Rhys Williams

Rhys Alun Williams was Gwen Cooper's husband. Although originally he did not believe in the existence of aliens nor know his partner worked for Torchwood, he came to accept both facts and became himself an associate of Torchwood Three. However, he was reluctant to let Gwen continue in the work, more so after their daughter was born.

Early life
Rhys was born to Barry and Brenda Williams (TV: Something Borrowed) in North Wales. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters) He had a sister, (PROSE: Slow Decay) as well as an uncle named Mike (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives) and an aunt named Carol. (AUDIO: Visiting Hours) He was often told stories by his great-uncle Bryn, although to his regret he never paid much attention. (AUDIO: The Devil and Miss Carew)

As a child, Rhys joined the Boy Scouts, (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three) which allowed Barry and Brenda to resume their sex life. (AUDIO: Visiting Hours) He was attracted to a girl called Cerys Morgan when he was twelve. (TV: Something Borrowed) After leaving secondary school, he went to college (TV: Adam) with Matt and tried to look cool by wearing Ralph Lauren shirts and smoking B&H. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters)

Relationship with Gwen
Rhys fancied Gwen Cooper from the moment they met in college, in part because of her looks. (TV: Adam) For their first date, Rhys took Gwen on a picnic on the beach, not knowing it was a nudist beach. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters) They were in the queue at a supermarket purchasing ingredients to make spaghetti bolognese when he realised that the dish would give Gwen garlic breath and decided that they would have to make something else, leading her to nickname him "Rhys the Rant" and kiss him for the first time. He decided in that moment that he would marry her one day. (TV: Adam)

Rhys and Gwen did not have sex until they had been on at least five dates. Gwen took Rhys back to her home where he found Geraint Cooper making a cup of tea, surprising him as he did not know that Gwen lived with her parents. (AUDIO: Thirst Trap) He was not much of a cook and Gwen would later remark that his visits to her house might have been the only time that he had a decent meal. After they moved into a flat together, their roles reversed and Rhys became the better cook of the two. (AUDIO: Department X) He celebrated with champagne when Gwen qualified as a police officer and told her how proud he was.

Rhys once had an interview with Luckley's (TV: Ghost Machine) and got a job as a transport manager. (TV: Day One) He put on the suit that he wore to the Luckley's interview for Mary Cooper's sixtieth birthday party, but his zip malfunctioned and Gwen chased him around the flat to staple his trousers shut. (TV: Ghost Machine) Although Rhys was aware of the Sycorax invasion, the Ghost Shift and the Battle of Canary Wharf, he did not believe that the parties responsible were aliens and reasoned that they were mass hallucinations caused by terrorists putting psychotropic drugs in the water supply.

Rhys heard about the murder of John Tucker and asked Gwen, who returned home after he had drunk tea with Banana Boat, if she was at the scene, which she denied. After she hit her head and claimed that she was going back to work regardless, Rhys protested and assumed in the morning that she had actually gone out drinking due to her condition after being retconned. He later told her about an argument he had with his mother about how rarely he visited her. (TV: Everything Changes)

Kept in the dark
When Gwen joined Torchwood, she told Rhys that she had been promoted to an admin role in special ops and that she could not discuss it with him. They went on a date to a bowling alley, a cinema and a restaurant, but Gwen had to leave to investigate the Sex Gas meteorite and could not give him an answer for when she would be home when he called to let her know that he was about to start cooking. When she did return home, she did not pay attention to his story about his knowledge of transport routes and he asked if she was "too grand to care" given her new job. (TV: Day One)

Rhys would stay up and listen to the local radio stations every night when Gwen was called out, sometimes until two in the morning, in case there was a report on a bank robbery or a raid on a crack den. Every night she was out there was a "nutter" on the radio talking about UFOs. It occurred to Rhys that the same nutter was probably on the radio every night she was not out as well. (PROSE: Slow Decay)

Gwen was again unable to tell Rhys if she would be home one night and he became frustrated, going to Daf's. There, he did well at a game of poker and left Gwen a message, returning home later that night after Daf and Karen had an argument and he decided against sleeping on their sofa. (TV: Ghost Machine)

