Gillian Andrassy arrived in Pine Valley in 1997 and went to live at Wildwind with her cousin Dimitri Marick.  Although purportedly of royal lineage, Princess Andrassy had no money of  her own, and set her sights on Scott Chandler and his trust fund. Scott was willing to marry Gillian to keep prevent her being deported, but before that could occur Ryan Lavery arrived in town.

Gillian and Ryan were each persuaded that the other had a fortune, and they quickly married. A false accusation of rape for Ryan and a brief affair with Dr. David Hayward for Gillian doomed the marriage to failure, despite the fact that each was developing genuine love for the other, and they divorced. Gillian and Ryan took turns pursuing one another until Gillian married Jake Martin in an attempt to help him gain custody of his daughter. When Jake's paternity was disproved he left Pine Valley for Chechnya and left his new wife behind. Gillian still wanted very much to reconcile with Ryan, and enlisted his help whenever possible to draw him to her. 

The two decided that they were, in fact, each others' true love, and after meeting secretly in the turret room at Wildwind for some time, they decided to follow Jake to Chechnya to tell him the truth.  Jake's helicopter was lost, though, and Ryan decided that the only way to put his life on course was to rescue him.  Gillian stowed away on the plane, and she, along with Ryan and Adrian, went to Chechnya to locate and rescue  Jake.  They were successful, but Jake was injured in the process and when they finally returned to Pine Valley she found herself unable to tell him the truth about her love for Ryan.  She remains torn between her injured hero husband and her heart's desire.