Sophie McKay
| Sophie McKay | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shortland Street character | |||||||||||||||
| File:Sophie-bar-e4.jpg Sophie on her 18th birthday | |||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Kimberley Crossman | ||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2006 - present | ||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 8 December 2006 episode 3640 | ||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Jason Daniel | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Sophie McKay is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. She was introduced in late 2006 as the daughter of surgeon Justine Jones and GP Callum McKay. She was briefly married to her estranged husband Kieran Mitchell in early 2010 before they separated.
Character history
Arrival to the Street and early years
Sophie McKay arrives at the end of 2006 to drug trafficking and assault charges at the airport. It turned out Hunter lent Sophie his jacket which had secondhand marijuana smoke on it and it didn't get past customs. Then a security guard gave a lustful look at Sophie which Sophie attacked her because of and as Hunter was forced to leave the room he punched another airport security. But soon Sophie settled into Ferndale High relatively easily though she is immediately at odds with Scarlett Valentine. In April 2007, a frustrated Scarlett attempts to run Sophie's brother Hunter down in her father's SUV, leaving Ferndale soon after. Scarlett's actions lead Sophie to question her own previously shallow life, and she becomes more socially aware. Sophie dates and sleeps with Nate Adamson, but they break up after he realizes he is gay and in love with Hunter. Hunter, however, is romantically involved with Nate's mother Tess. Sophie has a one night stand with Tane, leaving him thinking she is his girlfriend. Her mother Justine Jones had trouble with a ruthless gang known as the whitetails who were hired by the dodgy pharmaceutical company Scott Spear. She then moved to Australia in Witness protection.
Dating Kieran Mitchell
In early 2009 she was made head girl of Ferndale High. She had a short lived relationship with Orlando Gunn. She dated Daniel Potts, but has a crush on her boss Kieran Mitchell whom she kissed on June 15. Kieran succumbed to Sophie's charms and they have started a secret relationship. On July 24, 2009, Sophie becomes a journalist and her brother Hunter had just lost a patient in the bush to look up and discover her taking photos of the dead patient. Later that night her ex boyfriend, Daniel Potts, caught Sophie kissing Keiran Mitchell. Sophie has now come public about her relationship with Keiran and she has also moves out of home and now lived with him. However, she now has found out that Kieran is the owner of the escort joint, currently run by Scotty's sister, Rebecca and her high school friend, Lucy is an employee at the place. She is devastated by the lies he has been telling her and is disgusted of the idea of him exploiting women causing her to go to her room in the IV to retrieve her stuff and back to the family home, Hunter and Callum suspect straight away that it is Kieran but Sophie stubbornly explains that it's the upcoming exams that are bothering her. However, Hunter knows better since he learnt about her relationship with Kieran from his former girlfriend, Aroha. The next day she tries to convince Kieran to make Lucy quit her job but Kieran says that it was her choice to become one of them and that she shouldn't get involve. It is obvious to see that she wants to sort things out with Kieran but it becomes much worse when he reveals that he had done the same thing in Thailand. Sophie then comes up with the decision to move out of the IV for good. However, Sophie quickly forgives Kieran, thus continuing their relationship. After a few weeks, Kieran proposes to Sophie, which she happily accepts but her family are obviously not happy about it, though Callum does try to keep his frustration together as he does not want to lose his precious daughter. Her ex-boyfriend, Daniel is also not pleased about it and is desperate to find answers to bring Kieran down, though Hunter says that it's not worth it, as he says that most of the things Kieran is doing is legal. Sophie hosts an engagement party on the next week and quickly some people from the Shortland Street Hospital like Sarah and Tracey decline the invitation. Hunter doesn't feel the need to go but is convinced by Callum to attend anyway to support her, though he tells him of the escort agency Kieran is in business with. Callum confronts Kieran about it and is angrily disgusted. He then tells Sophie to come home with them, but she refuses by saying that she loves him, which then caused Callum to give her an ultimatum: If she chooses him over her family, he will have nothing to do with her ever again. When Sophie doesn't reply he instantly takes it as a no and walks out of the IV with Hunter following on. The guests from the party leave as well. Sophie was devastated that her father was no longer supporting her.
Now that Kieran's younger brother, Sean Mitchell has entered into the picture, with secrets of his own, her trust in Kieran was put to the test. However, it has been revealed that both Sophie and Kieran plan to marry in February 2010 and she still trusts him.
Struggles and Marriage
Sophie's relationship with Kieran is once again put under stress, as he refuses to spend time with her and close friends, because he was the one that killed Morgan in the hit and run accident during the Christmas Party in 2009 and obviously he had not told anyone about it, scared of losing her and despite feeling guilty of taking one's life and putting the blame onto someone else's hands, he had kept this dark secret to himself but is still haunted of the event. She has tried connecting with him, still he refuses to tell her of his problems. Sophie then had enough of being let down and packs up her things to move back to Callum's home. Kieran tries to stop her by telling her he loves her and wants to be married to her, but when she asks him what is bothering him, he doesn't answer her giving her the quick decision to farewell him and leaving. Though she returns to him and the two reconcile, despite Kieran feeling shaken of the devastating event of which he has not told her about. Sophie married Kieran on Friday 5 March 2010.
Predator Professor
That year, Sophie started her education at Auckland university, she became close friends with Daniel and Loren as she was having troubles with Kieran as he was not telling her the truth and she threatened to leave him several times. While at school, she noticed provocatively dressed Eden managed to get an extension on her work from professor Ashton Fuller. Hunter told Sophie there was a rumour that Ashton slept with his students and gave them good marks. Sophie set out to expose him and Loren discovered that Eden was pregnant. Sophie confessed personal stuff about Kieran to Ashton as to make him feel sorry for her, he invited her back to his house and as they were about to kiss the rest of the class burst out and Ashton revealed that he knew what she was trying to do and was playing her along.
Soon to be Divorced and a new love
Sophie's marriage to Kieran has been going down the drains, as Kieran would much rather spend time with good friends at the IV, involving himself in activities like playing poker and betting on racehorses with them and ignoring Sophie and the problems she is facing in life. So she confided in her lecturer, Ashton, telling him that she suspects that there are a few secrets Kieran is hiding from her and will not share these with her. Ashton encouraged her to talk to him, at times she tried to speak with Kieran but he was more interested with work in the IV. Kieran however noticed that Sophie had become quite close with Ashton and had warned him to stay away from her but Sophie got frustrated with him for not trusting her. Kieran had confided in Sophie about him being blackmailed, notes supposedly written by 'Morgan', (However it was revealed that it was one of the new waiters from the IV, Jane had, written those notes to Kieran in the past few days, as she had known on what he had done) haunting him in the process. Sophie as usual supported him but soon she received an annoymous text telling her not to trust Kieran and to look in the safe. When Sophie dropped by at the IV, demanding to Kieran to open the safe, he at first refused but reluctantly unlocked it, letting Sophie grab the notes from the blackmailer from the safe. She soon got frustrated and told him that she will be returning home. Sophie demanded a divorce and a few weeks later started dating her lecturer Ashton Fuller but they broke up after he followed her to a shop she was at. He continued to follow her and Kieran broke into his house and severely beat him. On August 3, 2010, Sophie discovered that Kieran had died and that he was the true killer of Morgan and she went to Australia to grieve with her mother.