Daniel Meade
Ugly Betty character
Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade
First appearance	"Pilot" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	"Hello Goodbye" (episode 4.20)
Created by	Silvio Horta
Portrayed by	Eric Mabius
In-universe information
Nickname	Danny (by Alexis)
Species	Human
Gender	Man
Occupation	Unemployed (as of 2010) Former co-editor-in-chief of Mode (with Alexis Meade; 2007–2008) (with Wilhelmina Slater; 2008–2010) editor-in-chief of Player (2008) editor-in-chief of Mode (2006–2007, 2008)
Family	Bradford Meade (father; deceased) Claire Meade (mother) Alexis Meade (older sister) Tyler Meade-Hartley (maternal half-brother) Daniel Meade Jr. (nephew)
Spouse	Molly Meade (wife; deceased)
Significant other	Amanda Tanen (ex-lover) Sofia Reyes (ex-fiancee) Grace Chin (ex-girlfriend) Renee Slater (ex-girlfriend) Betty Suarez (assistant/potential future romance)
Nationality	American

Daniel Meade is a fictional character in the American romantic drama-comedy series Ugly Betty. He is portrayed by Eric Mabius.

Background

Daniel (born in 1974) is the second child of magazine publisher Bradford Meade and Claire Meade. After his graduation from Harvard, Daniel's father picked him to succeed the well-respected (and recently deceased) Fey Sommers as editor-in-chief at MODE, the fashion magazine which Bradford published and Claire owned.

Aware of his son's inexperience in the fashion industry, Bradford hired a personal assistant to help and guide Daniel. Daniel was renowned as a womanizer, so Bradford chose to hire for the role the fashion-ignorant but bright Betty Suarez, whom he believed Daniel would never be attracted to since she was "ugly". An integral part of the show's premise is that Betty is considered ugly by the denizens of the New York fashion world of MODE, specifically by Daniel himself.

Daniel's initial repulsion and resentment of Betty, over the course of the show's 4 seasons, transforms into respect and ultimately into a close friendship, further leading to the possibility of a more romantic relationship. As Betty undergoes a metamorphosis into a polished professional woman, Daniel's perception of Betty's beauty alters as an outward sign of his growing maturity.

Daniel's late brother Alex was the editor-in-chief of another Meade publication, Hudson. Part of Daniel's motivation as a character is proving that he can hold his own without living in Alex's shadow. However, he is unaware that Alex is not only alive and has had a sex change, but that Alex (now Alexis) is plotting to have Daniel removed from the job. When Alexis attempts to fire Daniel, he fires back with an injunction because "Alex" is legally dead and therefore no longer has any ownership of the company. The pair's ensuing sibling rivalry is mediated by Betty. Daniel and Alexis are ultimately forced by their mother to share co-Editor-in-Chief duties until Alexis' departure from the show.

Daniel's womanizing is overt and unabashed. Towards the end of the first season, a model he had slept with attempts to extort him by saying she was only 16 as part of a plan by Alexis to force Daniel out of Mode. Betty saves Daniel by finding evidence that the model was actually 20, but Betty insists Daniel deal with his sexual addiction immediately before it destroys him. After seeking the help of a psychologist, Daniel begins taking a prescription to help him control his sex addiction. The first season ends with Daniel accidentally overdosing and Alexis attempting to get Daniel to the hospital. On the way, the car crashes because the assassin Alexis had hired to kill Bradford Meade had cut the car's brakes.

In the premiere of season 2, Daniel recovers from the car wreck and uses a wheelchair, while his sister is still in a coma three weeks later. Afterwards, he helps Betty "bury" Henry, and at the last minute throws his pills into the hole, saying he will get over his addictions. Alexis wakes up from her coma and, when Daniel asks her if she's all right, she replies, "Why are you calling me Alexis? It's Alex!", having forgotten about her recent sex change. Daniel tries to cover for her in the wake of the accident by saying it was his fault, but when Alexis regains her memory and admits the attempted murder to him, Daniel agrees not to say anything to their father.

Daniel's rocky relationship with his family worsens when he learns that Bradford, who blames Daniel for losing key advertisers, has started repairing his bond with Alexis. Daniel also opposes his father's marriage to Wilhelmina. When he discovers Wilhelmina's bodyguard coming out of her apartment, Daniel puts two and two together and realizes they are having an affair. He learns that Betty learned about the affair four months earlier, but made a deal with Wilhelmina not to say anything in order to get Betty's father Ignacio back to the United States. Daniel fires Betty for betraying his trust, but as he is trying to tell his father about Wilhelmina's affair, Bradford has a heart attack at the wedding, dying several days later. After Ignacio explains why Betty kept Wilhelmina's secret, Daniel regrets his decision to fire Betty and tries to talk her into coming back.

