Veronica Harrington

Veronica Harrington is a villainess appearing on the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) soap opera The Haves and the Have Nots.

A wealthy and powerful lawyer, Veronica is a friend of Katheryn Cryer, wife of Jim Cryer. She is the wife of David Harrington and mother of their son Jeffrey, whom she regularly antagonizes for being, in her view, less than manly and later for being gay.

She is played by Angela Robinson.

Season 1
In addition to being a lawyer, Veronica also runs a rehabilitation clinic where her son is employed as a counselor and assigned to monitor Wyatt Cryer, Jim's son who's enrolled in the clinic's program for alcoholism.

At some point in the season, Veronica visits Jeffrey at his apartment and questions him about whether or not he has a girlfriend before insisting to him that he's going to date a black woman, making it clear to him that she will not accept anything less, and implying to her son that both she and her husband will disown him if he doesn't comply with her wishes.

Veronica, at Katheryn's behest, later helps Benny Young, Hanna's son, out of a legal bind caused by her own husband's efforts to frame Candace Young in order to help Jim. She also meets with Quincy, Candace's former boyfriend, in the federal penitentiary and recruits him into her service so he can rein Candace in.

In the season finale "No More Hiding," Jeffrey finally comes out to Veronica and David at the latter's office. Veronica reacts to this news by delivering an extremely hateful and self-centered diatribe about how her son being gay affects her, voicing her belief that she's still being punished by God for having an abortion in college and all but wishes that Jeffrey were dead. This reduces Jeffrey to tears of anger and sadness, and he insists to his mother that he is a gay man and begs her to accept that; his protests, however, go unheeded as Veronica leaves David's office, leaving David to comfort their distraught son.

Season 2
Veronica follows up on her verbal abuse of Jeffrey in the second season finale by cutting him off financially and firing him from his job at her rehab clinic, leaving him to move in with Candace. She later obtains custody of Jeffrey's black Sedan, which Wyatt, high on drugs, drove and killed a young girl named Lizzie and also injured Benny. She then uses the Sedan to blackmail Jeffrey into dating women, threatening to have him arrested for Wyatt's crimes if he doesn't do what she wants.

David finds out about Veronica's blackmail of their son and moves out of their home, telling his wife he's not coming back until she changes her diabolical behavior. Veronica, however, seems firmly set in her ways, as she repeatedly refuses to divulge the location of Jeffrey's car to her husband, who in turns refuses to return home.

She later goes to reconcile with David at the Sarandon Hotel where he's staying, only to find him with Maggie Day, his and Jim's campaign manager; this leads Veronica to incorrectly suspect that her husband is cheating on her. She then catches Jeffrey and Landon, Maggie's assistant who happens to be Jeffrey's love interest, coming out of the latter's hotel room together. Veronica angrily insists that Jeffrey take a drive with her, during which she harshly expresses her disappointment in her son.

In the season finale "Checkmate," Veronica and David attend a party at the Cryer estate, and when she finds Quincy there as Amanda Cryer's date, she pretends not to know the thug and admonishes him when he nearly calls her husband "nigger." She and David then go outside and argue about what's best for their son, but Veronica remains unmoved. Moments later, after a scuffle between Jim and Quincy in the former's study, Veronica keeps mum about her involvement in Quincy's release from prison when Jim angrily wonders how Quincy got out in the first place. At the episode's end, Veronica refuses to answer David's phone call, unaware that he is strongly tempted to sleep with Maggie.

Season 3
In the season finale "Enough is Enough," Veronica asks to see Jeffrey. When Jeffrey comes to the house, he finds Veronica drinking alcohol. Veronica drunkenly mocks Jeffrey for wanting to be a woman and again insults him for being gay, and she reveals to him that she arranged for him to impregnate Melissa so he'd be forced to marry her. This revelation prompts Jeffrey to angrily denounce his mother and declare he's had enough of her threats before storming out of the house, leaving Veronica to wonder about her grandchild's name.

David later returns home and insists he's going to get Veronica psychiatric help the next morning; Veronica, however, believes David is planning to divorce her and tells him he won't see the next day. Later, she is called by Benny to help get him out of jail after his assault on Quincy. After paroling Benny, Veronica seduces him and initiates a sex act with him in her car. Sometime after that, Benny drops her off at her house and she tells him to keep her car. She then goes into her and David's bedroom, and pours gasoline around the bed while David is asleep, then ignites the gasoline.