Charlotte King

Charlotte Augusta King

**Charlotte King** is the Chief of Staff and attending urologist at St. Ambrose Hospital; additionally, she is a sexologist at Seaside Health and Wellness. She is married to Cooper Freedman with whom she has four kids: Mason Warner, and Georgia, Caroline, and Rachel King-Freedman.

## History

### Early Life

She is from Monroeville, Alabama.

When she was fifteen, she had to shoot her horse Marjorie after it sprained its ankle. Marjorie was her last pet and when she thought she might have been pregnant, she thought about naming the baby Marjorie.

She always wanted to make her father, Big Daddy, proud, so she became a doctor.

### Marriage to Billy

Charlotte met Billy Douglas, with whom she eventually married. At one point, she came home from the hospital after work and found him in bed with another woman. Charlotte lost her self control and dragged the woman off her husband and jumped Billy, yelling at him. The woman then grabbed a vase and smashed it on Charlotte's head, knocking her out. Billy called 911 but left before the paramedics arrived. Charlotte couldn't forgive him for what happened, ending the marriage.

### Drug Addiction

Following the attack, Charlotte became addicted to pain medication. She tried to get her colleague, who treated her after the attack, to write her another prescription, but he was aware of the dangers of addiction. She tried to convince him saying she'd know when to stop as a doctor, but he only offered to write her a prescription for pills with a lighter effect. She declined and left.

Sometime later, drugged after a shift, Charlotte was driving her car through a storm. She began to fall asleep at the wheel and deviated from her lane. She didn't notice the car approaching in the opposite direction, causing the other driver to have to get out of the way, slipping and crashing into a pole. The crash brought Charlotte back to her senses. She pulled over and went to help the woman, but the woman had flown through her windshield. Charlotte called 911, but the woman didn't make it. The truth about the accident was never uncovered, as the woman was deemed a careless driver for not wearing a seat belt and Charlotte never told the truth.

### Starting to Date Cooper

Cooper and Charlotte first started dating after meeting on a sex site. They didn't expect the person they'd agreed to meet to be each other, but they agreed to give it a shot. Their relationship started out with just being "Friends with Benefits," but Cooper wanted it to be more. Charlotte wasn't open to that until she realized that she was falling in love with Cooper. The two were on and off after Charlotte admitted to having sex with Archer Montgomery. Cooper forgave her, but then they got into another argument when Cooper found out Charlotte was the new owner of the competing clinic right below Oceanside Wellness. They eventually made up.

### Building a New Practice

After telling Cooper that she had become more of an administrative position at St. Ambrose and less of a doctor, she took a job interview. She had been recruited to run the Pacific Wellcare Center on the newly leased fourth floor of the building that also housed Oceanside Wellness Group. Charlotte kept this from Cooper but was found out by Violet. Violet agreed to keep the secret so that Charlotte had the chance to come clean about it to Cooper. After giving her several chances, Charlotte did not tell Cooper and so Violet confronted Cooper. Cooper became very angry that Charlotte was running an opposing medical practice in his building and they broke up.

### Joining the Practice

After William White fired Charlotte from her position at Pacific Wellcare Center, she approached Sam for a position at Oceanside Wellness Group and explained why she was a good hire for the practice. Sam and Addison had a conversation about it and eventually decided to hire her. She moved into Pete's old office and practiced as a sexologist.

### Rape

In St. Ambrose Hospital as Chief of Staff, she told a noisy patient to wait his turn. However, that man had mental problems. He thought that women had to respect him and because Charlotte was mean to him, he assaulted her later that day. Getting ready to go home, Charlotte left her office in the hospital. When she turned around after having closed the door, the man knocked her head against the door and dragged her back into her office.

She tried to resist and scratched the assaulter, which only enraged him more. He continued punching her eventually raped her in her own office. Shortly after, she left her office, bruised and bleeding. She hobbled to the nearest supply closet to get some bandages, but Pete Wilder, who was working in the ER that night, noticed her. He followed her and caught her when she fell down. He carried her into a room in the hospital.

Charlotte chose not to tell anyone that she was raped and even hurt badly, she continued bossing everyone at the hospital around. She only allowed nurse Sheila in her room, not any of the "nosy bitchy ones" and the doctors from the practice. However, Addison didn't buy the story that the assaulter took her wallet and she asked everyone to leave the room. When they were alone in the room, Charlotte came clean to Addison. She told her that she was raped. Addison did a pelvic exam and tried to pursue Charlotte to report the assault, but Charlotte refused. However, Addison secretly did a rape kit and kept it in the hospital under the name of Jane Doe, thinking Charlotte might want the assaulter's DNA later.

