The evil Joyce Hollingsworth
Joyce Hollingsworth (Sonja Smits) is the main villainess from the 2021 Lifetime film, A Mother's Lie (alternately titled, Hidden Family Secrets; airdate May 23, 2021).
Backstory[]
Joyce Hollingsworth is the owner of Hollingsworth Cosmetics and the mother of Katherine Hollingsworth. The family's backstory revealed that Katherine became pregnant at age 17 by her boyfriend Chuck Robertson, though the baby was stillborn. In actuality, Katherine's baby--a girl--was born healthy and alive, but Joyce secretly placed her granddaughter up for adoption due to her belief that having a baby as a teenager would ruin Katherine's future. As part of Joyce's deception, she informed her daughter that the doctor in charge, Dr. Baker, "did what she could" but couldn't save the baby.
Afterwards, Joyce manipulated Katherine into keeping the entire ordeal a secret from Chuck. Katherine also developed bitterness towards Dr. Baker due to her mother's deception ever since.
Events[]
In the 20 years that passed, Katherine married Chuck and gave birth to their second daughter, Haley, while now working at Hollingsworth Cosmetics. However, the film opened with the reveal that Haley was diagnosed with leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. With none of their relatives being a match, Katherine and Chuck created the Helping Haley Foundation to find a donor for her. At a gala for the foundation, Dr. Baker, who knew Katherine's first daughter had been put up for adoption, asked Joyce why Katherine wasn't looking for the child she gave up, who could be their best chance at saving Haley. Joyce warned Dr. Baker to stay out of her family's affairs by threatening to pull her funding from the doctor's research.
Eventually though, Joyce secretly enlisted her henchman, Louis, to search for her other granddaughter, who had since been adopted. The girl, now a college student named Libby, worked part-time as a barista and she was approached by Joyce at her coffee shop. The scheming matriarch posed as a teacher looking for a bone marrow donation for her student, asking to put up flyers for the Helping Haley Foundation's testing drive tomorrow at the shop and suggesting Libby come. Libby agreed to get tested since the donor would be generously compensated, hoping to use the money to pay her tuition.
During these events, Katherine's grief and trauma from her supposed stillbirth resurfaced as Haley's condition worsened, and eventually prompted her to come clean about her first pregnancy to Chuck despite her mother's protests. Joyce continued to dismiss Chuck as unreliable and unsupportive despite him standing by Katherine throughout Haley's leukemia.
After finding Libby was a match, Joyce had Louis and a lawyer give her a contract to sign as Haley's donor which stipulated complete anonymity. Libby arrived at the hospital with her boyfriend, Will, to undergo the surgery while Joyce ensured she and her family kept out of Libby's sight. Meanwhile, Chuck angrily told Joyce off for making his wife lie to him for so long while Katherine grew distant from her mother due to her controlling behavior and interference with their lives.
Katherine also had a confrontation with Dr. Baker in which she lashed out at the doctor for being part of the worst day in her life without offering any kind of support or even telling her about the tragedy in person: the death of her daughter. This shocked Dr. Baker, who was already suspicious when Dr. Green mentioned Haley's incoming donor looked like an older version of her. She confronted Joyce at home over her lies about Libby's fate and demanded that they reveal the truth to Katherine. Joyce appeared to agree with Dr. Baker, only to then grab a fireplace poker and bludgeon her to death, and later called Louis to help her cover up the murder. All the while, Libby was told by Amber, a nurse, that Dr. Baker was helping her sister.
Later after Haley's successful bone marrow transplant, Amber referred to Libby as Katherine's daughter due to their resemblance to each other, leading to a paranoid Joyce scolding Amber for making assumptions and violating the donor confidentiality agreement. Amber ran off in embarrassment, but was found by Joyce, who comforted Amber before shoving her down the stairs, continuing her villainous quest to cover up the truth.
Climax and Arrest[]
As part of the contract, Joyce arranged for Libby and Will to stay at the Hollingsworth lakehouse for Libby's recovery period under the watch of the housekeeper, Nora, solely so the villainess could keep tabs on her illegitimate granddaughter. All the while, both Katherine and Libby began to come closer to the truth; Katherine discovered that Haley's donor didn't come through the foundation but was privately arranged, contrary to what her mother said, and Dr. Baker was going to send her files revealing her daughter was alive all along, while Libby began to realize that Katherine is her birth mother after stumbling upon some old family photos in the lakehouse. After Joyce--with the help of her cameras--witnessed Libby and Will's search, she ordered Nora to let Will leave but keep Libby inside, though Will was bent on taking Libby out of the house with him.
Afterwards, the evil Joyce came to the lakehouse and knocked out Will before speaking to Libby--a conversation that saw Libby confirm she is indeed Katherine's daughter. In response to Libby's questions about her adoption, Joyce defended that an illegitimate baby at 17 would've ruined Katherine's future, remorselessly admitting to lying to her daughter that Libby had died. In addition, the villainess informed Libby that she had to make sure that Katherine never sees her, after which Libby suddenly passed out, revealing that Joyce had drugged Libby's tea.
It was at this point that Katherine arrived and demanded to know where Libby was, before walking past her villainous mother and seeing Libby knocked out on the floor. Just then, Joyce knocked out her daughter too before dragging Libby into the very room where she was born. Katherine emerged and confronted her mother inside the room, where Joyce was set on killing Libby to hide the truth forever. In response to Katherine's pleas, Joyce accused her daughter of being "ungrateful". The evil matriarch insisted to Katherine that her reputation could be ruined with Libby's emergence, but Katherine prevented Joyce from killing Libby with the syringe. Joyce attacked Katherine once again and voiced her desire to "save her family," only for Libby to hold Joyce at bay while Katherine injected the syringe into her diabolical mother.
In the end as Chuck revealed to Katherine, Joyce was taken into custody and arrested for her various crimes, including (but not limited to) the murders of Dr. Baker and Amber. Louis and Nora were presumably arrested as well.
Two months later, however, as the family was celebrating Haley's birthday, the final scenes revealed that Joyce somehow sent her granddaughter a gift and card through the mail, saying she would see Haley soon. Though Katherine in particular was concerned, she crumpled up her mother's card.
Trivia[]
- Sonja Smits also played tragic villainess Nina Russell on The Hitchhiker.
Gallery[]
