Children: Leora Devane Hayward (deceased)
Father: Charles Hayward (deceased)
Mother: Vanessa Bennett Cortlandt (deceased)
Siblings: Leo du Pres (half-brother; deceased), Trey Kenyon (half-brother)
Aunt: Gwyneth Stone
Cousin: Mary Frances "Frankie" Stone (deceased), Mary Margaret "Maggie" Stone
Significant Romantic Relationships: Allie Doyle, Erica Kane, Dixie Martin, Anna Devane (divorced)

World-renowned cardiologist, Dr. David Hayward came to town in 1997 to reclaim his ex-lover Dr. Allison Doyle. Allie was dating and fell in love with Dr. Jake Martin. When Allie rejected him, David tried to get Jake out of the way. He framed Jake at the hospital by giving stroke patient Adam Chandler the wrong medication. David arrived "just in time" to play hero, which provided him with enough ammunition to get Jake suspended.

Jake and Allie knew it was David's fault…they just had to find a way to prove it. In order to save Jake's career, Allie joined forces with local TV station owner Liza Colby (Adam's estranged wife and Jake's former girlfriend) as well as Stuart Chandler (Adam's twin). They set David up to believe that he could get Allie back if he helped Liza kill Adam, so that she would be free to be with "true love" Jake, again. The plan was set: David had to inject Adam with the same lethal medication he'd used before. Liza set up a hidden camera to record the event, hoping to capture evidence that could save Jake. Stuart posed as Adam, and Jake substituted saline solution for the deadly drug. David, at the last minute, refused to kill Adam, but he did confess to setting Jake up. The crew informed David they had his confession on tape and then proceeded to blackmail him into telling the truth. At the next hospital board meeting, David claimed he administered the wrong meds by mistake, due to exhaustion. Joe Martin (Jake's father and Chief of Staff) insisted David resign. David agreed and left town for several months.

David returned in July 1998 and saved Liza's life with an injection directly into her heart. David soon made it clear that he had come back to Pine Valley to win Liza's heart. As part of his plan, he began working at Liza's TV station as a medical advisor. During this time, David started to comfort Gillian Lavery, who was heartbroken over the belief that her husband Ryan didn't love her. David and Gillian started having an affair, which cost Gillian her husband (for the time being).

David also helped save the Dixie Martin who had a cardiovascular disease. As repayment, Palmer Cortlandt (who was Dixie's uncle) used his pull at the hospital to get David reinstated.

While working at the hospital, David became suspicious of Allie when she abruptly left town with the help of Adam. David began a quest that ultimately led to him learning Adam's secret, that Adam, with Allie's assistance, switched Jake's sperm with Adam's own to impregnate Liza without her knowledge. For a while David kept quiet, and Liza happily believed she was carrying Jake's child.

At this time, Ryan Lavery was charged with rape, and Gillian stood by her husband's side. However, in order for Ryan and Gillian to go on the run to escape the police, they needed money. Gillian turned to David for help and he offered her the money in exchange for sex. Gillian accepted David's offer and slept with him. David then gave the police Ryan's whereabouts, which led them to find him. A distraught Gillian held a gun on David, intending to kill him, but David was rescued, oddly enough, by rival Jake.

David's mother, Vanessa Bennett, arrived in Pine Valley and shortly after had a heart attack. David, who could have helped her, simply walked away. Luckily, Joe found Vanessa and saved her life. David soon learned that his social-climbing mother was broke and assumed that was her only reason for coming to town. David blamed Vanessa for his father's suicide, and nothing she could do would stop the hurt he felt when, as a boy, he saw his father's dead body.

Meanwhile, David intended to announce Adam's paternity secret at Stuart Chandler's wedding, but he didn't make it there in time. During a blizzard, David rushed back to Pine Valley from New York with Erica Kane. David crashed into the back of a truck carrying pipe and wire lathing, which pierced Erica's chest and nicked her heart. David performed emergency surgery on Erica, and saved her life. However, Erica's face was also severely damaged by the wire lathing.

Vanessa, who had ingratiated herself into Erica's home before the accident, lashed out at David claiming he was responsible for Erica's accident. Vanessa told Erica that she was horribly disfigured (everyone had tiptoed around the issue to that point). Erica blamed David for the car crash, vowing never to forgive him for ruining her face.