Sometime later, Charlotte returned to work, but she still hadn't fully recovered yet. Upon entering her office, she started getting flashbacks of the assault and she went to the practice instead. Her colleagues there tried to act normal around her, but they all failed to do so. Sheldon was the only one who actually left her alone like she wanted them to. Pete came into her office to check on her wounds, reminding Charlotte of the rape and she almost started crying in front of him. Violet offered to help her too, but Charlotte refused, saying it was impossible for Violet to know what she was going through. She also completely shut out Addison, because Addison saw her at her most fragile point. Amelia offered her donuts and said she was going to meetings for addicts. She also talked to her about craving to pills after something terrible happened, but Charlotte denied she was craving for pills.

Addison eventually told Sam that Charlotte was raped. On his turn, he asked Violet to talk to Charlotte without actually saying that she was raped. However, Violet suspected something and talked to Pete, who suspected the same. When talking with Violet in his office about the night Charlotte was assaulted, Sheldon said he was in the police office talking to a rapist. Seeing the way Violet reacted to the word "rapist", he asked her if Charlotte was raped. Violet said she also suspected that Charlotte was raped.

Cooper told Charlotte he simply couldn't leave her alone after what happened. This seemed to help her deal with it a little bit better, as she dared to enter her office again shortly after, without having flashbacks. Violet later came to Charlotte's office, and she started talking about the time she was raped herself, leaving Charlotte devastated. She went to Amelia's office and asked her to go to a meeting with her, admitting she was craving pills. Meanwhile, Addison made calls to have the pelvic washings from Charlotte processed.

### Amelia's Slip and Meeting Mason

When Erica Warner showed up at the practice claiming that Cooper was the father of her son, Cooper was delighted and immediately believed her. Charlotte was more cautious. At first, she approached Erica and paid her money to leave Cooper alone. Erica took the money, but only to give it back to Cooper as that was not what she was after. She wanted to disappear from his life, but Cooper convinced her he had nothing to do with it. Charlotte later realized that she crossed a line, but she only did so to protect her family. She did a paternity test behind Cooper's back, which revealed that Mason was indeed his son.

Erica then allowed Cooper to come visit his son but didn't allow Charlotte to be near him, so Charlotte kept her distance. Over time, Erica came to realize that Charlotte had meant no harm and she noticed that Mason had grown to like Charlotte and vice versa. She then allowed Mason to spend the night at Cooper and Charlotte's, and Mason and Erica progressively became part of their family.

### Pregnancy and Childbirth

Charlotte was frustrated when she discovered she was pregnant. While she had happily accepted being Mason's mother, she was not interested in having more kids. She then became horrified upon finding out that she was expecting triplets. While abortion was not an option for her because of her faith, she did hope for a miscarriage in the early stages of the pregnancy. That didn't happen and the family began to prepare for the three new additions. Addison had to sew up Charlotte's cervix after she had one of the babies prematurely at only twenty-six weeks.

## Notes & Trivia

* There is an inconsistency in where Charlotte graduated from medical school. In Private Practice promotional material, it claims she is a Yale graduate, whereas Cooper claims she is a Johns Hopkins graduate. It's possible that she attended Yale for medical school and completed her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
* Charlotte has neonatal rounds at St. Ambrose Hospital, which she has asked Addison to cover for her when she returned home to see her father. Since Chief of Staff is a bureaucratic and administrative role, it is assumed that these rounds are part of her duties as a urologist at St. Ambrose, indicating that Charlotte practices pediatric urology.
* Charlotte is the only character of the original main characters of *Private Practice* to never appear in a *Grey's Anatomy* episode. She has, however, visited Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital.
* Pete Wilder was her work husband. He brought her coffee and waited for her so they could get lunch together.
* Charlotte loves fried chicken.
* Her least favorite meal of the day is breakfast.
* Charlotte has a slight fear of needles.
* She likes to read, her favorite book being "*To Kill a Mockingbird*". It was written by Harper Lee, who is from the same town as Charlotte, Monroeville.
* "In Which Sam Gets Taken for a Ride" is the only *Private Practice* episode in which Charlotte doesn't appear.
* Mason calls her Mama.
* She is in NA and allergic to local anesthetic.
* She loves to drink martinis, which is why she knows how to make extremely good martinis.
* The password for her computer at St. Ambrose was "Big Daddy". Although unconfirmed, it's assumed that she changed it after Cooper used it break into her computer.
* She sometimes refers to her children as "Rugrats".
* She's allergic to cats.
* She snores.
* Her blood type is A Positive.