Eve was originally the only child of Warren Johnson and Tanya Lincoln Johnson (she has since been given a sister). Raised in a wealthy home and loved by her grandmother, for whom she was named, Eve's first pain was suffered when her beloved grandmother died when she was eight years old. As a teenager, she got involved with a teenaged Julian Crane while she was singing in a jazz club in Boston. She and Julian were deeply in love, but when she found herself pregnant, she and Julian separated, and she gave birth to a son in Boston with only her good friend Crystal Harris in attendance. She never told Julian of her pregnancy, and indeed, Julian had no idea at the time that she was carrying his child. She resumed her relationship with Julian, but when she met T.C. Russell, she broke things off with Julian permanently, because she wanted a chance at a life with T.C. By the time she married T.C., she had a degree from the best medical schools in the world.

Eve made certain that T.C. had no idea of her past. She hid her privileged upbringing to an extent, saying that she was raised by two maiden aunts after the deaths of her parents. She explained away the money that Alistair Crane had given her to stay out of Julian's life by claiming it was her trust fund. A few years into their marriage, Eve became pregnant with their eldest daughter Whitney, and a year later gave birth to Simone. All the while she was careful to make sure that no one in her family found out the truth about her. She has hidden the existance of the son she was told died at birth, and has never revealed to her husband or daughters how much she once truly loved Julian Crane, before his father destroyed all that was good in him.

Eve's life was picture perfect until people from her past started showing up, most notably a young man named Chad Harris. Born in Harmony around the same time her son was born in Boston, she recognized the name Harris the moment she heard it. Things were made even stickier when Orville Perkins, an elderly man with a mysterious (and never discovered) connection to Eve's past showed up, warning Eve about Chad getting involved with her daughters. The only hard proof that ever existed of her past with Julian was a series of erotic pictures that she and Julian had posed for, and which Orville had in his possession. When the statue got near Charity, she began seeing visions of Julian and Eve as lovers, but luckily for Eve, Charity opted to keep quiet about what she saw. Ivy wasn't as agreeable though...once she got her hands on the statue, she used the photographs to blackmail Eve into helping her sabotage Sam and Grace's marriage so that Ivy could manipulate Sam into coming back to her.

Eve thought she was safe when she believed the pictures destroyed, and when she managed to get Orville into an old folk's home, but Ivy continued to use her knowledge to blackmail her. First she manipulated Eve into saying that Ethan was born a few weeks premature so that Sam didn't think there was any possiblility that Ethan was his son (a fact that hasn't been addressed since), then much later she bribed Eve into saying that Grace was young John Hastings mother, and therefore, David Hastings' true wife. She was one of the prime suspects in Julian's murder investigation, but since Julian has miraculously come back from the dead, everyone seems to have forgotten that he was shot in the first place. Eve nearly destroyed Ivy when Ivy arranged to have Whitney drugged to prove to Eve that she could destroy her and her entire family, but she kowtowed to Ivy's demands, and will do whatever Ivy asks of her.

Eve thought she was finally getting things back on track. Her daughter, Simone, is very in love with her boyfriend, Chad, and her daughter, Whitney, is concentrating on her tennis career. But then a woman from Eve's past showed up in town...her sister Liz. Liz had never forgiven Eve for not coming back to the family after her son died, even though their parents had disowned Eve when she refused to get rid of her child. Liz spent months threatening to tell T.C. the truth, causing Eve to lean even heavier on Julian. Liz finally sprung Eve's aunt Irma from the nursing home (which also revealed that Liz and Eve were only half-sisters, not full sisters) and brought her to Harmony, where she told everything. Eve left the house and after singing her heart out at the Blue Note, fell into bed with Julian Crane. Despite initially still loving T.C., Eve couldn't stop T.C. from pursuing a divorce, and it wasn't long before she and Julian were officially a couple.