Sean Lockhart grew up in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the eldest child of John and Felice Lockhart and older brother to Johnny. Raised in a traditional Catholic household, he drifted away from the church in his teens. As a young man, Sean moved to Radcliffe, where he worked as a farmhand on Franklin Farm for Peter Saunders. He soon began a relationship with Peter’s eldest daughter, Louise, after she returned from a semester overseas. Sean proposed to her at The Waterfall, and they married, later welcoming fraternal twin daughters, Tanner and Lynn, in the early 2000s. For many years, the family appeared happy, though Sean quietly grew restless and dissatisfied.

Prior to the start of the series, Sean’s unhappiness led him into an affair with a younger flight attendant, Tricia Meyer. By the time the story begins, both he and Louise were deeply unhappy, though remaining together largely for appearances. Despite this, Sean remained a devoted father. When his daughters learned the truth about the affair, they pulled away from him, and matters worsened after his divorce from Louise. Sean married Tricia in Oahu, Hawaii, but their marriage quickly faced strain—first when it was revealed that Tricia knew about Tommy impregnating Jordan behind Tanner’s back, and later when it came out that Tricia had shared a kiss with Samuel during a rough patch.

The couple reconciled when Tricia became pregnant, and the birth of their son, Dylan, marked a brief period of happiness. That joy was shattered when Dylan died unexpectedly from SIDS only months later. The loss devastated Sean, who withdrew emotionally and gravitated back toward Louise. Despite being engaged to Jai Gupta at the time, Sean and Louise shared a kiss and nearly became intimate—an encounter secretly recorded by Aaliyah. The footage was later revealed at Jai and Louise’s engagement party, ending that engagement and leading Jai to physically confront Sean in front of Tricia. In the aftermath of grief and scandal, Sean and Tricia divorced, though they remained emotionally connected.

Sean and Louise ultimately found their way back to one another during their daughter Lenny’s battle with leukemia. United by their child’s illness, they grew close as the search for a bone marrow match became increasingly desperate. Hope was restored when it was revealed that Emma Covington was biologically related to the Saunders family, and she donated bone marrow, saving Lenny’s life. Sean and Louise reconciled romantically, though their renewed relationship remained fragile. Sean’s continued closeness to Tricia—particularly after she confided in him about her abusive stepfather and a hostage situation involving Tricia and her mother, Jolene—threatened to complicate things once again, much to the concern of Louise.