After Bradford's passing, Daniel and Alexis battle to succeed him as chairman/CEO of Meade Publishing, which culminates in a paintball contest. Daniel loses to Alexis, who pretended to be hurt while they were playing.

Daniel briefly dates Wilhelmina's sister, Renee. The relationship comes to an end when she tries to kill Betty out of jealousy and is put into an asylum.

Wilhelmina returns to Mode after she reveals that she is pregnant with the child of Daniel's dead father. This makes her an even bigger enemy than before, as she demotes Daniel from editor-in-chief and again becomes Alexis' ally. Daniel is reassigned to editor-in-chief of Player magazine, a magazine directed toward men. Thanks to Betty discovering letters of loyalty given to her on purpose by Marc, as well as good ideas in Daniel's mock-up of Mode, Daniel is reinstated as Mode's editor-in-chief after sales plunge under Wilhelmina's rein.

Daniel also seems to be the father of a little French boy, named Daniel Jr (affectionately known as DJ). He met the boy's mother, a French model, on a trip to Paris years ago (with Alexis also present on the trip). In a letter to Daniel Jr. from his mother, she tells him that Daniel is his father. However, results from a paternity test show Alexis Meade is the actual father. When the parents of Daniel Jr.'s mother want to take him back to France, Daniel tries to take him away but realises he can't do that and instead decides it is better to be "the cool uncle."

When Wilhelmina suggests hiring Connor Owens to be the new financial officer for Meade, Daniel is reluctant as he seems to hate the man. Eventually, Wilhelmina gets her way only for it to turn out that Daniel and Connor were playing at disliking each other to trick her. However, Connor doesn't play favourites with Daniel either, doing whatever he feels is best for the company. At a company retreat, Daniel meets Connor's fiancée Molly and the two strike up an instant flirtation. This gets the attention of Wilhelmina who, wanting Connor for herself, plans to push the two together. After almost sharing a kiss with Molly, Daniel decides to confess his feelings. In the beginning, Molly leaves the party upset, but afterwards, she joins Daniel and after telling him that she has just broken up with Connor, they kiss. Their relationship is going well until she tells him that she has cancer.

Towards the end of season 3, Daniel marries Molly. However, she collapses on their wedding night and afterwards begins having fevers, indicating that her time is coming to an end. At Molly's insistence, Daniel goes to accept an award on behalf of Meade, and he sees Molly through the crowd before she quickly disappears. He realizes she has died while he was giving his acceptance speech, and he comes back to his apartment just in time to see her body being carried out in a body bag. He calls Betty to help console him on the stoop of his apartment.

As the series enters its fourth season, Daniel tries to control his grief over the loss of Molly by throwing objects and punching people. Betty later intervenes and Daniel seeks help at a bereavement group, where he meets a woman named Natalie. The relationship takes a strange turn when Natalie invites Daniel to join the Community of the Phoenix, a cult-like group led by Bennett Wallace. This results in Natalie manipulating Daniel into turning on Betty, Claire, and Amanda, who she sees as bad influences.

Betty and Claire are prompted to take action to save Daniel after the Community takes over the Mode offices. They get the break they need when Matt warns them about the Community's "Level 7", in which they help people contact the dead, but which has already resulted in the death of a previous member after they drank a drugged tea. Although Betty and Claire save Daniel, his attempts to talk Natalie out of it fail.

Following that, Daniel turns his attention to getting Cal Hartley out of the way. Armed with knowledge about his affair with Claire and risky decisions made behind his back, Daniel forms an unlikely partnership with Wilhelmina to retrieve the money Connor stole, but only on the condition that Claire never finds out.

Daniel accidentally walks into Claire and Cal kissing, and he believes that the two had an affair when Bradford was still alive. Giving the cold shoulder towards the couple, Claire decides to find her long-lost son Tyler. When the latter was chosen to be featured in Fashion Week 2010, a sibling rivalry began when Daniel was upstaged by Tyler.

Daniel discovers the biological truth when he sees pictures of Claire and Tyler dining together. When Daniel confronts Tyler about leaving Claire alone, Claire finally reveals the truth. Shocked, Daniel begins to avoid talking to or even making eye contact with Tyler and Claire. Realizing that nothing will change, Daniel begins to warm up to Tyler, inviting him to clubs and parties in the city.

