Kirby has a case of "upstairs, downstairs" syndrome. She is the daughter of the Carrington's majordomo Joseph Anders and his wife Alicia. Kirby grew up with Fallon, Steven and Jeff and often was included in the children’s' parties. Alicia left when Kirby was two and she was raised by her father. Joseph provided his daughter with the best life he could. She attended school at the Sorbonne in Paris and obtained a degree in Humanities.
While living in Paris, she had an affair with a married French Count. Upon her return to Denver, Kirby's childhood crush on Jeff returned in full force. As a way to stay close to him she accepted a job as a nanny for Little Blake.
Adam was attracted to Kirby and even more so when he realized that she wanted Jeff. He offered Kirby a job with Colbyco as a translator and although she didn't take the job on a full time basis, she did agree to translate a few documents for him. As a thank you, he invites her to dinner. She accepts the invitation and comes to dine at Alexis' penthouse. Adam gets aggressive and although she tries to get away from him, he rapes her.
Afraid to be alone with him, Kirby objects to going to a conference with Adam but he swears he'll be on his best behavior. While she's sleeping he stops at a motel and tries to seduce her again. Jeff bursts through the door and rescues Kirby from Adam's clutches. Jeff and Kirby grew closer and made love. A few weeks later Jeff proposed marriage. She immediately accepted and they ran off to Reno to elope. At long last Kirby had achieved her dream of being Mrs. Jeffrey Colby. The fairy tale didn't go as planned.
Within a month of getting married, Kirby discovered she was pregnant. She and Jeff were overjoyed about the news until her obstetrician told her that she was over three months pregnant instead of the month she thought she was. Kirby was horrified to realize that her unborn child was Adam's. She tried to induce a miscarriage by falling off a horse but it didn't work. Her world was turned upside down after Joseph confessed to trying to kill Alexis and Krystle then shot himself to death. Faced with the truth coming out about the baby, Kirby told Jeff about the rape and the fact that the baby isn't his. Jeff beat Adam to a pulp for raping Kirby and told him she was carrying his child.
Adam did a complete about-face and begged Kirby to give him a chance to be a good husband and father. Kirby agreed to marry Adam as soon as her divorce from Jeff was final. Things took another turn for the worse when she developed preclampsia. She paid no attention to the doctor's warnings and ended up being hospitalized with hypertension. Her condition got substantially worse and became life threatening. Doctors delivered a baby girl but the child died shortly after birth.
Distraught over her loss of her child, her marriage and her father, Kirby snapped when Alexis decided she wanted Kirby out of Adam's life. She offered her a job in Paris that Kirby declined to take. As a last-ditch effort Alexis showed Kirby newspaper clippings that proved that her mother was still living and being held in a prison for the criminally insane after she killed her lover in a jealous rage. Kirby realized that Joseph killed himself to keep Alexis quiet and decided to kill her. She confronted Alexis with a gun. Alexis watched as a very shaky Kirby put the gun down and accepted Alexis' offer to go to Paris. She packed up and left without a word to Adam or anyone else.
Years later, Adam and Kirby met again in Switzerland. While she tried to help Adam rescue Jeff, she discovered that she really was in love with Adam. They made peace with each other and when he proposed to her, she willingly accepted.
