Christian Grey

Christian is the billionaire Ana interviews for the campus paper. At 27 he runs Grey Enterprises Holdings and gives the commencement speech at her university. He is drawn to Ana but warns her he is not a man for dating. He has an agreement to propose, with rules, and wants her to sign before anything else. He sends her first editions of Thomas Hardy and takes her on a helicopter ride. When she asks him to show the worst punishment he could dish out, Christian does. Ana leaves, and he says he is "too broken" to give her what she wants.

Christian has nightmares about his childhood and tells Ana his birth mother was a crack addict and sex worker. On seeing her again he accepts her terms: no rules, no punishments, no secrets. He also has to deal with Elena Lincoln, the woman who introduced him at 15 and is still his business partner. He also meddles in her career and considers buying the publisher where Ana works, which angers her. His helicopter suffers a failure over Mt. St. Helens and he is missing for hours. Back home, he proposes again, this time with a ring.

Married to Ana, Christian returns to Seattle early from the honeymoon because Jack Hyde broke into his company. Jealousy and control strain the marriage: he reacts badly when Ana wants a night out with Kate. When she announces the pregnancy, he says he had other plans, leaves and comes back drunk. She locks herself in the playroom, and he spends the night looking for her. When Hyde kidnaps Mia, Christian tracks Ana through her phone. In the end he accepts fatherhood and takes Ana to his birth mother's grave. The film ends years later, with a son, Teddy.

In E. L. James's books the story is told by Ana. Christian got his own voice in three novels: Grey (2015), Darker (2017) and Freed (2021), which retell the same events through his eyes. The series grew out of a Twilight fan fiction called Master of the Universe, where the leads were Edward and Bella. Adult novels with explicit sex scenes.