Rhys and Gwen organised to go on a date to the Indian Summer as an apology for the amount of time she was spending away; there he bumped into his co-worker Lucy Sobel while waiting for Gwen. Gwen was convinced he had feelings for Lucy and Rhys realised that he and Gwen were falling apart. Rhys tried to change his lifestyle, visiting a weight-loss clinic, in order to maintain their relationship. He unknowingly became the host of an alien parasite. (PROSE: Slow Decay)

After having a few drinks with Daf, Rhys called Gwen to let him know that they were going for a curry and to ask her to record Wife Swap. (TV: Cyberwoman)

Rhys and Gwen returned to the flat to find it vandalised by Fairies. He was angered and confused by how the vandals had managed to get in. (TV: Small Worlds)

Because she was unable to share what she had gone through at Brynblaidd with Rhys, Gwen left him watching television and had sex with Owen Harper, beginning an affair with him. (TV: Countrycide)

Rhys was surprised to find Emma-Louise Cowell staying at the flat and, at Gwen's insistence, welcomed her to celebrate Christmas with them as Gwen claimed that she was her aunt's stepdaughter. When he got a call from Mary, however, he learnt that Emma was not an actual relative and was angry with Gwen for how easy she found it to lie to him. He stormed out. (TV: Out of Time)

Rhys was angry when Gwen left a restaurant to help Jack Harkness chase a Weevil and was upset at the state of their relationship. He went on Daf's "staying single stag" in what he called his pulling top, but he only managed two pints and returned home where Gwen drugged him with retcon before telling him about her affair with Owen, which she had decided to put a stop to. Before forgetting about it, he called Gwen selfish. (TV: Combat)

When the Rift's opening brought about what some believed to be the End of Days, Rhys wondered if terrorists were responsible. Gwen tasered him with a stun gun and locked him in the Hub after Bilis Manger gave her a vision of his death, but Bilis released him from his cell and then killed him with a blade. This led Gwen to join Owen, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones in opening the Rift again to return everything to normal, restoring Rhys without any knowledge of Torchwood or his own death. (TV: End of Days)

Rhys and Gwen went out for Valentine's Day. (AUDIO: Dinner and a Show)

Getting on one knee before getting a twinge in his back, Rhys proposed to Gwen whilst lying down on the sofa and she said yes. He succeeded in getting a job as manager of Harwood's Haulage and let Gwen know by telephone. When John Hart made suggestive comments, she told Rhys that he was "some idiot" she worked with. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) He later contributed to the Harwood's radio jingle. (TV: Meat)

Learning the truth
After Leighton Reynolds' lorry crashed, Rhys saw Gwen investigating the meat he was transporting with Jack, Owen and Ianto and called her back to the flat so that he could follow her back to work. He followed the Torchwood SUV to a warehouse where he told Greg and Dale that he hoped to continue Leighton's deliveries and was subsequently shown the Cash Cow, after which he forced Gwen to tell him the truth about her job and was taken to the Hub. He helped the group put a stop to the exploitation of the Cash Cow, in the course of which he was shot, and Gwen later refused to retcon him. (TV: Meat)

Jack was sent to Hell by Patrick Jefferson and, upon returning, bought plane tickets to Paris for Rhys and Gwen so that they could have a weekend away from worrying about Torchwood. (AUDIO: In the Shadows) When they returned, Gwen forgot about Rhys due to Adam Smith messing with her memories and he accused Jack of phasing him out of her memories so that he could have her to himself. Jack recorded Rhys reminiscing about how he met Gwen and she finally started to remember him after he ranted at a cashier. Despite his attempts to get her to stay home, she went to work and retconned herself to forget Adam. (TV: Adam)

Rhys was given a business card by Bilis Manger to pass on to Gwen and did so whilst they were having lunch, prompting her to tell him to go to his friends and remain with them for his own safety. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)

Rhys worried about Gwen's career and attempted to speak with her about it over coffee after she was able to get a morning off, but Jack called and interrupted the conversation. He visited her in hospital following an insectoid attack and took her to the Hub despite his misgivings once she decided to discharge herself. They learnt from Tosh about the relationship between the two insectoids and chased one to the Millennium Stadium where they both fought and Jack killed the victor, with Rhys remarking that sometimes there were too many people in harm's way. (PROSE: Harm's Way)

