[4] Cuddy attended the University of Michigan, where she first met Gregory House (Hugh Laurie),[4] and with whom she shared a one-night stand.

[9] In Season 3, Cuddy confesses to the hospital's Head of Oncology and House's best friend Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) that she has made a total of three attempts at impregnation, one of which was miscarried.

[10] When House's career is threatened by Detective Michael Tritter (David Morse), Cuddy falsifies documents and perjures herself in court to cover up his wrongdoing.

[15] Cuddy professes not to want a relationship with House but is touched when he has her old desk from medical school brought out of storage for her when her office is renovated.

[19] In the following episode, the Season 5 finale "Both Sides Now", this is revealed to have been a hallucination on House's part: in reality, he spent the evening alone and is suffering from psychiatric problems as a result of Vicodin and emotional trauma.

In the Season 6 finale "Help Me", House gives Cuddy an antique medical text written by her great-grandfather, which prompts her to confess that she and Lucas were engaged.

With the pain he is dealing with, Hanna's death, and what Cuddy said to him earlier, when House arrives home he rips the bathroom mirror off the wall to get his stash of Vicodin.

After several tests, Wilson finds a mass in Cuddy's kidney and schedules a biopsy to take place later in the episode.

Further "imaging shows enhancing masses across multiple lobes of Cuddy's lungs",[21] of which Foreman points out "That's what kidney cancer looks like when it metastasizes".

Cuddy realizes at the end of the episode that the only reason House was able to overcome his selfishness was because he had taken Vicodin before visiting her in the hospital.

Cuddy was created by executive producer Bryan Singer, who had enjoyed Lisa Edelstein's portrayal of a high-priced call girl putting herself through law school on The West Wing, and sent her a copy of the pilot script.

[22] The character has been described as "tough-as-nails" by Salon's Lily Burana, a woman who "clicks through the halls of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital in low-cut sweaters and pencil skirts, bringing incredible Jewy glamour to prime time".

"[25] TV Guide's Nina Hämmerling Smith calls Cuddy a foil for House, who "doesn't take [his] nonsense and knows how to keep him in check — more or less.

[27] Kelley had worked on a movie about strippers long ago and Edelstein asked her for her advice on the choreography of the striptease.

[27][30] On the episode itself, Edelstein commented: "It is very interesting what happens in the first half of the finale in terms of learning about how House sees people and getting the world from his point of view entirely".

[34] Edelstein has described it as "a really complicated, adult relationship",[25] explaining: "These are people who have very full lives and lots of responsibilities that perhaps conflict with their feelings for each other.

[34] Jacobs commented at the end of the show's third season: "I can't see them pairing them in a permanent fashion.

In 2005, Edelstein won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for her role as Cuddy.

[23] Following the season three episode "Merry Little Christmas", Mary McNamara for the LA Times wrote: "The Avid Viewer was also happy to see the seeds of a romantic relationship between House and Cuddy being sown — that had to be part of the show's original bible because really, who else could survive a romantic relationship with House now that Sela Ward's gone?

"[39] McNamara has opined that a romantic relationship between the two "makes perfect sense", as "she is the only one who seems able to accept House as he is, to give almost as good as she gets and to let most of his barbs fall where they may.

[42] Following the pair's first screen kiss, IGN reviewer James Chamberlin opined that the event was "kind of awkward" and "just didn't feel right to me".

[..] This plot contained some heart-wrenching moments, particularly when Cuddy had to a take on the case as both a doctor and a potential mother in "Joy.

"[44] The New York Times's Lisa Belkin has also praised Cuddy's motherhood storyline, citing her as one of few examples of good parenting on television.

Discussing the numerous YouTube fan videos dedicated to the "Huddy" relationship, The New York Times's Ginia Bellafante has assessed: "It is not merely the unrelenting push-pull of the show's writing, but the "His Girl Friday" chemistry between the actors Hugh Laurie (House) and Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy) that inspires otherwise reasonable women to bizarre, time-consuming digressions of fantasy.

"[33] Bellafante considers herself amongst these women, writing: Shamefully, I would have been overjoyed if the season finale had ended with House and Cuddy electing to spend the summer together in Corsica.

"[46] She considered: What would we really have done if House and Cuddy had woken up together, if he'd made her waffles, if she had eaten them wearing one of his shirts, if they spent the next day exchanging coy, knowing glances at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital?

[46] Her conclusion is that: House refuses to buy into the myth that a good woman can save an ornery jerk, and the finale made it clear what a dope you were to even think the show would try.

It wants to appease anyone who gets ticked off when a romantic comedy shows an accomplished woman in a skirt suit giving it all up for a jobless, slovenly idiot.

[33] Mike Hale for The New York Times has praised Edelstein's performance as Cuddy in comedic situations, writing: Lisa Edelstein may not be the funniest performer around, but she is without a doubt the best sport in American television: every week the writers of House find new ways to embarrass her and her character, Dr. Cuddy, who is engaged in an excruciating mating dance with Hugh Laurie's Dr. House.

[51] Lisa Cuddy was elected TV's Most Crushworthy Female Doctor over Remy "Thirteen" Hadley in a poll held by Zap2it.