Children of Passions - James Boothe

Ryan and Jackson Keane (July 22, 2005—October 2006)

Unknown actor (2005)

Seth Stern (October 26, 2006—April 2007)

James Boothe is the adopted son of Chris Boothe and Sheridan Crane Boothe. James's biological mother is a woman named Maureen Preston, who had named her son "Mark". Sheridan meets Maureen and "Mark" in the park in July 2005 and is drawn to "Mark" and his similarities to her missing son, Marty. The three are together when a tsunami hits, killing Maureen, who, with her last breath, makes Sheridan promise to take care of her son. Sheridan is eventually granted temporary custody of "Mark". Shortly thereafter, photographer Chris Boothe arrives up in town to record the aftermath of the tsunami. When Chris comes across "Mark", he recognizes the boy as his son, James; Chris claims that Maureen had been his wife, and when he'd become involved with the mob, she'd left him and taken James, changing his name to Mark. However, this is a lie; Chris has been hired by Sheridan's father, Alistair, to distract Sheridan from her ex-fiancé, Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, and pretends to be James's biological father. This is eventually revealed to the audience, but not to Sheridan or any other series protagonists. The identity of James' real biological father is unknown.

Sheridan and Chris bond while caring for James and eventually become lovers. After Luis dies in Morocco while searching for his son with Sheridan, Marty, Sheridan and Chris leave James in Sheridan's mother Katherine's care and go off to search for Marty themselves. Fearing that one of them might die and leave their respective son an orphan, Sheridan and Chris are married in Hawaii on February 22, 2006, so that James and Marty will have someone to care for them should their remaining parent die. Instead of finding Marty, however, the Boothes find a very-much-alive Luis, leaving Sheridan torn between her new husband and former lover. After discovering that she is expecting Chris's child, however, she decides to remain with Chris and James. Both Chris and Sheridan are devastated when she suffers a miscarriage in July, especially after Marty's supposed death the previous on-screen day. After moving past their initial grief, Chris arranges for Sheridan to legally adopt James.

In mid- to late-2006, James witnesses two traumatic events, both involving Spike Lester — he first sees Spike shoot his father, wounding him in the leg, and then sees Spike murder Phyllis, a Crane maid. James sees Spike's face and identifies Spike from behind to his cousin, Fancy, as being the man who had murdered Phyllis, but Spike escapes and is never identified from the front or by name.

After Luis begins a relationship with Sheridan's niece, Fancy, Sheridan becomes obsessed with breaking the new couple up, though she makes no effort to end her marriage to Chris. Chris eventually realizes that his wife is still in love with Luis and leaves her in April 2007, taking James with him. When Chris briefly returns to Harmony in August of that year, he mentions that James missed his mother and wishes that Sheridan would call him; Sheridan expresses guilt at neglecting her son, but has not been seen calling him. Because she adopted him, Sheridan is still technically James's mother, though she does not have custody or contact with him.