Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots Theory: Amanda Cryer is Celine’s Daughter

By Jeremy Carden

The hit OWN soap opera written by Tyler Perry “The Haves and the Have Nots” is full of plot twists and cliffhangers that leave fans wanting more every Tuesday night. Something that makes this show so addicting is the seemingly endless amount of surprises that occur during each episode. Fans like myself pay close attention to certain little Easter eggs or clues within an episode that may foreshadow certain events that might occur in future shows.

Personally, I have many theories about this amazing show that I’d love to discuss. The main focus of this blog will be on a theory put together by my mother and myself. The two of us watch each episode on Tuesday night very carefully and I tweet away with the cast of the show and other fans on Twitter. It is a great time because we really hash out everything between commercial breaks about little clues and dialogue that might hint to other things later on in the season.

We believe there is a possibly that Amanda Cryer is the daughter of Celine Gonzales NOT Katheryn Cryer!

Of course I wouldn’t make such a far-fetched theory without having at least some form of evidence to back up my claims.

My mom first noticed this possibility in Season 2, it all started for us when we noticed that Celine was given not only a paycheck for working at the Cryer Mansion as a maid. Jim also gives her an unknown amount of money each month.

We know that Jim and Celine had some form of courtship at some point prior to when the series began. Katheryn has listed Candace as “#9” in Jim’s long list of mistresses. In Season 2, she calls out Celine as “#4” and we also learn that Katheryn only keeps her around just so Jim can have a constant reminder of his cheating ways walking around the house.

Something else that is interesting was the confrontation the two have in the episode “Family Issues.” It turns out that despite Katheryn threatening to fire Celine, she knows better because Celine knows too much information about the Cryer Family and that she could damage the family’s reputation with everything she knows.

Now we know the affair that Jim had with her was something that he pretty much wrote off as something to comfort him when he was having trouble with his marriage. Celine mentioned that they’d have long talks about how awful Katheryn was and that was what lead to their eventual fling. Despite saying that he loved her, Jim claims that he only said that to well have sex with Celine…

Alright so we have established that Celine and Jim HAD an affair behind Katheryn’s back (but it turns out she knew about it) and it was the fourth one he had (hence why Katheryn calls Celine #4).

So, with that being said it is time to really look at both Amanda and Celine to see how this theory holds up!

Just looking at them in the picture above you can see some similarities. Pay attention to things like skin tone, facial structure/appearance and the hair. Don’t they look somewhat similar?

Now something else I want to mention is that the Haves seem to mirror the Have Nots in more ways than one. The major difference between the Young and Cryer families is their morals. Despite not having a lot of money, the Young family has a lot of soul. The Cryer family on the other hand seems to have the mentality of “get what you want at all costs” (Though Candace Young seems to live by this policy as well).

I’ve always felt that whatever happens in the Cryer family happens to the Young Family and vice versa at some point in the series or even at the same time.

Let me break it down;

As I said, Amanda and Celine look very similar and now let’s compare this to Tony and Benny in the series. When I first saw Tony in Season 1, I just knew he was related to Benny in some way. Honesty, I thought that he was Benny’s dad in real life outside of the show. We later learn that he is indeed the biological father of Benny Young!

We know that Benny and Candace are Hanna’s children but have different birth fathers.

Now let’s “mirror” that to the Cryer family according to my theory, Jim is the father of Wyatt and Amanda. However, they have different birth mothers between Katheryn and Celine.

It seems that Wyatt is the child who causes trouble for the Cryers like Candace does for the Young family.

Both Amanda and Benny are kind individuals but can be a bit naïve in certain situations. They each see the good side of Candace, but many fans argue that she is just using them to her ends. Honestly, I feel that she is sincerely a good sister (at least in Benny’s eyes) and does care for her brother. It can be argued as to whether or not she is really Amanda’s friend or she is just using her to get her hands on her $12 million inheritance (I’ll get into that later in the blog).

One of the key elements that Celine and Amanda share is a case of paranoia. This is first seen in Celine when she randomly gets overly protective of Jim. It all starts when she notices Hanna and Katheryn getting very friendly with each other. From her perspective it was both unfair and confusing because after all her years working for the family, Katheryn had never treated her in such a kind manner.