Rhys was awoken one night by a phone call from Gwen, who was emotional and needing to talk after Owen died and was brought back with a resurrection gauntlet. (TV: Dead Man Walking)

A married man
On the day of the wedding, Rhys learnt that Gwen had been impregnated by a Nostrovite and planned to cancel the ceremony for her own wellbeing despite the money, but she insisted on it going ahead. He was angry with Jack for interrupting the ceremony when the the Nostrovite mother came for the baby and punched him after Jack mistook Brenda for it. He destroyed the baby with a singularity scalpel after receiving instructions from Owen and tried to kill the mother with a chainsaw, but Jack killed it instead and Rhys and Gwen were married. The guests were retconned to forget the Nostrovite and Gwen's pregnancy. (TV: Something Borrowed)

Rhys and Gwen honeymooned in Cuba for ten days. (PROSE: SkyPoint)

Rhys wanted to start a family and repeatedly tried to get Gwen to talk to him about it. When she finally did and claimed that having a baby was impossible because of her work with Torchwood, he told her that living a real life was more important than her job and, when she began to bring up Jonah Bevan, he refused to talk about Torchwood. He made her sleep on the sofa that night and had her tell him everything about Jonah after she prepared an apology meal and asked to discuss their future. (TV: Adrift)

After Gwen overslept and Jack, Owen, Tosh and Ianto were injured in an explosion, Rhys helped her rescue them and learnt that Jack was immortal. He brought up the fact that Gwen too could have been buried if she had not slept in, but she refused to talk about it. (TV: Fragments)

Rhys dropped Owen off at St Helen's Hospital to investigate a Rift flare and went with Gwen to meet with Andy Davidson, who had Weevils locked in the police station cells. When more Weevils attacked, Rhys helped fight them until John Hart sent out a recall signal which ordered them to return to the sewers. (TV: Exit Wounds)

Rhys awoke on the All-Night Zombie Horror Show to find Gwen looking out of the bathroom window. Notified that she had heard a scream from outside, Rhys went with Gwen to check and found a tramp eating their neighbour's cat. When he looked up, Rhys and Gwen realised he was in fact a walking corpse and retreated inside to call Jack. The pair attempted to drive to the Hub, but Rhys crashed the Saab when he swerved to avoid a zombie. He took a golf club from the boot and followed Gwen on foot, now aiming to reach Cardiff's Police HQ where they could organise a police operation. Later, after attempting to "borrow" a car, the pair found themselves trapped in a house on Lloyd George Avenue with the car's owner - Keith Samuels - and his family. Rhys called his friend, Nobby, who saved them from the roof with a Coastguard helicopter. Rhys and Gwen met with Jack and Ianto at St Helen's Hospital, where they found that Leet - a Dellacoi - had created the zombies to search for his life-shell and control over the creatures had passed to Oscar Phillips, a coma patient. He watched as Oscar jumped from the window, killing himself and relinquishing his control over the zombies. The zombies dissolved into stardust and, as he left the hospital, Rhys notified Nina Rogers and Rianne Kilkenny that it was safe to come out of hiding. (PROSE: Bay of the Dead)

Around the Christmas season, Rhys and Gwen went shopping in Cardiff city centre and they saw Jack and Ianto outside of G.R. Owen's. (AUDIO: Department X)

During the 21st century Dalek invasion, Gwen phoned Rhys from the Hub, asking him to stay indoors and to tell Mary to take her pills and go to sleep. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

On one occasion, Rhys rescued Gwen from the malevolent Miss Joanna Carew after she investigated events around the death of his great uncle Bryn Williams at the Ivyday Nursing Home. After rescuing Gwen, Rhys asked if this made him an official member of Torchwood. Gwen said that he wouldn't want to be. (AUDIO: The Devil and Miss Carew)

When Cardiff was quarantined due to the Good Thinking virus, Rhys forced his way through the barricade in a lorry. He found Gwen, who shot him in the shoulder due to the virus before taking him to Cardiff Castle to be seen to by a medic. (AUDIO: Outbreak)

