[1] In 1990, federal agent Alex Olanov comes to Llanview, Pennsylvania to help Bo Buchanan find his missing wife Sarah Gordon, presumably kidnapped by mob boss Carlo Hesser.

Alex then pursues billionaire Asa Buchanan, who at first resists but ultimately marries her in a November 1994 Egyptian-themed wedding in Central Park.

After donating bone marrow to Todd's baby daughter Starr Manning, Alex leaves town in July 1997 with a huge chunk of Asa's fortune and a very-much alive Carlo, who reveals that it was actually his twin brother Mortimer whom she killed.

In 2001, Asa brings Alex, who had been working as a stripper after Carlo dumped her yet again, back to town under the pretense of wanting to remarry her, but he marries Gabrielle Medina instead.

In April 2002, Alex, now in the process of divorcing Jeb, returns to Llanview yet again at the behest of Todd Manning, who bribes her into donating bone marrow to his and Blair's ailing infant son Jack, who had been diagnosed with aplastic anemia (the same disease Todd's daughter, Starr, suffered from in 1997 when Alex donated bone marrow to her).

Clint blackmails Alex into moving David from Morocco to St. Blaze's, but Bo and Rex catch wind of the plot and confront her at her island resort.

In November 2011, Alex resurfaces again in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, storming out of the office of plastic surgeon Dr. Fascinella complaining about a botched surgery on her face and encountered con artist Cutter Wentworth, who reveals himself to be the son she abandoned as a child, an act which caused Cutter's father William J.

"Billy Joe" Wentworth Jr. to commit suicide and he and his sister (and Alex's daughter) Kimberly Andrews to be placed in foster care.

Cutter covers Alex's face with a bunch of bandages to fool Rex and Aubrey to believe that she was Gigi after she got her plastic surgery.

Alex wishes Cutter and "Stacy" good luck before she leaves Rio to go back to her home in St. Blaze's Island.