Betty Draper

Lore & Background

Betty was not part of the original pilot script; Matthew Weiner wrote two scenes for her, and Jones, first considered for Peggy Olson, won the part. Weiner has linked the show's look to Alfred Hitchcock's "icy blonde" heroines, and Betty is often compared to Grace Kelly. Jones received two Golden Globe nominations and a Primetime Emmy nomination for the role.

Reader's Guide

Betty was born in 1932 to a wealthy family, studied anthropology at Bryn Mawr College and modelled in Italy before moving to Manhattan. She met Don while he was writing copy for a fur company and she was one of its models, and they married in May 1953.

In Season 1 the Drapers live in suburban Ossining with Sally and Bobby. Betty sees a psychiatrist about numbness in her hands, and after discovering that he reports her sessions to Don, voices her suspicion that her husband is unfaithful. In Season 2 she confronts Don about his affair with Bobbie Barrett. After she learns his true identity she files for divorce in 1964 and later marries the Republican political operative Henry Francis.

Betty's relationship with her children is strained, above all with Sally. In 1970 Sally learns from Henry that Betty is dying of lung cancer.