The 456
Rhys was a member of the renegade Torchwood team after the destruction of the Hub. Assisting in Gwen's escape to London, he acted as helmsman for the team, cooking for them and helping Ianto set up the base. During their escape in a lorry, Rhys learned Gwen was pregnant. Rhys, disguised as an undertaker, went with Gwen to free Jack, who had resurrected after the Hub's destruction. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two)

The renegade team came across the abandoned Torchwood One facility, where Jack had hidden a few years before. Rhys helped gather more supplies. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three)

He was entrusted with the footage of the government's deal in their plan to hold the government to ransom. Rhys stored the images on a laptop in a secret location outside the Houses of Parliament and waited for Gwen to give him the order to release the files to the public. After Jack and Ianto confronted the 456, refusing to surrender a single child to them, Ianto and Clement McDonald died. Gwen told Rhys that their plan was over. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four)

With Jack in custody, Frobisher arranged for Gwen and Rhys to be flown back to Cardiff on a helicopter. They were greeted by Andy on arriving. Gwen considered aborting her pregnancy. They went to Ianto's sister's house to save his niece and nephew. Rhys led the children from there to an abandoned warehouse to hide before the army arrived to secure the last of the children for the 456. After the 456 were defeated by Jack, Rhys and Gwen emerged unharmed, with Ianto's niece and nephew saved. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)

Post-Torchwood and the Miracle
Rhys and Gwen were declared dead as a result of the 456 Regulation. (TV: The New World)

Six months later, Rhys was at Gwen's side, expecting their child. He comforted her when Jack ran away from Earth. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five) After the fall of Torchwood, and with Gwen a mother to their new baby, John Hart was forced to team with Rhys on a time travel mission involving Ianto. (COMIC: Shrouded)

After Anwen Williams was born, Rhys and Gwen lived in an isolated part of Wales. Rhys tried to have a normal life, to stop Gwen from thinking of her work with Torchwood. When they visited Gwen's father Geraint at the hospital and learned of Miracle Day, he did not want her to investigate it. Rhys was swept up when Rex Matheson found them and they were attacked by unknown agents. (TV: The New World) Rhys' lack of official standing in Torchwood meant that Rex had no interest in him and he was left behind with Anwen. (TV: Rendition) Later, when Geraint was returned to the overflow camp, Rhys went there with Andy's help and was at his bedside when he regained consciousness and died as the Miracle ended. (TV: The Blood Line)

Gwen and Rhys spent a brief period following the Miracle based in Washington DC, (AUDIO: Army of One, Fallout)

Rebuilding Torchwood
By 2015 had returned to Wales with their daughter Anwen. He travelled with Gwen to Bryn Offa Residential Home after a phone call from Elunedd. Griffith told him that he had Jack in his mind. He later helped to locate a Torchwood base near Wrexham. After Anwen's mind was placed in Elunedd he demanded from Jack to know what had happened. He was later possessed by the Evolved. (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives) By 2017, Rhys was looking after Anwen while Gwen was forced to return to service as part of Torchwood with the emergence of new disturbances in space time in Cardiff following the apparent closure of the the Rift. (AUDIO: More Than This)

After escaping a cataclysm, they travelled back home before the babysitter clocked off. He argued with Gwen about how much she enjoyed working with Torchwood. He then thought she was in a mood with her. He got lost driving to Llanelli and got angry. They swapped driving duties. He thought it was getting darker and he couldn't see anything but he managed to get his eyesight back. He couldn't remember what he and Gwen had fought earlier that night. He then asked her how many people she had killed. When Gwen started acting weirdly he realised what they had fought earlier was in the back seat. (AUDIO: We Always Get Out Alive)

He was looking after Anwen when Gwen went to Talmouth. When he couldn't get hold of Gwen he came to Talmouth to look after her. (AUDIO: Made You Look)

Gwen and Rhys planned a weekend away in Newport, staying in a caravan. On the beach Gwen was reunited with Hollis Jefferson Albert, who had travelled from the Ice Maiden to bring her to Jack. Gwen kissed Rhys goodbye and asked him to look after Anwen. (COMIC: World Without End)

