Children of Passions - Ethan Crane

Ethan Crane

Sarah and Thomas Buhl (June 21—August 22, 2002)

Colby and Grayson Button (September 2, 2002—July 25, 2003)

Unknown actor (2003)

Nicholas Graziano (2003—January 2004)

Field Cate (December 21, 2004)

Colton Shires (January 27, 2004—August 7, 2008)

Ethan Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane Winthrop (born Ethan Martin Crane), better known as Little Ethan, is the eldest child of Ethan Winthrop and Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Winthrop. He is conceived shortly after midnight on the day that Ethan and Theresa are set to be married in 2001, but the couple's wedding never takes place, and Theresa ends up bedding and wedding the man that Ethan had believed to be his father, Julian Crane. Theresa, as a result, believes that Julian has fathered her son, though Ethan plays a paternal role in the boy's life nonetheless. Little Ethan is born onscreen on June 21, 2002; he is later SORASed to eight years old in 2004, making his year of birth 1996.

After Ethan's wife, Gwen, and mother-in-law, Rebecca, blame Theresa for the stillbirth of Ethan and Gwen's daughter, Sarah, the two women cook up a scheme for Julian, who is preparing to marry Rebecca, to be awarded sole custody of Little Ethan and then allow Ethan and Gwen to adopt the child. The plan works, and Theresa, desperate to regain custody of her son, knocks out Ethan and Gwen's planned surrogate mother and is implanted with their embryo; Theresa threatens to hold the Winthrops' unborn child hostage unless Ethan and Gwen undo their adoption of Little Ethan and return him to her. Ethan and Gwen agree to give Little Ethan back once their child is born, so when Theresa believes that she has miscarried, she drugs and rapes Ethan in order to trade their child for Little Ethan. When Theresa discovers that she is pregnant with twins, she realizes, as the DNA tests later prove, that one child was Ethan and Gwen's while one child was hers with Ethan. Unable to carry both fetuses to term, Theresa terminates the weaker fetus, and eventually gave birth to her daughter with Ethan, Jane.

Due to their contract, Theresa regains custody of Little Ethan, but Ethan and Gwen file for and win custody of Jane. In order to win back custody of her daughter, Theresa marries the program's primary villain, Alistair Crane, also believed to be Little Ethan's paternal grandfather, in 2005; while signing their pre-nup, Theresa also unknowingly signs papers that allow Alistair to adopt Little Ethan, renaming him Ethan Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane and making him the heir to the Crane Empire after disinheriting all of his other relatives.

Several months later in Rome, tabloid reporter JT Cornell gives Theresa definitive proof that Ethan, not Julian, had fathered Little Ethan. Theresa, however, decides not to tell Ethan, first fearing that Ethan and Gwen will sue for custody and then, after Ethan and Gwen break up and Ethan returns to Theresa, fearing that Ethan will hate her for keeping his son from him for so long. By the time Theresa has worked up the nerve to tell Ethan the truth, Ethan's ex-wife, Gwen, has discovered her mother Pilar's deadly, long-buried secret and threatens to reveal it if Theresa tells Ethan the truth.

Things become complicated, however, when Ethan and Gwen's infant son, Jonathan, direly needs a liver transplant. The boys' sister, Jane, is to donate part of her liver, but an ear infection prevents her from doing so, and there is not enough time for her to heal before doctors expect Jonathan to die. Theresa begs Gwen to let her tell Ethan that Little Ethan, as Jonathan's half-brother, may be a donor, but Gwen refuses. Theresa, therefore, decides to anonymously donate part of Little Ethan's liver, and finally tells her son that Ethan is his biological father. Little Ethan is overjoyed and agrees to donate part of his liver to his baby half-brother.

After the operation, Little Ethan develops a fever, and doctors begin to fear for his life; however, after his mother chooses to pray for his life instead of her reunion with Ethan, Little Ethan's fever breaks, and he begins to respond to the medical treatments on Christmas Eve 2007.

After he has recovered enough Theresa informs him that she must go to Mexico against the better wishes his grandmother in order to challenge a danger to their family that is keeping his parents apart. Little Ethan promises to keep his paternity secret and the secret of his mother's location from his father Ethan and looks forward to going on a trip to Florida to watch his favorite baseball team in spring practice. As all begin to put the pieces together Little Ethan is left to recover as both his grandmother Pilar, and father Ethan follow his mother to Mexico.

Upon their return the family gathers together in order to decide who will tell Little Ethan the tragic news of his mother's death and the Lopez-Fitzgerald family agrees it should be Ethan since they feel he is the closest person to Theresa that Little Ethan has left. After finally relaying the news to the devastated child, Ethan decides he wants to finally adopt Little Ethan in order to keep Theresa's children together as she would have wanted much to the dismay of Ethan's wife who is one of the women responsible for his mother's death. After a series of nightmares about not being able to help his mother Little Ethan and his father bond over their shared loss and as Ethan asks Julian, Little Ethan's legal father, for permission to adopt him, Julian agrees that it would be best for Little Ethan to be with his father even though no one has told Ethan the truth about Little Ethan's true paternity. (However, the new nanny, named Gertrude, was in reality, Theresa, alive and well.)

Finally, on August 5, 2008, Theresa reveals the truth about Little Ethan's paternity, and Ethan is overjoyed that the little boy he always considered to be his son is actually his biological son. Also, it was Little Ethan who found the proof of Gwen and Rebecca's lies and treachery that they pulled on his mother. He got to the church, being pursued by Rebecca, and after he fixed the camera, had his grandfather, Sam Bennett bring it out, and a few minutes later, the proof was shown to everyone in the basement that Gwen and Rebecca exposed Ethan's paternity and sold it to the tabloids, not to mention getting dirt on the rest of Harmony; and plotting with Juanita Vasquez to blow up St. Margaret Mary's Church and kill all within it. Upon discovering this treachery, Ethan furiously denounced Gwen and Rebecca and reunited with Theresa. Little Ethan is overjoyed when his parents are finally married, after the revelation that his father's marriage to Gwen was not even legal, since she was already married to an unknown man in Las Vegas.