However, it all boils down to her knowing Jim had an affair with her which explains a few things about how she treats Celine. I recall one of the earlier episodes when Celine tells Hanna to use the back staircase because Katheryn doesn’t like seeing the help. Then later on she tells Hanna that Katheryn never asked her to stay beyond her work hours after she notices Hanna staying later than she did. Of course it all again points back to Katheryn knowing about their affair.

As the episodes go on, we see Celine’s personality drastically changing. She went from being Hanna’s good friend to her most bitter enemy. It seemed that as the episodes went on she became more and more paranoid over Hanna having a thing for Jim. At one point she even claimed that Hanna and Katheryn had something going on!

One of the funniest lines from Season 1 was when she told Hanna that Jim did not have a thing for black women. That just made me laugh so hard considering since Episode 1, Jim had been sleeping around with Candace who is a beautiful black woman (shout out to Tika Sumpter)!

She even gets into a physical confrontation with Hanna in Season 2 after lying about giving her messages to Katheryn. This just goes deeper into showing that this woman has a lot of hidden aggression and is very territorial. Something else to keep in mind is that Celine knows how to hold a grudge!

Let’s look at Amanda now and how her personality is similar to Celine’s. Now in the case of Wyatt’s substance abuse along with Amanda’s past of self-harm through cutting and suicide attempts, it all seems to stem back to the summer camp they attended when they were younger. When Amanda is in the hospital after a pill overdose in response to her getting raped by the professor and her pregnancy test being positive, Wyatt reveals to Jeffery that they experienced sexual abuse by one of the priests.

That was one reason why Wyatt did not really involve himself with religion after that summer and it is safe to assume the same is true for his sister. Another thing to point out is that Jim said Katheryn’s father was a raging drunk.

Aside from doing drugs, Wyatt was seen to have something of a drinking problem himself. This was noticeable in the first episode of the series and one of the reasons he was placed in rehab. Just noticing that little bit of information is enough for me to assume that he is indeed the biological son of Katheryn and Jim rather than Celine and Jim since Katheryn’s father was a drunk as well.

In the first episode when Candace tells Amanda to try on some dresses that expose more of her curves and skin, Amanda says that she’d rather try them on in private. Candace is confused by this but Amanda simply says it is because she would just rather put them on in private. This struck my mother and I as strange but later on we learn that she cuts herself and we put two and two together. It stands to reason that she was self-conscious about trying her dresses on in front of Candace because of possible scars she has from previous cuts she had done to herself.

Either that or it could be possibly linked to the experience she had with the priest at the camp. It could be because she had to undress in front of him and ever since then she’d rather not undress in front of anyone even if it is just a fellow girl who is a friend. With that in mind, I think it really has to do with her possibly having scars from past suicide attempts and cutting herself.

Similar to Celine, we see Amanda as a kind person who is friendly and the apple of her father’s eye. Kind of funny how she is the apple of Jim’s eye while he is the apple of Celine’s eye…

We then see that Amanda is not really confident in her own abilities and is quick to quit something whenever things get tough. Not to mention when she feels ignored she is quick to use her self-harm tactics as a warning. She tells this to her father when he brushes off her attempts to quit law school for fashion design.

Notice that when Celine feels neglected or ignored (by Jim), this causes her to push harder than before to get what she wants. When Amanda feels ignored she will cause harm to herself.

After being raped by her law professor and her pregnancy test being positive (though Candace says that she is not pregnant), she took a large quantity of pills in order to die from an overdose as I mentioned before. She is very fragile as Katheryn describes and also highly naïve not being able to see things that are clearly right in front of her.

A few episodes later it is revealed that Amanda has some very deep-seated emotional/psychological problems that she must take medication for. Resulting from this problem, her temperament can become touchy, mercurial and even nutty.

Currently, she has recently been stalking her former law professor who raped her!

In the Season 2 finale, she even stabs him in broad daylight!

Compare this to Celine who is convinced that Jim still loves her. Just as Amanda pops up in her professor’s home or in public, Celine would do the same to Jim whenever he was in the house. Of course their motives were very different because Celine would come to Jim in an attempt to rekindle their “flame” while Amanda would appear out of vengeance.

