Kelly Winters is the mother of Cher McQueen, Liza Winters, Jake Winters and 3 other children.
Kelly worked as a dental nurse in the prison where Sylver McQueen was serving 18 years for murdering his stepdad Vinnie (although in July 2019, it was revealed that Sylver only injured Vinnie when he pushed him down a flight of stairs and it was actually Breda McQueen who murdered Vinnie). In 2001, Kelly and Sylver slept together and nine months later, Kelly gave birth to Sylver's daughter Cher Winters. However, Kelly never told Sylver she was pregnant because he was in prison and he wouldn't have been able to assist raising her. In 2020, Kelly mentioned Cher's dad during an argument, leading her to find him.
Kelly arrived in Hollyoaks after Sylver's wife Mercedes McQueen contacted her to get the truth, as Sylver had denied that Cher was his daughter. Upon seeing Kelly, Sylver remembered her and realised that Cher was telling the truth. Mercedes walked in on an argument between Cher and Kelly, but Cher prevented Kelly from telling Mercedes what they were fighting over. Kelly revealed that she had accepted a job at a hotel in Greece and that she would be taking Cher's four siblings with her, telling Sylver and Mercedes that Cher was now their problem.
In October 2020, Cher revealed to her dad Sylver that the reason why Kelly disowned her and left her with the McQueen family was because she killed her younger sister Liza by pushing her into the deep end of a swimming pool in a fit of rage. Sylver promised to keep Cher's secret but said that what happened to Liza wasn't Cher's fault as Kelly shouldn't have left her unsupervised.
Kelly contacted Cher in January 2022 after Sylver died in the Salon de Thé de Marnie Explosion. Cher decided to move to Greece to reconcile with her mother and maternal side of the family in February.