Tracy was originally presented as a vivacious socialite who hid her scheming nature, but her brother and parents saw through that and warned her sister-in-law Monica.

In recent years, Tracy has greatly mellowed, showing her maternal side with her sons Ned and Dillon, as well as stepdaughter Lulu, supporting her sister-in-law Monica through various ordeals, and befriending female characters after never really having had women friendships while younger.

The actress later reflected on the decision to leave, citing an insult from executive producer Gloria Monty over a salary dispute as the reason for her departure.

[6] Later that year, Elliot went on maternity leave, and veteran soap opera actress, Christine Jones assumed the role of Tracy that November.

In March 2017, Daytime Confidential and other media outlets broke reports that Elliot would be leaving General Hospital at the end of her current deal with the serial; she last appeared on May 4, 2017.

When she divorced Larry Ashton, her son Ned spent a great deal of time with his grandparents or at boarding school while his mother focused on travel or her social life.

Edward and Lila shed light on their daughter's character to Monica at a Thanksgiving gathering, warning her that Tracy would be ruthless in her attempts to hold onto her grandfather's trust fund for her son.

But once this crisis was over and Monica returned home, Tracy's schemes to prove that Rick was the father became more aggressive, causing the rivalry between the two women to explode into war.

Little did Tracy know that Mitch was in love with waitress Susan Moore and was only using her for money and position in his attempts to win the state senate race.

Tracy uses her financial influence with Mitch to get him to end the affair and they relocate to Albany in June 1980 where she presumably lived comfortably but unhappily as a senator's wife.

Prior to her arrival, her first husband Lord Lawrence Ashton was introduced to the scene with his new wife, a much younger woman named Arielle.

Tracy, polite but cool towards Ned's girlfriend, Dawn Winthrop, investigated her and discovered that she was really Monica's illegitimate daughter which made her instantly disapprove.

She informed Lawrence upon her return that she had discovered that his late parents had not legally been married, and that there was another heir to the Ashton fortune out there, which she intended to keep secret in order to maintain Ned's inheritance from his paternal grandfather.

Tracy nearly lost ELQ's fortune when she became involved with the supposedly wealthy and powerful Nicholas Van Buren, who was really an international criminal known as Domino.

Later on, Tracy became entranced with Paul Hornsby, a young man who was infatuated with Jenny Eckert, a distant cousin of Luke Spencer.

Paul, involved with shady characters determined to get their hands on ELQ was forced into marrying Tracy, and Jenny began to date Ned.

However, Paul found out what had been going on and decided to leave Tracy with their newborn son, Dillon Hornsby to marry Jenny whose marriage to Ned was unsuccessful.

Her new status served as the inspiration for a twisted joke on Thanksgiving Day 1997, when she sent a group of her henchmen to Port Charles to rob her family at gunpoint and pretend to threaten their lives.

Edward, with the help of Luke Spencer and Skye Chandler-Quartermaine, eluded Tracy and Alan's plots to "take care of Daddy".

Tracy fell victim to a cruel prank at the hand of her son, Dillon Quartermaine, and his girlfriend, Georgie Jones, for Luke Spencer.

Her son, Dillon, and Lulu Spencer find evidence to suggest that Laura did not kill Rick Webber, but Scott Baldwin in fact did.

A few days before Halloween 2007, the Spencers received an invitation from Nikolas Cassadine to attend a fancy dress Black and White Ball in Alan's honor.

Alfred, the Cassadine family butler, mistakenly scared Tracy, allowing her to lose her balance and fall down an entire flight of stairs.

Also in 2010, her niece Maya Ward moves into the Quartermaine mansion, and at one point Tracy exposes her granddaughter Brook Lynn Ashton as a con artist.

With her back against a wall, Tracy is forced in an engagement to the mob boss, adding some embarrassment to the situation, Anthony enlists Maxie Jones' help in arranging the wedding.

In the midst of the ELQ mess, Tracy learns that Luke is having health problems again but refuses to see a doctor to get the results of a test he had run.

In spite of her initial coldness to him over allegedly dropping Dillon out of his life, Tracy begins to warm up to him, especially after she finds out that Jenny left him for another man.

After reuniting Jake with his mother, Elizabeth, and ultimately his real grandmother, Monica, Luke promptly leaves town to find himself, literally disappearing off the Port Charles docks where Laura had once vanished from.

[35] In 2023, Charlie Mason from Soaps She Knows placed Tracy at number ten on his ranked list of "General Hospital's 40+ Greatest Characters of All Time," commenting: "[U]nlike Port Charles' myriad mobsters and madmen, Jane Elliot's undisputed queen of mean could kill with nothing more than a well-aimed insult.

In the article, editor Michael Maloney wrote: "We saw Laura make the decision to follow Tracy into the hallway at General Hospital after she visited a comatose Lulu.