Over the years, Diane develops from a rebellious teenager who runs away from home, to a free-spirited single mother having difficulty looking after her young son.

More recently, a more-mature Diane settled in France and, in a departure from a character previously depicted as heterosexual, she is stated to be in a long-term relationship with another woman.

[1] The arrival of the Butcher family in May 1988 signified an end of an era for the soap, as Den and Angie Watts (Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson) vacated their positions as landlord and landlady of The Queen Victoria public house, leaving Frank (Mike Reid), and his girlfriend Pat Wicks (Pam St. Clement) to take over tenancy.

"[3] "Sensitive and artistic", for a time Diane was portrayed as the least troublesome of the Butcher family, the one who conformed the most, though she began to rebel against her father's heavy-handed paternalism.

[1] In the on-screen events, Diane was shown to be increasingly unhappy towards the latter part of 1989, exacerbated by the sudden departure of her boyfriend Paul Priestly (Mark Thrippleton).

[1] When the storyline had originally been scripted in 1989, it was left open-ended, meaning that none of the writers or producers of EastEnders had decided whether Diane would ever be found.

However, towards the end of 1989, EastEnders acquired a new executive producer, Michael Ferguson, and according to scriptwriter Colin Brake, one of his first decisions was that "Diane must be found".

The episodes have been described as "extraordinary" and a "radical departure from the normal EastEnders form", because they used flashbacks to tell the story of Diane's three months living on the streets of London as a homeless girl.

"[1] In the flashbacks, it was revealed that Diane had lived rough on the streets and joined a gang of runaways, befriending a young girl named Disa O'Brien (Jan Graveson).

Diane also became involved with an artist named Matthew Taylor, who took nude photos of her and then constructed a life-size sculpture of her, which later turned up in Albert Square, enraging Frank.

The relationship was never consummated however, because in January 1991 Mark revealed to Diane that he was HIV positive—he was the first mainstream soap opera character to be diagnosed.

[1] Off-screen Sophie Lawrence had decided to quit the soap to take on new projects, which included an attempt at a music career.

In 1993, she was featured in a special week of episodes, filmed on-location in Paris, France, where Frank discovered, to his horror, that Diane was pregnant with an unknown foreign man's baby.

Shortly after, the character returned to the soap's setting of Walford, but Lawrence reportedly quit weeks after making her comeback.

"[7] In addition, Lawrence was suffering physically as she was still getting over injuries she sustained from a car accident and was forced to remove a neck brace for filming purposes.

Bosses at EastEnders had reportedly been keen for Lawrence to remain on the show, as they were hoping for an on-screen reunion of the Butcher family; Mike Reid had agreed to reprise his role as Frank, though Diane departed before his reintroduction.

Sophie Lawrence was asked to reprise the role by executive producer Diederick Santer as part of a storyline that has been dubbed "Frank Week".

[10] Mike Reid died in 2007 and due to the popularity of the character he played, Santer decided that Frank would also be killed off in the serial.

But as soon as we arrived, it was like 11 years of your life had been wiped out and you'd been there the day before [...] I had this really lovely scene with Sid [Owen] where I said: "Isn't it strange, you imagine you’d come back and everything would be here waiting for us just like it was."

Her mother June died in 1987, and when her father marries Pat Wicks (Pam St. Clement) and he becomes the landlord of the Queen Victoria public house, she lives with them there.

Diane takes the relationship more seriously than Paul, and she is devastated when he finishes with her to begin a fling with hairdresser Julie Cooper (Louise Plowright).

Scorned, Diane cannot forgive Julie for taking Paul, and she plays various vengeful tricks on her as payback, such as sabotaging her salon's opening day and sending her a male escort to make her look desperate.

Ignoring his reticence, Diane convinces herself that Paul is contemplating proposing marriage to her, so she is broken-hearted when he returns to his hometown in Leeds in December 1989; he leaves without saying goodbye.

Feeling misunderstood and unloved after believing that her family have forgotten her 16th birthday, Diane runs away from home in January 1990 and joins the down-and-outs on the streets of London.

Disa turns to prostitution for extra money, and Diane poses naked for photographs for a man named Matthew Taylor (Neil Phillips) who makes a sculpture of her.

She eventually returns to Albert Square in March 1990, after her father has been searching for months, but she struggles to adjust to life back in Walford.

Diane develops a friendship with Mark Fowler (Todd Carty) when he returns to his family home in 1990, and enlists his help to find Disa, who is heavily pregnant and living in "Cardboard City".

Diane is in a tempestuous relationship with a Cameroonian musician named Thomas (Robbie Gee), and when this abruptly ends, she and son Jacques turn up in Walford, looking for a place to stay.

Diane returns on 31 March 2008 with Ricky, where they convey the news of Frank's death to his former wives Pat and Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor).

In reference to Diane's return to the soap in 2008 for Frank's funeral, Paul English from the Daily Record accused EastEnders of using actor Mike Reid's real death as "an opportunity to reintroduce some popular old faces.