He went to visit his mother after she had hip surgery. He came on his own without Gwen and Anwen as his mother-in-law had been babysitting Anwen when they had been away. He thought something weird was going on when he saw a patient being taken to a closed off part of the hospital and watched an odd surgery. He worked out that the people he saw were from the past. He then desperately tried to escape Nichols and Tate. He told her that they were taking organs from living people. When the Cleaners came to get rid of the evidence he hid himself and his mother in the morgue. (AUDIO: Visiting Hours)

The Sorvix occupation
Rhys was unaware that Gwen had been taken over by Ng. (AUDIO: Orr, etc.) He went for a night out with Banana Boat on the night that Ng observed Madrigal's hen do (AUDIO: Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy) and went with her to Mary's funeral. He became concerned about "Gwen", thinking that she was not acting like herself, and encouraged her to take some time off of work. (AUDIO: Orr)

Rhys went to Ritz Tower to meet Colin Colchester-Price, feeling that they had something in common as prospective widowers of Torchwood agents. During the visit, he crossed paths with Bilis Manger, who he recognised. (AUDIO: A Kill to a View) After Andy was accused of killing an unarmed refugee, Rhys went to his house to keep him company. (AUDIO: The Empty Hand)

When Yvonne Hartman sent "Gwen" (actually possessed by Ng) and Colchester to investigate an escape room from which people did not leave, Rhys and Colin joined them. For a time, "Gwen" and Colin believed that Rhys had died from a fall. They managed to escape and learnt from the Sorvix Escape that God was coming. By this point, Rhys and "Gwen"'s marriage was falling apart. (AUDIO: Escape Room)

Rhys left Cardiff with Gwen after it was revealed that she had been possessed by Ng and the two were split. Having killed her mother, she wanted a new life with Rhys and Anwen. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn) Before leaving Cardiff, they attended Colchester's funeral. (AUDIO: Future Pain)

A new life
Some time after leaving Cardiff, Rhys was travelling back to Wales on a cargo ship. Upon seeing a set of rubber ducks attack a life boat he thought that they were facing something alien. Rhys fought the Nestene Consciousness aboard a ship. He realised that they were creating an invasion fleet from the ships and aimed to keep Kaitlin Russell when the Nestene wanted information from her. (AUDIO: Sargasso)

After moving to a lighthouse in Iceland, Rhys worked at the docks whilst Gwen helped out at a shop. The two of them were trapped inside their home by Ng to protect Gwen from the Mist, but Ng became trapped with them and was ready to commit suicide to break her deal with the Mist and save Gwen. Rhys managed to convince his wife to keep Ng from killing herself, after which Ng got rid of the Mist by expressing her regret to her child and Rhys gave her his thanks. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline in which John Hart took control of the Torchwood Institute and became King of the British Empire, Rhys was married to Gwen and came to Torchwood Cardiff to demand answers when she disappeared. There, he learnt from the king that she had been killed, and was offered a million pounds. Insulted by John's disregard for human life, Rhys threatened to go to the press only to be shot dead by the king, who ordered that his body be disposed of in an incinerator. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)

Personality
In common with most of Earth's population, Rhys initially believed that alien interference with Earth in the 2000s was mass hallucinations induced by terrorists putting psychotropic drugs in the water supply. When Gwen put this theory to Jack he called Rhys stupid. (TV: Everything Changes)

Rhys was easy going, amiable and straightforward. He had a cheeky sense of humour and little modesty, such as when he was seen naked by a complete stranger. (TV: Out of Time) He knew how to charm Gwen out of her moods. He would joke with Gwen about her "Secret Squirrel" job. However, his relationship with Gwen began to fall apart and a note of anger and suspicion began to emerge. (TV: Combat) He appeared to come to terms with things, and later was quite capable of mixing talk about buying a house and Torchwood business with ease. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)

Rhys liked root beer. (AUDIO: Fallout) He did not consider himself to be religious. (AUDIO: Army of One)

He had poor knowledge of the Welsh language. (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives)

Behind the scenes

 * The production team had originally intended Rhys to die at the end of series one but this was overruled by Russell T Davies, who felt that without Rhys, the show's main link to the real world would be lost.
 * Although Rhys plays a recurring role in the first two series, actor Kai Owen was not given star billing until the third series.
 * In The Sarah Jane Adventures television story, The Day of the Clown, a paper with the name Rhys Williams written on it is seen the notice board in Luke, Clyde and Rani's classroom.