🚀 go-pugleaf

Nick Davis and Ruth's sister Amy had a teenage affair.  When Amy became 
pregnant, Nick left town.  Ruth and her first husband, Ted Brent, childless,
adopted her illegitimate nephew, Philip (Amy's child by Nick).

When AMC started, Nick had just returned to Pine Valley, sending Amy into
a tizzy.  Eventually, Nick figured out that Philip was his son by Amy.  He
wanted to claim paternity, but Ruth, Amy, and Ted fought him until, finally,
Ted was killed in a rainy car accident trying to prevent Phil from finding
out the family scandal.

Incidentally, at this time, Amy was married to Lincoln Tyler.  I don't know
what ever happened to her or to the marriage.

Anyway, the widowed Ruth married Joe Martin, making Phil and Tara step-
brother and sister.  However, since they had had a long-term love rela-
tionship, they continued despite their new relationship.

Somewhere along the line, Phil found out that Nick was his real father and
after a period of hostility, decided to acknowledge him as his father.

Soon after this, Phil and Tara "married" each other in a secret ceremony,
and on their "wedding night", she became pregnant with Charlie. Phil was
promptly shipped off to Vietnam and declared missing in action. On the
rebound, Tara married Chuck to give her baby a name.  They named him after
his real father.

When Phil was miraculously found in Vietnam, he returned home, caused a
split between Chuck and Tara, married her, claimed his son, and was killed
in a plane crash in the Bermuda Triangle.  Little Philip didn't like his
real dad until after he died (of course), and insisted on being called by
his middle name, Charles.

And that is the long-past history of the Brent-Martin connection.  Charlie
is both Ruth's and Joe's grandson by separate children from separate
marriages.

(this has been kindly provided by my wife, a long time AMC addict who has been
watching the show since the beginning - I have only been addicted for six
years, not nearly long enough to know of such wonderful goings on.)

Jeff Schaffer