Jill tried to convince John that the photo had been taken long before she married him. But John didn't buy her story. He filed for divorce. Desperate to stay married to John, Jill pretended to slip into a deep depression. Katherine, however, convinced John that Jill was only pretending to be depressed. John ordered Jill out of his house. Realizing that things were hopeless between them, Jill tried to win as much money from John as possible. She also became romantically involved with the Abbotts sexy young gardener, Brad Carlton.

Lauren's mother, JoAnna, returned to Genoa City, with the hope of reconciling with her former husband, Neil. But to JoAnna's disappointment, Neil was already in love with Gina Roma. Lauren, who wanted to see her parents reunited, checked into Gina's background and discovered that Gina was an ex-con. Lauren exposed Gina's secret to Neil, who soon broke off their relationship. Gina vowed to get even with Lauren. But Lauren already had enough problems to content with, most notably her marriage to Paul Williams, which had hit a bumpy road.

Although Paul was anxious to start a family, Lauren only pretended that she wanted to get pregnant. Instead, she pursuing her singing career. Meanwhile, Shawn Garrett grew jealous of Lauren's professional partnership with Danny Romalotti and sought to get him out of the picture. Shawn began slipping Danny poison, which affected his voice and jeopardized his music career. Shawn also taped Lauren's private conversations with Paul. Lauren and Paul briefly separated, but reconciled, which infuriated Shawn. In order to keep Lauren under his control, Shawn threatened to murder Paul if Lauren didn't abide by his wishes.

Traci Abbott pursued a music career, despite being undermined by Lauren. Traci's marriage to Danny, however, proved to be short-lived. Traci miscarried and they divorced. Nevertheless, Traci and Danny continued to be friends. Tim tried to rekindle a romance with Traci, but Traci discovered that Tim's new wife was pregnant. Fed up with Tim's emotional abuse, Traci rebuffed his advances. Instead, she focused her attention on Brad Carlton.