First Appearance: Episode 267 (1983)

Last Appearance: Episode 651 (1985)

Known Family: Mother - Dee Morrell; Sister - Barbara Armstrong/Hamilton; Wife (1) - Caroline Morrell; Daughter - Amanda Morrell; Daughter - Samantha Morrell; Wife (2) - Patricia Hamilton; Wife (3) - Jenny Turner; Stepson - Colin Turner; Stepdaughter - Denise Turner

Key Relationships:
Marriage to Patricia Hamilton (divorced 1984); Marriage to Jenny Turner

Key Storylines:
Stephen and his older sister, Barbara, grew up living with their parents. Their mother, Dee, was a strong woman, but their father was not such a strong man, and when he discovered that Dee had been having affairs with younger men, he lost the will to live, and died, effectively, of a broken heart in 1973. Stephen and Barbara both vowed never to speak to Dee again, but Stephen backed down when he had money problems. His marriage to his first wife, Caroline, faltered after Stephen had affairs with a number of other women.

In 1983, Stephen meets Gordon Hamilton, following the collapse of Ramberg, and the two men decide to go into business together as consultants. Stephen is looking for somewhere to live and Gordon puts him onto the Toorak mansion in Melbourne. Patricia is living there - and when Stephen meets her he is smitten. A whirlwind romance ensues and the couple marry in London a few weeks later.

It doesn't take long for problems to set in, though, after John and Angela Palmer discover that Patricia destroyed evidence that could have cleared David Palmer of murder. They cut Patricia off, causing her to turn to drink. She embarrasses herself at a party to celebrate Stephen and Gordon's new business venture and Stephen has to warn her to stop her nonsense or he'll call their marriage quits.

When Patricia tries to force Stephen to buy Woombai, he has to admit that he doesn't actually have any money of his own: it all belongs to his mother, Dee. Dee arrives back in Australia from overseas and takes an immediate dislike to Patricia. She changes her will so that Stephen and Patricia will only inherit any money if they give her a grandson - only Patricia has to admit to Stephen that she can't have any more children. Stephen decides to embezzle money from his mother and enlists Wayne to help - only he discovers later that Wayne has told Dee exactly what's going on.

Dee is killed by a sudden heart attack - and leaves Stephen and Patricia with just a portrait of her! Patricia is furious and vows to challenge the will, but Stephen decides he's had enough fighting and pleads with her just to leave it. The two of them move up to Woombai, where Stephen meets Alice and Tony Parker. Seeing what a happy life the two of them are leading, Stephen makes a decision - and a few days later, he walks into a dingy hall where a band is playing and approaches a young man playing bass. The young man - Andy Green - recognises Stephen straight away - as his father! It turns out that Andy is Stephen's son through an affair he had with Helen Green eighteen years earlier; Helen was Stephen's father's secretary.

When Patricia finds out about Andy, she's furious as it meant that Dee had a male grandson all along. She blames Stephen for the hell that she's gone through with his family and she walks out on him. Stephen learns eventually that he isn't Andy's father at all; it was actually his sister, Barbara's, first husband, Roland. With Patricia becoming increasingly paranoid and hysterical, and shocked at the mayhem surrounding him in Sydney, Stephen decides to move to Woombai and take up a job he's been offered as manager.

A few weeks later, Patricia and her sister, Margaret, are out riding at Woombai when they're caught in a bush fire. They're rescued, but Stephen realises that he doesn't know what he'd have done if he'd lost Patricia. A reconciliation follows, but when Stephen decides he wants to live at Woombai permanently, Patricia tries to trick him into leaving by faking events so that it looks like Terry Hansen has attacked her. When the truth eventually comes out, Stephen is so shocked at Patricia's duplicity that he declares their marriage is over. Patricia returns to the city, leaving Stephen to settle into life in the country.

Stephen meets one of his neighbours, widow Jenny Turner, and her two children, Colin and Denise. Over the next few months, romance begins to blossom - and despite the reappearance of Stephen's troublesome first wife, Caroline, on the scene, Stephen and Jenny marry. There's a shock, however, when Jenny is diagnosed with a terminal illness: Hodgkin's Disease. The new Morrell family decide to head overseas to allow Jenny to see some of the world before she passes away. Stephen says goodbye to Australia and the chaos it's caused in his life.