| Jenny Harrison | |||||||||||||||
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| Shortland Street character | |||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Maggie Harper | ||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1992–1998, 2002 | ||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 26 May 1992 | ||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 14 September 2002 | ||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Caterina De Nave (1992) Harriet Crampton (2002) | ||||||||||||||
| Book appearances | Shortland Street books – Nick's story (1996) | ||||||||||||||
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Jenny Harrison is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. She was portrayed by Maggie Harper as part of the show's original cast, making her first appearance in the second episode. Harper quit the role in 1998 but reprised the character briefly 4 years later.
Jenny was created as the single mother of teenage rebel, Nick Harrison (Karl Burnett) after surviving an abusive marriage with Nick's father. The personal assistant to the Shortland Street clinic's chief executive officer, Michael McKenna (Paul Gittins), Jenny was the embodiment of the strong and wise matriarch the shows producers wished to portray. Jenny headlined numerous storylines including a secret love affair with Guy Warner (Craig Parker), a secret revealing Nick may not be her biological son, numerous romances, a pregnancy and later abortion, breast cancer, a brief marriage to the villainous Ian Seymour (David Press) and departing the show to work in politics alongside best friend, Marj Brasch (Elizabeth McRae). By the time Jenny departed in 1998, she was the show's longest running character and only one of the two remaining original cast, beside her son Nick.
Jenny was a popular character. Many of Jenny's storyline were notable, including a never-finished story where she developed a cyst and a hugely controversial storyline where she had an abortion.