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]
