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Ryan Atwood was adopted by Sandy and Kirsten Cohen.
Season 1
In the beginning of the story, Ryan Atwood is a teenager living in Chino. He was caught stealing a car with his brother Trey and later met attorney Sandy Cohen. Ryan was later abandoned by his mother, Dawn Atwood and Sandy eventually adopted Ryan, with some objections from Sandy's wife, Kirsten Cohen, at the beginning. However, it didn't take long for Kirsten to warm up to this new addition in her household, and since then, Ryan has been living in Newport Beach. He has become a brother to Sandy and Kirsten's misfit son Seth Cohen, and Sandy and Kirsten consider him as a second son. Ryan was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Marissa Cooper, the girl next door who went through traumatic changes over the entire season.
During the middle of the season, Ryan's relationship with Marissa was interrupted by Oliver Trask, a mentally deranged person who loved Marissa. Ryan and Marissa fought over Oliver's intentions and broke off their relationship. At this time, Ryan slept with Theresa, an old girlfriend from Chino. At the end of the season, Theresa was pregnant and Ryan, thinking that he was the father instead of Theresa's abusive fiance Eddie, decided to return to Chino and take care of Theresa and her child.
Season 2
Not surprisingly, Ryan returned to Newport Beach in the first episode of the Season 2, after Theresa made him believe she had a miscarriage.
Ryan is portrayed as much more mature in the second season. After he broke up with Marissa Cooper, Ryan had a relationship with Lindsay Gardner, who is soon discovered as Kirsten Cohen's illegitimate half-sister. Later, after Lindsay moved to Chicago with her mother, Ryan reunited with Marissa. At the end of the season, there is a cliff-hanging fight between Ryan and his brother, Trey Atwood. Trey had tried to rape Marissa, while Ryan was in Miami visiting his step-grandmother, Sophie Cohen. Eventually Ryan found out about the attempted rape which lead to a confrontation between him and Trey. The confrontation turned violent and Trey had Ryan pinned to the floor and was strangling him. Marissa walked in and pleaded with Trey to let Ryan go. Trey, in a fit of rage refused and Marissa shot him in the back as a result. It was left unclear whether Trey survived or not until the third season.
Season 3
After being in a Coma for two months, Trey wakes up and initially when offered money by Julie Cooper implicated Ryan in the shooting. He then however cleared Ryan's name afterwards when confronted by Marissa and subsequently left Newport. Ryan and Marissa both faced a campaign to expell both of them from parents at the prestigious harbour school as a result of the shooting however, which resulted in the school board and the new Dean of Discipline Jack Hess expelling Marissa, and later Ryan after he assaulted the dean. Marissa then ended up going to Newport Union public high school, with Ryan eventually being re-admitted to Harbour after Dean Hess was blackmailed over having an affair with a student, Taylor Townsend. While Marissa was at Newport Union, until she was readmitted again into Harbour, she made friends with another boy Johnny Harper and his friend Chilli, who later complicated Ryan's relationship with Marissa when Johnny fell in love with her & Ryan was suspicious about whether the feelings were reciprocated. Marissa confirmed her committment to her relationship with Ryan, and told Johnny although he was her friend and she cared for him she would never be in love with him. This rejection prompted Johnny to go on a drinking binge, which resulted in Johnny falling off a cliff despite both Ryan and Marissa trying to talk him down. This resulted in Ryan and Marissa becoming distant from each other, and both of them admitting there relationship was not working and breaking up. Ryan then started dating Sadie Campbell, Johnny's cousin who moved down to Newport temporarily to help her aunt. The relationship was short lived however when Ryan was accepted into Berkeley and they admitted they had little concievable future together with Ryan due to leave for college in the fall and Sadie then left Newport. He recently became reaquainted with his waitress mother and had a love relationship with his mother's waitress co-worker& his graduation from Harbour is coming up. Both him and Marissa will be going to Berkeley next year together, and whether or not they will get back together remains uncertain.