In the series finale, Daniel resigns from Mode, thus making Wilhelmina the sole editor-in-chief, to follow Betty to London, where they both start over professionally (following their "dreams"). Additionally, it is implied in Daniel's final "Letter from the Editor" that he also chose to follow Betty to London in order to pursue a romantic relationship with her.^[1]

Residency

Daniel Meade's letters and magazines are sent to his address at 6767 West End Ave., New York, but it is not specified whether this is his apartment or his workplace.^[2]

Connections

• Betty Suarez – Former assistant to Daniel, but now a Features Editor; Her knowledge has helped Daniel succeed in their jobs at MODE. The two also seem to trust each other and depend on each other a lot, making them very close friends and coworkers. Daniel respects Betty a lot and also tries to stay in her good books. In the series finale, Daniel becomes aware that he is in love with Betty as he struggles to let her go to London. In the end, he asks her to have dinner with him.
• Fey Sommers – The former editor-In-chief of MODE. Her death resulted in Daniel being named the successor, a move stopping Wilhelmina from getting that job. Daniel is also drawn into the mystery surrounding Sommers via a series of phone calls (made by Alexis, his sister) warning him to "watch his back" when he is around his father.
• Wilhelmina Slater – Co-editor-in-chief at MODE; Daniel's role as the editor-in-chief makes Betty and him unlikely enemies of the Creative Director. Wilhelmina wants Daniel's job and is determined to make sure, by any means necessary, that Daniel and Betty never succeed in the world of fashion. Wilhelmina succeeds in taking everything away from Daniel, including his position as editor-in-chief.
• Bradford Meade – Daniel's late father and owner of Meade Publications; Despite handing the job to Daniel, Bradford is not sure that his son can live up to the challenge. Daniel gains his trust, even though the two show signs of a rift in their relationship. The rift was fueled by Wilhelmina and Alexis, but the two would make peace prior to Bradford's passing.
• Claire Meade – Daniel's mother; Has been in and out of rehab due to her drinking problem. She has warned Daniel against his womanizing and told him he will end up going the same route as his father when he had the affair with Fey. She turns herself into the police for the murder of Fey Sommers but is later acquitted. She and Daniel have since restored their mother–son bond.
• Alexis Meade – Daniel's sister, with whom he has a constant sibling rivalry
• Sofia Reyes – Author and editor-in-chief of sister publication MYW; Daniel fell head over heels for Sofia, who was brought in by Bradford to launch a new magazine. At first, she resisted his advances because of his womanizing ways but gave in afterwards, even though she had a boyfriend who just asked her to marry him. Her presence helped curb his womanizing. Daniel asked Sofia to marry him and she accepted. However, on a national TV broadcast, Sofia revealed it had all been a plan for an article on how any woman could get any man to propose to her in only 60 days and she did not love Daniel at all, devastating him.
• Amanda Tanen – Receptionist at MODE; She had an unusual romantic relationship with Daniel, and wanted the assistant editor job Betty filled. However, Daniel only thought of Amanda as a one-night stand, and this, together with his constant womanizing, strains their relationship. In the end, she gives up on Daniel and agrees to a working relationship instead. She also gives up on being Daniel's assistant after realizing that Daniel trusts Betty more and that she is overqualified for the job, demanding a raise. When forced by Marc to sabotage a date for Daniel, she does just that, even at the expense of MODE and her future with Daniel. During the season 1 finale, Amanda discovers a birth certificate declaring Fey Sommers as her mother when she was accidentally trapped in Fey's love Dungeon with Christina McKinney. In the second season, Amanda believes, because of Fey's affair, that Bradford may be her biological father and sets out to get a sample of his DNA to see if that is true. To the relief of Daniel and Amanda, the test results came back negative, ruling out Bradford as Amanda's father. In season 4 she and Daniel become lovers (or fun buddies as Amanda calls their relationship) again, and Amanda becomes Daniel's new assistant after Marc gets a promotion from Wilhelmina as her new Junior Fashion Editor.
• Justin Suarez – Betty's nephew; He is a fan.
• "Daniel Meade, Jr." – Daniel's nephew. He is the son of a hand model with whom Daniel had a fling years previously. With her recent death, the boy came to America to find Daniel. Initially, Daniel rejected him, but later came to believe that his story might be true - a DNA test revealed Alexis Meade to be DJ's biological father. In Betty Suarez Land, DJ discovers that Daniel is in fact his uncle, and goes back to France with his grandparents as Daniel thought it would be for the best.
• Renee Slater – Daniel and Renee dated for a while. Renee tried to burn down Daniel's apartment and kill Betty because she had a mental condition and thought that Betty was interested in Daniel. She was committed to a mental institution without hurting anyone.
• Molly – Daniel's wife and Connor's former fiancée. They became a couple after she broke up with Connor, but she had terminal cancer, which caused a rift in their relationship. Although they eventually married, their union was short-lived. Weeks after their wedding, Molly died from complications with the cancer.
• William McKinney – Daniel's former half-brother until they find out that the baby is really Christina McKinney's.

References

Betty La Fea reference

While his character is portrayed as a good guy with minor flaws, his first name is the same as the main villains in Yo soy Betty, la fea played by Luis Mesa. However, Daniel's character is actually equivalent to Armando Mendoza Sáenz, the boss of Beatriz Pinzón Solano (character on whom Betty Suarez was based).