Skyler White

Skyler White

Skyler White, née Lambert, (played by Anna Gunn) is Walter's wife, a published short-story writer who sells items on eBay. She and Walter have one son (Walter Jr). She is pregnant during the first two seasons with the couple's daughter, Holly (born at the end of the second season). She cares for Walter very much, but their marriage becomes increasingly strained due to his unexplained absences and bizarre behavior. Unaware of Walter's meth business, she believes that Walter's illness has strained the family's finances and returns to her old job working for Ted Beneke, whose sexual advances had caused her to quit earlier. She increasingly relies on Ted for emotional support as her husband grows distant. She leaves Walter at the end of season two after her suspicions regarding Walter's double life are confirmed when he accidentally reveals he has two cell phones. In the third season, she deduces that he is in the drug trade and confronts him; he admits (and emphasizes) that he is a crystal meth producer ("not a dealer"). She demands a divorce from him in exchange for her silence about his criminal activities. When Walter calls her bluff and forcibly moves back into their home, she retaliates by initiating an affair with Ted and coldly informing Walter. Even in her anger, Skyler is conflicted; she permits Walt to take care of baby Holly, and defends some of his actions to her divorce lawyer. She later finds that Walter has signed off on their divorce and left the house for good. When Ted arrives at her home and tries to clarify the nature of Skyler's feelings, she refuses to answer and asks him to leave. Following Hank's shooting, Skyler tells Marie that Walter earned millions through card counting at underground blackjack games, and offers to pay for Hank's physical therapy and anything else not covered by insurance. She later admits to Walt that she never filed the divorce papers, slyly beginning to work her way into Walter's criminal activities by reminding him that spouses cannot be forced to testify against each other. She suggests an alternative money-laundering scheme after being thoroughly unimpressed by Saul's plan to launder the money through a laser-tag facility. Skylar suggests Walter instead purchase the car wash facility he worked at in the pilot, and offers to run the business for Walt. She tries to frame these decisions as forced on her by Walt's criminal activities, but she ends up letting Walt spend more time with the kids and having dinners as a family when Walt, sensing an opportunity to regain his place in the family, tells her that's the only way her cover-up can succeed.