Tania Jeffries

Tania Jeffries (previously Weston) is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. She was portrayed by Faye Smythe from 2005 to 2010, with the character starring in numerous high-profile storylines alongside her on screen family. The character returned in May 2012 as part of the show's 20th anniversary.

Tania was one of the most popular characters on the show and fans were saddened when her character left.

Storylines
She was the youngest daughter of Yvonne (Alison Quigan) and Ian (Jeffrey Thomas) and after getting a job at the hospital, instantly had a spark with Vinnie Kruse (Pua Magasiva). Tania was shocked to learn she had a brother, Hamish Flynn (Phil Brown) who arrived to work for the hospital. However he later turned out to be a conman. Tania began to date Mark Weston (Tim Foley) but discovered he had cheated on her and moved on to Anthony Richards (Michael Morris). Ant supplied her with prescription drugs and she briefly became addicted before he fled Ferndale. Tania reconciled with Mark and they married but in 2007, Maia's desperation to be a mother, led her to plead with Mark to donate sperm, Tania at first allowed him but after the attempt failed, refused a second attempt. However Mark went behind Tania's back and impregnated Maia. The secret was so overwhelming, Mark was driven to cheat on Tania. Maia and Jay reconciled but after Jay told Yvonne about Mark, Maia decided she could never trust her and the two parted forever, only for Jay to be murdered by the Ferndale Strangler. Tania's marriage broke up following the reveal of the truth and she found herself despising Maia, only forgiving her when she gave birth to Jay "JJ" Jeffries (Jack and Tom Boyle) in the back of her car. Mark and Tania divorced. In late 2007, Tania became friends with Joey Henderson during the 'Ferndale Strangler' storyline and became dangerously close to becoming one of his victims after she told Alice Piper that he was just a 'boy' and she wasn't interested in dating him. When Joey overheard this, he was revealed to be the Ferndale Strangler in the 2007 Christmas cliffhanger with him preparing to strangle Tania with IV tubing inside her apartment. When Tania cut her finger with a knife, Joey panicked and put the IV line away, with her narrowly avoiding death without even knowing it. After this he stalked her in a shopping mall and hoped to kidnap her by offering her a lift but Yvonne picked her up and took her up north for Christmas. Joey missed his chance, and once again Tania avoided death unknowingly. Tania dated both Kip Denton (Will Hall) and Hone Ropata (Temuera Morrison) before she began an abusive relationship with gang member Kingi Te Wake (Te Kohe Tuhaka). Kingi left her and Tania dated Ben Goodall (Shaun Edwards-Brown), only to lose him to her mother. Ben was assaulted by a small gang of hoodlums and later it was discovered he had a brain hemorrhage. He fell brain dead and after several arguments between Yvonne and his sister Anita (Lara Fischel-Chisholm) as to whether he would come back alive or not, his life support was turned off a week later. Tania was very upset over his death and she and Yvonne reunited. She rebounded with Isaac Worthington (Matt Minto) but left him when he cheated on her. In late 2010 she fell in love with Rafe Durville (Simon London) and left the country with him to Australia to start a clinic. She returned briefly in 2012 for Yvonne's birthday. In 2013, Bella Durville (Amelia Reid-Meredith) visited Tania and Rafe.