Storylines
Amy first appears being dragged to her sister Sarah Barnes's (Loui Batley) swimming training, where she is bored and jealous of Sarah's success. Amy befriends Michaela McQueen (Hollie-Jay Bowes), Jamie "Fletch" Fletcher (Sam Darbyshire) and Josh Ashworth (Sonny Flood) and begins a relationship with Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson). Ste manipulates Amy into sleeping with him, resulting in their eventual break-up. On her 15th birthday, Amy meets a boy called Billy, who she has a one-night-stand. Michaela supports Amy upon Amy discovering her pregnancy. Amy and Ste reunite and he takes her joyriding, which leads to a crash, culminating in Ste fleeing and Amy is partially injured. Amy dumps Ste to date Josh despite her father Mike Barnes disapproving of them. They decide to flee Hollyoaks together however, after weeks, the couple decide to return home. Josh attacks Mike with a house brick, which ends Josh's relationship with Amy. She develops labour and delivers her daughter, Leah Barnes, on her kitchen floor, to the surprise of Sarah and their father Mike Barnes (Tony Hirst). Amy's mother Kathy Barnes (Sarah Jane Buckley) decides to raise Leah as her own child, ashamed of her daughter's underage pregnancy. However, Amy grows close to Leah and decides she wants to be her mother. Kathy kidnaps Leah and is eventually sectioned.
Ste returns to Hollyoaks following a stint in a young offenders' institute. Mike is angry, but Amy lies that he is Leah's father and they eventually move into their own flat. Ste begins to steal to help fund the family, but begins lying that Leah has leukaemia for money. An angry Amy decides to leave Ste, but agrees to continue lying until they have enough money to support them. After the secret is revealed, Ste ultimately assaults Amy and she is rejected by her family. Ste's violent outbursts continue, with him cutting off her long ponytail on an occasion. After Amy is threatened by Ste again, she lies that she is pregnant. After admitting her lie, he apologises, seeing what he has caused. Soon after, Amy unearths her actual pregnancy and dumps Ste once again after he attacks her.
Ste begins anger management and Amy gives birth to Lucas. She resumes her previous relationship with Josh, later becoming engaged. However, she suffers from post-natal depression and leaves to stay with her grandmother for several months, whilst there she ends her relationship with Josh once more, eventually returning at Sarah's funeral. Ste tries to help Amy with the depression and she eventually warms to her children again. Amy and Ste become friends and she moves back in with him to be a proper mother to Leah and Lucas. Amy initially believes that Zoe Carpenter (Zoe Lister) has murdered her sister Sarah, along with Lydia Hart's (Lydia Kelly) help she tries to expose her. Zoe however exposes Lydia as the killer and she makes up with Zoe. She begins life as a student and starts dating Olly Larkin (Oliver Watton), who tries to force her into having sex until Ste saves her.
Amy becomes friends with fellow students Jem Costello (Helen Russell-Clarke) and Lee Hunter (Alex Carter). Lee and Amy begin having feelings for each other, despite his fiancée Leanne Holiday (Jessica Forrest). Leanne's jealousy continues until Lee eventually admits his feelings for Amy and they decide to be together. Amy discovers Ste and Brendan Brady's (Emmett J. Scanlan) relationship and is angry when she realises Brendan is abusing Ste. Brendan threatens Amy numerous times for her to keep her mouth shut. Gabby Sharpe (Phina Oruche) asks Amy to babysit for her, a fire is started in Il Gnosh downstairs by Dom Reilly (John Pickard). Amy, Leah and Lucas are trapped upstairs, Amy almost dies until she is saved by Steph Roach (Carley Stenson), who later dies in the fire. Amy recovers in hospital and tells Ste she thinks Brendan caused the fire. Ste doesn't believe Brendan started it at first, but he then hears a voice mail from Amy saying she's scared because Brendan threatened her (which was on the night the fire started) Brendan then threatened Amy once again in hospital. Scared, Amy tells Lee she is be being transferred to a hospital in Manchester to be near her dad Mike and they share an emotional goodbye. Lee later finds a letter from Amy explaining that they cannot be together, unaware that it was actually Leanne who wrote it.
Amy ruins Lee & Leanne's wedding when she learns Leanne forged the letter. Amy finds out Rae Wilson (Alice Barlow) is pregnant with Ste's child. Amy convinces Brendan to end his affair with Ste. Amy tells Bombhead (Lee Otway) that her near death in the fire and losing Lee took a burden on her life. She got a job as a teaching assistant at Hollyoaks High School, and befiends Pete Hamill (Peter Mitchell). Amy, Leah, Lucas and Lee successfully audition for a sausage advert campaign. She clashes with Leanne, when she leaves her Leanne twists her ankle. Amy is arrested after Leanne claims Amy assaulted her. The police decide to take the complaint no further.
Leanne starts vandalising Amy's sausage posters placed around the village. Leanne follows Amy and Lee to the filming of a new advert. She attempts to ruin the set by pushing Lee down a ski slope and later climbs into bed with him. Leanne tries to convince Ste that Amy is mentally ill like Kathy. After an argument with Amy, Leanne is found injured at the bottom of the SU bar stairs. She accuses Amy of assault and she is charged. Ruby Button (Anna Shaffer) then bullies and taunts Amy in the class room. Amy then cries due to being bullied by Ruby too much, forcing Pete to make Amy take leave. Amy is faced wirth a prison sentence and repeatedly argues with Leanne in public. She later breaks down and ends her relationship with Lee over trust issues. Leanne drops the charges and Amy reconciles with Lee. He buys Amy a new car and Dodger agrees to give her driving lessons. She soon finds herself attracted to Dodger. She drunkenly has a night of passion with Dodger, but insists it is a one night stand. She reconciles with Lee, he later finds out she had sex with Dodger. They break up after Lee broadcasts details of their personal life over student radio. Amy realises Lee loves her and proposes to him.
Lee gets a job offer in New York and Amy decides to go with him, taking her kids with her. Ste says no, making Lee quit his job in New York. Amy then has a go at Ste, saying everything she has ever wanted has been ruined by him. Amy then tells Lee to go to New York because it's his dream, but decides not to go with him, staying in Chester. A couple of days later, serial killer Silas Blissett (Jeff Rawle) puts a pawn chess piece into her flat and becomes one of his targets, making Lynsey Nolan (Karen Hassan) guess who his next victim will be however it is later revealed did not intend to kill Amy. Amy takes waitress job at "College Coffee". She begins a relationship with Ally Gorman (Dan O'Connor). They argue when she kisses Dodger but he forgives her. She then suspects him visiting lapdancing clubs, but he claims it is to protect the girls from danger. Ally kisses Ash Kane (Holly Weston) and they separate. Amy gets drunk and tries to kiss Ste. He tells her that they spend too much time together. She decides to leave with Lucas and Leah to study in Manchester.
Read more about this topic: Amy Barnes