLaurentis that Charlotte was dead. Jessica says that she lied so that Charlotte could finally be herself and that Kenneth would have never allowed his son to be a girl. Kenneth then shows up and doesn't recognize her as Charlotte. Charlotte then decided to leave them alone but forgot that she was supposed to go to Cape May, as Kenneth reminded her. She then turns around and goes to Cape May with her family.

That summer in Cape May, Charlotte planned on telling Alison that she was really her sibling. According to Charlotte, Bethany ruined everything and found out that Jessica was having an affair with Bethany's dad. Bethany stole Charlotte's clothes and pretended to be her to leave Radley, as Charlotte was allowed to leave to attend classes. Charlotte went to the DiLaurentis house and saw a girl dressed in her clothes and thought it was Bethany going to hurt her mom. She hit her on the head from behind with a rock and Jessica screamed through the window. Charlotte hit Alison by mistake. Jessica then proceeded to bury Alison thinking she was dead, while Charlotte sat against a tree crying, saying that she thought it was Bethany. Mona actually hit Bethany, as she was trying to kill Alison, who was also wearing the yellow top.

Jessica paid off Wilden again, but this time, to take Charlotte back to Radley and say that he didn't find her in Rosewood: just on the side of the road outside near Radley. Charlotte thought that Jessica would forgive her eventually, but it never occurred to her that Jessica never would completely.

When Charlotte got back to Radley, her leaving privileges were taken away. Charlotte was alone again. Then, she met Mona. Mona was so high on the drugs that she was being given that she thought Charlotte was Alison. Charlotte told Mona that she would keep getting better if she kept taking her meds. Charlotte had Mona tell her everything about the Liars.

Later, the doctors starting weaning Mona off her meds and Charlotte had to stop visiting Mona as Mona would realize she wasn't Alison if she kept seeing her. Charlotte knew she could never trust Mona as Mona ran over her true friend, Hanna, with a car. Just before Charlotte stopped seeing Mona, she told her that if she helped her get out of Radley, she would play the 'A' game with her. Once Charlotte got out, she purposely met Aria, Spencer, and Emily at the Brew. She told them she was friends with Ali and her name is CeCe Drake. Charlotte hated the Liars because Mona told her that the Liars, who were supposed to be Alison's true friends, were happy Alison was gone.

Charlotte then started seeing a blonde girl in a redcoat following the Liars. She thought it couldn't have been Alison, as she saw her mom bury her. However, she knew that Ali would show up if the girls were in trouble if she was alive. The night of the plane crash, Charlotte sent a decoy to distract the Liars. The decoy was revealed to be Sara Harvey, in a red coat. Sara was supposed to keep Mona busy, while Charlotte trapped the Liars. However, Shana arrived and set the lodge on fire and the plan went awry. Charlotte saw Mona talking to Spencer, Hanna, Emily, and Aria and asking if they saw Ali. Mona said that Ali pulled them all out of the fire and Hanna said that she might be hallucinating. Charlotte then knew that Ali was alive.

Charlotte went to France after the Liars thought they killed 'A' (Shana) in New York. Charlotte was intending on ending the 'A' game but returned because the 'A' game was like a drug to her and Charlotte was good at the game. It made her feel great to succeed at something. Charlotte then attacked Alison in her home to make the Liars know the 'A' game was back on. Charlotte captured the girls and put them in the doll house. Charlotte said that she would never kill any of the Liars, as they were her dolls and she loved them.

Charlotte killed Wilden because he found out Alison was alive; Wilden would of never let Ali come back and tell her story. She sent Sara to the church during the funeral as The Black Widow to confirm Wilden was dead.

Before Charlotte said goodbye to Alison in New York, she snuck home to say goodbye to their mom. When Charlotte arrived, she was dead. Charlotte believed her mom was the only person who truly loved her. In "Game Over, Charles", Sara Harvey sets a bomb to detonate inside of Radley as part of Charlotte's plan to kill her and Ali. The liars see Sara setting the bomb and she tells them to get out of there. However, Spencer disables the bomb, just as Charlotte presses the detonation device while Alison begs her not to. Charlotte runs on to the roof and gets on the ledge, about to jump and commit suicide. The liars run to the roof and beg her not to, as Ali finally accepts her as her sister saying "Charlotte, please don't do this". Charlotte, realizing that someone other than Jessica does love her, jumps down from the ledge onto the roof and lowers her hood, then says "game over".

After surrendering herself, Charlotte was deemed mentally disturbed and put into Welby, under the care of her doctor, Dr. Elliot Rollins, whom she developed a relationship with. After five years, Charlotte was released from Welby, thanks to the Liars lying under to oath to get her free. However, as revealed in Farewell, My Lovely, Charlotte had secretly remained the same and was still intent on resuming the A-game, far worse than last time. Knowing of this, she was confronted by Mona the same night. Mona threatened to kill Charlotte, but backed down and was attacked by her. After a struggle, Mona had accidentally killed her in self-defense and made it look like a suicide. This would lead to the birth of Uber A, a stalker wanting to avenge Charlotte's death.