David told Adam he had proof of Adam's switcheroo with the sperm samples. David entrusted attorney Leslie Coulson with the documents proving Adam's misdeeds. Unfortunately, Leslie's office was broken into soon after. David delivered Liza's breeched baby with the help of Adam and remained silent about the awful truth.

Erica removed her bandages and was disgusted at the sight or her new face. Seeking revenge, Erica knocked David out, and chained him in her basement vowing to do to him what he did to her - take away his identity. When David awoke, his hand was tied to a vice, and fearful he would never be able to practice medicine again, begged Erica for forgiveness. Erica finally released David when he bared his soul and told the story about his father's death. David then stood by Erica, and reminded her that she was still as beautiful then as before. Eventually, Erica was able to have plastic surgery and regain her beautiful countenance. David and Erica began sleeping together, but Erica admitted she didn't love David. David was convinced he didn't know what love was anyway.

Edmund Grey enlisted David to help him unearth what really happened to his deceased brother, Dimitri Marick. Edmund suspected that Dimitri's new wife, neurologist Alexandra Marick, was responsible for Dimitri's death. Years earlier, in medical school, David dated a friend of Alex's who committed suicide. Alex blamed David for her friend's suicide and refused to let David anywhere near her or her work. Dimitri's will allowed for there to be a new medical foundation (the Andrassy Foundation), based on groundbreaking research. Alex and David vied for the position of the head of this foundation, and both became co-directors. At the same time, Erica and David moved their sexual relationship to the next level…a real relationship.

Vanessa revealed that she had another child, Leo du Pres. Leo loved Vanessa and had been around the world accompanying her for most of his life. David's hatred for Vanessa caused tension between the two brothers.

David helped prove that Vanessa was guilty of murdering a gigolo, Paolo, who had crossed paths with Erica, Leo and David. Vanessa was prepared to let her son Leo take the fall for it, which caused a rift in Leo's relationship with his family. David had finally proven that Vanessa was the viper of a mother that he always knew she was, which shocked Leo. David and Erica seemed to be steadily moving along in their relationship, after he had saved her from Vanessa's latest debacle.

Soon after, David started comforting Dixie Martin, who was going through a difficult period with her husband, Tad. David offered Dixie a job at the Andrassy Foundation and she happily accepted. David and Dixie began secretly treating Dimitri Marick (who had never really died). Once Erica found out, she left David. The truth about Dimitri's existence provided problems in Dixie's marriage as well. While she was keeping Dimitri's secret, David and Dixie were often lying to those closest to them. A part of Dixie felt as though she was betraying Tad, but she couldn't resist David. Dixie and David continued their flirtation and even shared a kiss.

Now in love with and desperate to get Dixie, David drugged an entire party with the libido inducing drug, Libidizone, which he secretly developed. With a dose of Libidizone, David hoped Tad would have a one night stand with Leslie Coulson, causing Dixie to leave her husband. At the party, Dixie saw Tad with Leslie, and was devastated. Dixie sought comfort with David, alienating Tad further. Leslie began obsessively pursuing Tad, and tried to get Dixie out of the way to do so. This only strengthened the bond between Dixie and David.

David was eventually fingered as the party responsible for drugging the yacht party with Libidozone. Dixie, who cared for David questioned him. David admitted that he did it all for her, and eventually even confessed to a judge to try and prove his worth to Dixie. David received a reprieve from his impending sentence to save Laura Kirk English's life.

While David was treating Laura, JR Chandler stole drugs from David's medical bag. David used this information to blackmail Adam (once again) and forced him to bribe a judge to get David off. Adam successfully had David cleared of all charges. David began working at the hospital once again and had Joe removed as Chief-of-Staff, causing even more bad blood between him and the Martin family.

David started clashing with ex-spy Anna Devane. At the time, Anna was investigating a drug ring in Pine Valley, and suspected David to be the mysterious drug lord, Proteus. Anna used her sexual appeal to lure David into trusting her. The two began falling for each other, but suspicion was their best form of foreplay. At the time, David was developing a new drug, but it was a drug that would help save lives (including Dixie's). Anna pieced David's actions together and realized that he wasn't Proteus. Although, David loved Anna, he was still attached to helping Dixie. David flew down to the Caribbean to rescue and treat Dixie for her heart condition by using his experimental drug. Anna began to get jealous of David's constant attention to Dixie and believed he had lingering feelings for her. Meanwhile, David flew Dixie to Switzerland without Tad's knowledge, to help Dixie with her heart condition, which had been complicated by her pregnancy. Their animosity exploded when Dixie and her unborn baby died in Switzerland.

