After marrying successful doctor Charles Grant, Vivian Grant was able to live a comfortable life in the upper middle class. She always volunteered at charities and the most important thing for her was the image of the Grant family in high society. As a result, Vivian often came into conflict with her son, David, who had rebelled as a teenager and ended up in prison. As for her daughter, Gilly, she was Vivian's pride and joy because of her professional success. In 1992, Gilly was engaged to former football player Hamp Speakes and, with both Charles and Vivian supporting the match, he couple married in a beautiful ceremony. At this time, David suddenly returned from prison and, though he avoided his parents at first, he later arrive for a family dinner. Unfortunately, during the dinner, the police arrived to arrest David because he had stolen Ed Bauer's credit card and Vivian immediately accused David of still being the difficult kid he had been in the past.

In 1993, David got involved with Kat, which Vivian disapproved of because Kat was Hamp's daughter and Gilly and Hamp had separated. As a result, both Gilly and David argued with their mother. Later, racist Vinnie Morrison was accidentally killed during a fight with David and, since David was afraid of being charged for murder, he fled. As Vivian remained skeptical of her son's innocence, she was shocked when Gilly suddenly confessed the police that David was innocent of the murder he'd gone to prison for years earlier. According to Gilly, she was the one who had murdered the gigolo Davenport; David had just taken the blame for her. Vivian automatically believed that Gilly was lying to protect David, which earned Gilly's wrath. Not long after, a fugitive David returned home and asked for Vivian's help. Thought Vivian did give him her car keys, when David went packing, she called the police instead to have David arrested. However, Gilly witnessed Vivian's actions and was able to help David escape again. Vivian defended herself to Gilly by claiming that she only wanted to protect David but even Charles was angry and accused Vivian of being heartless. To everyone's delight, Gilly was finally cleared of Davenport's murder when it was discovered that Norrie Ryan was the real culprit. Meanwhile, David was arrested for Vinnie's murder and when his trial began, Gilly convinced Vivian to make up with her son and she did so. Later, to everyone's delight, David was cleared of all charges.

In 1994, Gilly got involved with Sid Dickerson who Vivian approved of since he was a high paid lawyer. As for David, he fell in love with illegal immigrant Gabriela Lopez, whose uncle had just been imprisoned for several crimes. Vivian disapproved of Gabriella in David's life because she thought Gabriella was only using David. Later, to Vivian's shock, David suddenly married Gabriella so that she could stay in the country. When Gabriella was about to get her green card, in January 1995, Vivian hoped that it would mean the end of the marriage but, to her annoyance, David wanted to stay with Gabriella anyway. So Vivian decided to take matters into her own hands. When she discovered that Gabriella had worked as a prostitute in her hometown in Costa Rica, Vivian confronted Gabriella with her past and offered her $ 5,000 for Gabriella to disappear. Though Gabriella refused at first, when Vivian gave her the check anyway, Gabriella decided that she'd never be accepted in the Grants' world and left David. When David realized what Vivian had done, he made a scene in the Springfield Inn and disowned his mother despite the fact that Vivian claimed that she had acted in his best interests. Meanwhile, Sid wanted to marry Gilly but when Gilly got the opportunity to move to L.A. for a top job, she rejected his proposal in favor of leaving. Vivian disapproved of Gilly's decision by stating that family should come before her career. Later, Gilly returned from L.A. and, though she had agreed to become Sid's wife, she suddenly broke their engagement because she couldn't live with Sid's unscrupulousness. However, Vivian didn't want to accept the breakup, so she tried to reunite the couple but her actions only lead to arguments with Gilly and Charles, who thought that it should be Gilly's decision. Meanwhile, David and Vivian continued to argue. Finally, fed up, Charles told David that his mother wasn't a debutante—she had helped Martin Luther King fight for civil rights when she was young. Later, David had to have an operation after an accident at a Lewis construction site and when Vivian y helped him, mother and son finally reunited.

Later, Vivian witnessed a young man arguing with Roger Thope and was shocked to learn that the young man, Marcus, was the son of Griffin Williiams, a well-respected civil rights activist. Later, Marcus became the prime suspect of Detective Cutter's murder and Griffin himself arrived in town to help his son. What no one knew was that Vivian and Griffin knew each other from the past. Not only that, but they had had an affair back in the 60s while Vivian was already married to Charles. Vivian had been ready to leave Charles to marry Griffin but he dumped her because he felt too young and wanted to focus on his job. As 1996 began, Vivian was worried to see Gilly's growing feelings for Griffin and warned him to stay out of Gilly's life. Though Vivian tried to tell Gilly that Griffin was only using her to further his career, a headstrong Gilly continued to see Griffin anyway. As for Charles, he respected Griffin and arranged for him to stay in town by teaching politics at Springfield's university. Not long after, Vivian paid a visit to Griffin and asked him to leave town because she still had feelings for him and didn't want to endanger her marriage. However, this was just a scheme to get Griffin out of Gilly's life. Unfortunately, Griffin decided to stay in town. Desperate, Vivian asked Holly Reade for help in getting Gilly out of Griffin's life and confided in her the real reason: Griffin, not Charles, was Gilly's biological father!

Holly urged Vivian to tell Griffin the truth but she couldn't go through with it. Vivian revived her old affair with Griffin in order to prevent both Gilly and Griffin from ever learning the truth. Later,, Griffin wanted Vivian to tell Charles about their affair but Vivian refused. Griffin tried to tell Charles himself but before he could tell Charles anything, Vivian stopped him and told Charles that Griffin had tried to kiss. Meanwhile, over the last few months, Griffin had been trying to save 5th Street from Alan Spaulding's "renovations" but Vivian was actually working with Alan against Griffin because she had invested money in Alan's company, Advantage Systems. When Griffin realized what she was doing, he threw her out. Later, when Vivian learned from Holly that Gilly had plans to seduce Griffin, a frantic Vivian rushed in and blurted out the truth. Disbelieving, Gilly called Charles who, to everyone's surprise, confessed that he had known all along that Gilly wasn't his biological daughter because he had had a blood test done when she was born. Charles admitted that he had stayed with Vivian anyway because he loved her and Gilly. As a result, Gilly disowned her mother and Charles, unable to live in his sham of a marriage any longer, moved out. Not long after, Griffin was shot during a demonstration and, Vivian became the prime suspect because of her knowledge of weapons. When the gun was found in her car, Vivian was arrested. To her surprise, Charles stuck by her. Not long after, it was learned that Griffin himself had arranged the shooting as a publicity stunt. When Griffin confessed the truth, Vivian was cleared of all charges. In addition, Charles slowly forgave her and the couple reunited. Vivian and Griffin remained friends and peace returned in the Grant family.

In 1997, Vivian had to deal with Jenna Bradshaw and her husband, Jeffrey Morgan, because they had broken into the Grant house to steal jewels. Jenna was soon arrested but Buzz Cooper wanted to help Jenna and asked Vivian to drop the charges against Jenna since she had tried to stop Jeffrey. After Buzz argued that everyone deserved a second chance, Vivian, recognizing that Buzz loved Jenna, had the charges dropped. In 1998, while Vivian helped Charles after his heart attack, she was delighted when David returned to town. Vivian wanted David to get into a relationship with Vicky Spaulding, a member of the wealthy Spaulding family. Though David was unwilling, at first, and disapproved of Vivian's interference, he did have involved with Vicky anyway, for a time, at least. In 1999, David became a cop and when he was arrested for being corrupt, even Vivian believed in his innocence, even though she didn't know that he was merely working undercover to bring down the Santos crime family. Soon after, Vivian started to lead a secluded life with Charles and would slip out of public life.