Jessica DiLaurentis (Book Character)

Jessica Day-DiLaurentis is the mother of Jason, Alison, and Courtney DiLaurentis. In "Heartless" it is revealed that Ali and Courtney were sired by Peter Hastings, the father of Spencer and Melissa. Before the DiLaurentis'es moved to Rosewood their last name was "Day" they changed it due to their secret daughter, Courtney.

Physical Appearance
Jessica is blonde and blue-eyed with a svelte figure. When she is seen on TV and Ali's funeral it is noted that her hair is stylishly cut in shaggy layers.

Biography
Jessica DiLaurentis and her husband Kenneth attended the same school, Yale Law School, as Veronica and Peter Hastings. Peter had an affair with Jessica around the same time he and Veronica had tried to conceive Spencer. At the time the twins were conceived, it is presumed that Veronica's surrogate, Olivia Caldwell, was already pregnant with Spencer since she was born around two months before Ali and Courtney. Peter only found out about the children after they were born. He had a blurry picture of Jessica seven months pregnant tucked away in his home office.

The DiLaurentises originally lived in Connecticut until the girls were about 7-8 years old. Courtney had forced Ali underneath the water of their swimming pool and their parents were horrified by the fact that they had a mentally unstable child. They eventually moved to Rosewood, where Courtney was quickly placed into the Radley, a mental institute, and the family pretended there were only two children. It is unknown why exactly Rosewood was chosen as the desired place to reside, but it certainly wasn't coincidence that the DiLaurentises ended up living on the same street as the Hastings. They were even next-door neighbors.On the night of Ali's disappearance, Jessica and Peter were together. Presumably they resumed their affair sometime after she and her family got settled in.

When the Radley was closed, Jessica and Kenneth had to send Courtney to a new institute. They chose the Preserve at Addison-Stevens, a lush clinic located near the border between Pennsylvania and Delaware. Courtney was extremely upset and didn't want to go. She managed to successfully fool her mother into taking her sister to the institute instead. It is rather odd that Jessica didn't notice anything amiss: though the twins were supposedly "identical", there were some subtle differences in their faces (Ali had a slightly thinner face, Courtney's was more heart-shaped) that any parent should have recognized. Regardless, she took the wrong daughter to the institute, unwittingly changing the lives of the entire family forever.

When Ali doesn't show up from the sleepover, Jessica remains fairly calm, asking her closest friends by phone if she was with them. However, when there is no sign of Ali, Jessica is panicked and calls the police. She is also quick to send the real Alison, who was visiting that weekend, back to the mental institute. She and the family move out of Rosewood; when Ali's body is found three years later and Ian is the suspect, they move to neighboring town Yarmouth for the trial.

After a construction worker is found to be the killer, Jessica decides to make a public announcement about the existence of "Courtney" DiLaurentis. She fusses and worries over Courtney, who seems annoyed by her mother-henning. When Rosewood finally learns of the truth behind Ali's death, she and her family flee Yarmouth. It is unknown whether Jessica had any inkling of her daughter's involvement in the death of the other beforehand. It is hinted that Kenneth knew the truth about his daughters' paternity and fought constantly with Jessica. The real Alison noted that she was surprised they hadn't gotten a divorce yet. It is uncertain if Courtney or Jason knew, though the latter most likely came to his own conclusions on the matter.