Both of them can be classified as “nutty” when you really think about it. The paranoia Celine felt when she thought Hanna was attracted to Jim is similar to Amanda’s paranoia and defensiveness whenever Jeffery says she needs “help.”

Not to get off topic, but in regards to Amanda’s medication I feel that Candace is the cause of her not being mentally stable from Season 2 to the present. Alright let’s look at it this way, Candace found the will stating the inheritance for Wyatt and Amanda. She is entitled to $12 million but has not been receiving one penny of it despite being able to have access to it when she was 18 (or 21 I forgot the exact age that was stated in the will).

Remember how at the end of Season 1, Jim was willing to pay whatever it took for Candace to have an abortion and for her to leave Amanda alone. Candace refused this and instead wanted a large amount of money for child support. Of course, we know the main reason she was acting so calm and brushing off Jim’s offer was because she knew the BIG money came in the form of Amanda’s inheritance.

It appears that she had been taking her medication prior to when she moved into Candace’s apartment, got raped and the beginning of Season 2 started. When he noticed her strange behavior, Jeffery asked if she was still taking her medication. Out of anger, she stated that not only was she still taking her medication but she had gotten a new bottle of pills. She even goes as far to tell Jeffery to count to pills in order to prove she had been taking them.

Based on her previous tactics in order to gain what she wants, it would not surprise me if Candace somehow swapped Amanda’s pills! Think of it this way, considering she was Amanda’s roommate and it was her apartment she was technically Amanda’s “legal guardian.” Now by messing with her medication, Amanda would slowly grow emotionally and mentally unstable. It would be somewhat convenient for Candace that this would happen around the same time the lawsuit against Amanda’s parents was filed.

Let’s say that Amanda wins the case and gets her hands on the $12 million she is entitled to. Based on that fact that she would be deemed mentally unstable, it stands to reason that the person to handle the money in her place until she was able to would be her “legal guardian.” In that case it would be Candace and she will get exactly what she wants from Amanda!

Whether or not you agree with this theory about Candace using Amanda as a pawn is up to personal opinion. You could possibly argue that after her suicide attempt by taking too many pills, Amanda would refuse to take any pills even if it was her proper medication. However, I do not think that is the case especially after she told Jeffery that he could count her pills to confirm that she HAD been taking her pills after getting a fresh bottle from her doctor. I think Candace somehow swapped her pills and despite Amanda taking them on the regular they were not doing what her REAL pills were supposed to do which explains her crazy behavior.

It is possible that the emotional troubles Amanda has were passed on from Celine, kind of like how Wyatt possibly got his alcohol problem from his grandfather.

Overall, the reasoning behind the theory of Amanda being the daughter of Celine is based on how similar they look, their personality traits and the “hush money” that Celine receives from Jim. We don’t know how much she receives or even what this extra money is for. My mom suggests that it is pretty much child support for a nameless child she had with Jim (Amanda…).

Now you might be wondering since Amanda is really the daughter of Jim and Celine instead of Jim and Katheryn why in the world would she be treated as Katerhyn’s daughter. It all points back to how much Katheryn values the reputation of her family name. Can you imagine how damaging it would be to the Cryer/Hardgrave name if the “respectable” Judge Jim Cryer had an outside baby…with his maid?!?!

You would think it was the Arnold Schwarzenegger scandal all over again in a Tyler Perry show!

Not to mention the similarities of Schwarzenegger being Governor of California while Jim is running for Governor of Georgia! Funny how this show seems to mirror real life sometimes, great writing Tyler Perry!

How do you feel about this theory? Will Amanda be revealed to be the daughter of Celine? There are so many unanswered questions that I’m sure Mr. Perry will reveal to us in due time. Until that moment, let’s just kick back and watch the future episodes of The Haves and the Have Nots! Also keep your eyes peeled because as I mentioned before I have a few other theories about the show that I will eventually make blogs for.

Like what you read? Then be sure to follow me on Twitter (@jccarden) because on Tuesday nights at 9 PM I’m on there tweeting during each new episode of the #HAHN! Also follow my blog so you can enjoy my new articles when they are posted.