Ashley Abbott had a nervous breakdown after having an abortion, ran off to New York City, and lost her memory after she was mugged. She ended up at a mental hospital where Dr. Steven Lassiter was her psychiatrist. Her father, John, eventually found her in New York and returned her to a posh private institution near Genoa City. Stephen had fallen in love with Ashley, followed, and became a resident psychiatrist there. Ashley recovered thanks to Stephen's devotion, and they were married. During their honeymoon in Hawaii they were stalked by Leanna Randolph, a former mental patient of Stephen's who fantasized that they were lovers. After Leanna made several attempts to murder Ashley with a poisoned Lei, Ashley spent most of her honeymoon sick. Ashley never found out about Leanna's connection to Stephen nor that she tried to murder her.

Leanna followed them back to Genoa City and abandoned her obsession with Stephen once she got involved with Jack Abbott, who arranged for her to write a sensational tell-all biography, under the pseudonym of Nora Randall called "Ruthless: The Victor Newman Story," which would expose and destroy Victor. Ironically, Victor also hired her to write an authorized biography of his life. Without Jack's consent, or knowledge, Leanna added an extra chapter to "Ruthless" that chronicled Ashley's ill-fated affair with Victor, including details about her abortion and nervous breakdown. Victor was outraged, assumed his estranged wife Nikki had been behind the exposé, and divorced her. In his anger, and still unaware that Leanna had written "Ruthless", Victor took Leanna with him in his private jet telling the pilot to 'head west', and later returned to Genoa City married to Leanna. Victor decided to stay with her, even after he found out their marriage wasn't legal because his divorce from Nikki was not final.

On her own, Leanna used her wiles to land a job as an advice columnist for the lovelorn at a publication owned by Victor using the pen name "Leanna Love". Because Leanna felt guilty about "Ruthless", and had come to genuinely care for Victor, she wrote another book called "Victor Newman - Man and Myth", using her real name, Leanna Randolph. When Victor learned that Leanna and Jack Abbott had been lovers, he realized Leanna had written "Ruthless". Victor publically fired her from his company and sold the publication, then divorced Leanna, and remarried Nikki. Victor devised a plan to punish Jack by orchestrating a takeover of Jabot, displaced Jack, and made Brad Carlton his superior.

With the help of long-time admirer and friend of Victor, Douglas Austin, Leanna created the "I Hate Men Campaign" rallying wronged women everywhere. By a year later, Leanna had forgotten about being a man-hater and competed with Jill Foster for Rex Sterling, then again for John Abbott a year after that.

Leanna's notoriety landed her a nationally syndicated gossip talk show on television called the Leanna Love Show, and she has since made infrequent stops to Genoa City whenever juicy gossip concerning Victor is to be had.

In 1993 Victor was divorcing Diane Jenkins. Diane's scheming lawyer, Michael Baldwin, arranged for her to appear on Leanna's talk show, The Leanna Love Show, to gain public sympathy for her at the settlement hearing. Diane was surprised when Leanna revealed she was also once married to Victor, and still bitter over Victor's treatment of her five years ago, Leanna was happy to oblige. When Victor tuned in to the show, he was outraged that Diane had exposed his personal life. Victor suffered business setbacks after Diane's appearance, but gave her what she wanted to get rid of her. As revenge, Victor tricked Leanna into selling him The Leanna Love Show, then fired her.

In 2006, Leanna, now a journalist, returned to Genoa City to interview Ashley, who was being charged with the murder of Tom Fisher (she was covering for her amnesiac father, John). Leanna lied to Ashley that she would paint a flattering picture of her, but instead, made Ashley look guilty.

In 2007 Leanna conducted an interview with David Chow about the death of Carmen Mesta.