Vanessa was in fact the drug lord Proteus and killed her niece Frankie when the latter discovered her secret. Maggie Stone, Frankie's identical twin, came to town after hearing of her sister's death and was kidnapped by Vanessa. Soon after, David was framed and arrested for being Proteus. Anna married David so that she could protect him on the witness stand, if she was called to testify. Eventually David was released, Maggie was rescued (by David and Leo), and Vanessa was captured.

David started to receive mysterious phone calls from an unknown party, which Anna began investigating. The person David was speaking with was another woman from his past…Maria Santos Grey. Apparently, Maria Grey, who was presumed dead after a plane crash years ago, was one of David's first patients whom he tried an experimental drug on. He saved Maria's life after the crash, but, due to the drug, she lost her memory. Maria had been living a separate life since then under the name Maureen Gorman, an identity David had created. He had relocated Maria to Reno, NV where he warned her that she needed to stay in hiding. He concocted a story that, years earlier, she had accidentally killed someone and David was protecting her. In reality, David was only protecting himself for getting in trouble for using an untested and unapproved drug. When Maria returned to Pine Valley (still not knowing who she really was), David tried desperately to get her to leave, afraid his illegal drug testing would be discovered. Maria was eventually found and Edmund Grey was livid that his wife was kept from him by David. Anna, disgusted with David's secretive behavior, divorced him. However, she soon learned she was pregnant with his child and the two eventually reconciled. David was also crushed when Leo was presumed dead after a struggle with their mother Vanessa.

David was brought to court, again, for his crimes against Maria and was sentenced to community service at a local clinic. Anna had an ultrasound to make sure her baby was okay, she found out that their child may have a heart disease. Anna had to go to Switzerland to see a specialist, but David (still serving his sentence) could not accompany her.

Upon returning, Anna told David she needed surgery for the baby, and wanted David to be there for it. The doctor collapsed, and David was forced to operate his own child in utero. Soon after, Anna experienced pain and had to have an emergency c-section. The baby, whom they named Leora, survived, but had a weakened heart. David became extremely overprotective of Leora (even with Anna), and refused to listen to reason about getting Leora a pacemaker. This caused a rift between David and Anna, who wanted her child to receive the help she needed.

Anna eventually went against David's wishes and gave the consent to have Leora's surgery. During the surgery, David walked in and had to physically be escorted out of the operating room. Leora died shortly after the surgery and David blamed the Martins as well as Anna for her death. David completely shut down, and shut Anna out of his life, while he mourned for his little girl. Anna and David's failure to come together over the death of their daughter was almost the end of their relationship. Grief-stricken, David developed a mysterious formula that he planned to spike the Martin family's lemonade with at the 4th of July picnic. However, Anna got wind of this and managed to talk him out of it. The two attempted a reconciliation of sorts, but Leora's death resulted in an unspoken distance between the two.

David soon realized Michael Cambias raped Bianca Montgomery. Immediately, David became a confidante to Bianca as well as her mother Erica's shoulder to lean on. David performed medical tests on Bianca and admitted to Anna he would lie on the stand in order to put Michael away. After having all charges of rape dropped, Michael mysteriously disappeared. His dead body later surfaced. As police chief, Anna realized that she might have to investigate people she cared deeply about-David amongst others-in the disappearance of a man she didn't feel deserved to live. Emotionally drained and needing a break, Anna resigned and left town.

Suspicious of David, Aidan broke into David's cabin and found a .38, the type of gun used to kill Michael Cambias. Combined with traces of a laboratory engineered drug found in Michael's decanter, David was called in for questioning by the police. Erica shocked everyone when she provided David with an alibi for the night Michael disappeared by claiming that she and David were making love! David went along with the story, and he and Erica began a charade of being in love in order to have their alibi hold water.

