By the time she became a street resident and a more regular character, her husband was named "Bert" (Peter Dudley) and they had an adult son, Brian (Christopher Quinten).

Storylines have included her quarrel with Brian's wife Gail (Helen Worth), losing her husband and son; and forming a relationship with fellow resident Don Brennan (Geoffrey Hinsliff).

Ivy suffers her first personal tragedy in 1984 when her husband Bert (Peter Dudley) dies of a heart attack in a psychiatric hospital following a nervous breakdown.

After a short-lived romance with factory warehouseman George Wardle (Ron Davies), whom she dumped when she learned he was divorced, Ivy met widower Don Brennan (Geoffrey Hinsliff) one night when he drove her home in his taxi.

Though Martin and Gail are comfortable as atheists, Ivy becomes obsessed with ensuring Nicky is raised within the Catholic faith he was christened into, believing it was what Brian would have wanted.

At the intervention of Don and her best friend Vera Duckworth (Liz Dawn), Ivy bitterly accepts Martin as Nicky and Sarah's adoptive father for the sake of maintaining contact with her grandchildren.

Don seeks solace through an affair with barmaid Julie Dewhurst (Su Elliot), revealing it to Ivy before he leaves her, saying she has transformed for the worst from the woman he initially married.

Heartbroken Ivy seeks solace through alcoholism, leading to many embarrassing incidents, including Nicky witnessing her arguing with nanny Carmel Finnan (Catherine Cusack).

In 1994, after accepting that the marriage is beyond repair, Ivy decides to go on a Catholic long-term retreat in a convent, where she dies in her sleep from a heart attack in August 1995.

In 2004 after her grandson's death, Gail mentions to Todd, who recently broke up with Sarah after confessed that he was gay, how Ivy changed her life, despite their arguments and disagreements.

[7] The press speculated that her departure was a direct result of her plastic surgery, though Perrie denied this, insisting that she felt that her character had simply run its course.

Perrie stated in a 1994 interview on 'The Word' she was unhappy that they didn't kill her character off and that she would only return to the show on the condition that it would centre around her death as she wanted closure.