Cassidy

**Cassidy** (Jordyn Aurora Aquino) is the (redeemed) secondary villainess of the 2020 Lifetime film *Secret Life of a Celebrity Surrogate* (alternately titled *The Surrogate* and *The Secret Life of a Celebrity Surrogate*; airdate September 19, 2020). She is the assistant to married actress Ava Von Richter, and in her introductory appearance, she had noticed a social media post made by Olivia Bolton (a writer and the film's main protagonist).

Cassidy contacted her in order to inform her that Ava was looking for a surrogate mother to carry the child she wanted to have with her husband Hayden Von Ritcher (the film's tertiary antagonist). Hurriedly signing a non-disclosure agreement at their mansion in California before being told to take fertility drugs, Olivia began to witness the couple's bizarre behavior. Aside from snorting cocaine to relieve frustration, Ava had begun her heel turn by lashing out at Olivia after a pregnancy test came back negative. As for Hayden, he sexually harassed Olivia and injected heroin into his toes, which was followed by him trying to pressure her into having sex with him and Ava once they learned of her pregnancy.

Even though she was once sympathetic to her concerns, Cassidy also began her heel turn as she chastised Olivia when she brought up her latest worries—reminding her of the agreement and telling her to keep quiet. Furthermore, in the aftermath of Olivia's successful escape, the deceptive conspirator appeared on TV alongside the Von Richters as they spoke to reporters about her. Ava took the opportunity to deceitfully claim that Olivia was an unstable woman who ran off with their baby and stole her great-grandmother's necklace.

Officer Woll quietly brought her back to the Von Richter mansion, and Cassidy cemented her reveal as a villainess—asserting that she agreed with Ava's statements regarding Olivia being labeled as a deceitful, ungrateful, and untrustworthy woman. Afterwards, Ava completed her heel turn, punishing Olivia by locking her in the isolated guest house. Later on, during a walk with Olivia, Cassidy scolded her and ordered her to do Ava's bidding. Olivia then faked having to urinate as a pretext for her second attempt to escape with Peter's help, but unfortunately, Cassidy caught the pair and chained Olivia to the guest house's bed.

The film's climax had Cassidy hearing Olivia screaming in pain as she went into labor and learning of her employer's intentions from her. The two women escaped in Cassidy's car, and Ava chased them in her own car as Cassidy's redemption began when she divulged her brief backstory: her mother was ill, and Ava helped her pay for medication to save her. As such, she feared that her mother's life would be at risk if she was disobedient, implying that Ava would have indeed stopped her monetary assistance if that was ever the case.

After Ava ran them off the side of the road they were driving on and held them at gunpoint, even more was revealed. As it turned out, Cassidy knew that the deranged celebrity was an infertile woman who became the mastermind behind a malicious scheme to maintain her superficially luxurious lifestyle, preserve her reputation, and save her marriage. It involved tricking Olivia into taking hormones that harvested her eggs, with Ava having doctors fertilize one of said eggs with Hayden's sperm before planting the resulting embryo into Olivia's uterus. The revelation meant that Olivia was carrying her own baby, but in spite of that, Ava's separation from Hayden exposed her willingness to murder both of them in order to cover her tracks.

In addition, once the extent of her complicity was pointed out to Olivia by Ava, Cassidy began to complete her redemption by sincerely proclaiming her remorse. After Olivia defeated Ava by knocking her unconscious with her gun, the reformed assistant comforted her and drove her to a local hospital, where she gave birth to a newborn girl. The film's final scenes saw Peter visiting Olivia—informing her that he and Cassidy were going to give statements to the police regarding the villainy of the Von Richters.