David was scheduled to perform the procedure that terminated Bianca's pregnancy by Michael. At the last minute, Bianca decided to keep her child and swore David to secrecy, as she feared Erica's reaction upon finding out the truth. David agreed to keep Bianca's secret. Kendall, Bianca's sister, soon claimed she was pregnant in an effort to defend her sister's secret. David assisted Kendall and Bianca in medically proving that Kendall was pregnant with Michael's baby. All the while, David kept the truth from Erica.

When Kendall was placed on trial for Michael's murder, David took the stand in an effort to create reasonable doubt. He revealed that he was at Michael's condo the night Michael was killed, and had placed a type of chemical in Michael's scotch that would cause Michael to lose the ability to sexually function. This story was backed up by the chemical traces in Michael's scotch that Aidan had discovered. Bianca soon realized that she was the killer (she had blocked the incident out) and David was cleared of all suspicion.

David was devastated when he heard that Bianca's daughter Miranda had died in a chopper crash shortly after birth. What David and most of Pine Valley didn't realize was that Miranda was still alive. The crash had been staged by chopper pilot Paul Cramer, who took Bianca's daughter and told an unsuspecting Babe Chandler (who gave birth the same night and was on the same chopper) that the girl was her daughter, Bess. Paul took Babe's son and gave him to his sister, Kelly Cramer (of One Life To Live).

David was furious at the injustice of Bianca losing her child. At Bess's christening, Kendall questioned whether Bess was really Miranda. Tad, who had earlier had the same suspicion, revealed that he had already done DNA tests to prove that Bess was JR and Babe's. Unknown to Tad, those results were false-they had been switched by Babe's mother Krystal Carey. David, not trusting Tad's authority, decided to run his own DNA test and was shocked to see that Bess was Miranda. Angry, David confronted Babe and Krystal and planned to turn them into the police. To buy time, Krystal blurted that David couldn't call the police, because Babe was his daughter! Krystal explained that she and David had a one night stand years earlier, which David didn't remember because he was too drunk. David laughed off Krystal's lie, but agreed to not say anything until a DNA test proved that he and Babe were not father and daughter. David, along with Krystal and Babe, were flabbergasted when the results proved that Babe really was his daughter! David and Krystal both recalled that years earlier they DID have a drunken one-night stand which produced Babe.

David now found himself with a second chance to be a parent. He also cared deeply for Bianca, and wanted her to be reunited with her daughter, but to do so would mean incriminating his own child. While grappling with this decision, David had to save Babe's life from a drug overdose. He realized that her husband JR drugged her and was trying to eject her from his life. Babe refused to believe it, leaving David determined to protect his daughter from JR, while finding a way to get Miranda back to Bianca.

Babe managed to accept the truth about JR's hatred and was about to tell Bianca the truth when she accidentally encountered Kevin Buchanan (Kelly Cramer's ex-husband) and his son Ace. Babe felt a maternal connection to the boy and upon learning some basic information on him (particularly that his mother was Paul Cramer's sister), was convinced that Ace was her son. Babe told David, who conducted a covert DNA test. He confirmed Babe's suspicions-Ace was her child that Paul Cramer had stolen at birth.

David, Babe and Krystal faced a dilemma. To come forward with the truth about Ace would expose Babe's role in keeping Miranda. JR would surely use this to get custody of Ace and Babe would face prison time. David planned on rectifying the situation by forcing Paul to sign a statement which took all responsibility for the baby switch, then planned on killing him. David confronted Paul, who got away. Later, David came upon Jamie Martin standing over Paul's dead body.

A new complication arose when Babe and Jamie kidnapped Ace and went on the run. Tad soon learned the truth about Miranda and planned to tell Bianca, but David stopped him by revealing all about Ace. To tell Bianca the truth would start a domino effect that would put Jamie in prison for kidnapping and possibly Paul Cramer's murder.

David and Krystal traveled to Florida, where they suspected Babe was meeting with Bianca to tell her the truth. Babe revealed all to Bianca, then prepared to leave for a life on the run with Jamie and baby James (Babe had renamed him). Before they left, David was able to spend his first moment with his grandson.

David and Krystal have grown closer as they've tried to protect Babe and James. With Krystal broken up with Tad, David made his romantic intentions known.

David and Krystal were overjoyed when Bianca was reunited with Miranda. Erica, who learned of David and Krystal's pivotal role in keeping Bianca from her daughter, promptly had them arrested.