Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo

Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo are fictional characters and a supercouple from the American daytime drama Santa Barbara.

(Eden, having been away from Santa Barbara for some time, made a dramatic entrance by parachuting onto the grounds of the Capwell estate.)

Not only were their differing ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds a strong factor in their initial dislike, but Eden and Cruz were attracted to other characters on the show.

During this period, Cruz was pursuing his childhood friend, Santana Andrade, while Eden was showing interest in Lionel Lockridge.

The writers however hesitated for a long time to integrate in Santa Barbara a love-affair between this rich girl of the high society and a simple guy, raised in a poor Mexican family.However, Marcy Walker and A Martinez have been quoted as saying that they pushed the Eden and Cruz angle, as it was not part of the original writer's plans to pair the two.

By mid-1985, only a year after the debut of the show, Eden and Cruz were fan favorites and a great deal of the viewers were rooting for this couple.

As Cruz and Eden began dating during this period, their differing ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, became major hurdles in their relationship.

Cruz, who was a detective on the Santa Barbara Police Force at the time, re-opened the case when new evidence on other possible suspects appeared.

This caused a great deal of tension in the relationship since Cruz often found himself struggling between his duty as a police officer and his loyalty to Eden.

However, Eden and Cruz were able to reconcile their differences and together, they worked to get Sophia (who killed Channing by accident) a lenient jail sentence.

But I find astonishing that the public has such respect for a police officer in front of who the Inspector Clouseau of The Pink Panther would seem to be a genius.

Gina, the estranged current wife of C.C., devised an elaborate plan to unplug C.C's life-support and frame Eden for the crime.

Eden, who had been drugged by Gina on the day of the incident, could not be certain of her innocence and began distancing herself from Cruz, who was called to investigate.

After a couple of months, Eden was cleared of any suspicion of her father's attempt murder, but the damage to her relationship with Cruz had been done.

Soon afterwards though, Eden was presumed dead in Utah, but she is in fact held captive by Cain and the evil, long lost Capwell daughter, Elena.

A Martinez was also hailed for his performances as Cruz struggled to forgive himself for not protecting his beloved Eden, while also trying to catch the rapist.

The search leaves them to the oft-visited site of Paris, France (Eden is often said to be there when Marcy Walker is off screen) where the pair are finally reunited with their bundle of joy.

Finally back at home, another test lies on the horizon for our supercouple, as Robert Barr, played to perfection by Roscoe Born, has come to town and threatens to take over the Capwell family business.

It is when Marcy Walker leaves the show for primetime that the great love story of Cruz and Eden comes to an end.

Kim Zimmer, who joined Santa Barbara as Jodie Walker in 1992, found that fan reaction to the couple was so strong that her pairing with Cruz was dismissed.