The Untold Truth Of Amy From The Big Bang Theory

Of course Amy's character was created for the purpose of giving Sheldon a love interest, but that doesn't mean she didn't have relationships of her own outside of Sheldon. During the show we see her go on a date with Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) and have a brief fling with David Gibbs (Stephen Merchant). However, Amy also mentions to Sheldon that she used to be engaged to a Saudi Arabian prince in Season 4, Episode 15, "The Benefactor Factor." Amy tries to convince Sheldon that fundraising and campaigning for funding is a crucial job for all scientists. She tells Sheldon she received her funding after traveling to Saudi Arabia and meeting with a prince who had an interest in neurobiology.

When Sheldon becomes skeptical of this idea, she also tells him that the prince, Faisal, is technically her fiancé. Though this could be considered strange, Amy rationalizes it by remembering that she now has a state-of-the-art two-photon microscope and a place to stay if she travels to Riyadh for the winter. The engagement is never mentioned again, but clearly Amy ended it with Faisal once she gained more success and her official relationship with Sheldon.

From Amy's first full season on the show in Season 4, she is adamant about her love and admiration for Penny. Even before Amy becomes a fully realized and developed character, she considers Penny her best friend. In Season 4, Episode 13, "The Love Car Displacement," Amy asks Penny to accompany her to a science convention where their friends are speaking. Penny says she has plans and can't attend, and Amy says she's disappointed — it would be a great bonding opportunity for them because Penny is her best friend. Penny seems to be confused, to which Amy responds that she's blogged about their best friendship.

Amy's feelings are crystal clear. However, as close as Penny and Amy are, it takes Penny a long time to be clear about her feelings — seven seasons, to be exact. In Season 11, Episode 12, "The Matrimonial Metric," Amy is searching for her maid of honor through a series of secret experiments. Of course, Bernadette and Penny find out about the experiments and are understandably frustrated, but it isn't until near the end of the episode that Penny realizes she's frustrated because Amy didn't just immediately ask her to be the maid of honor. Speaking to Leonard, she tries to play it off like she doesn't care about the best friend label, but realizes that Amy is her best friend and should've asked her. Penny storms into Amy's apartment and tells her that Amy is her best friend and that she's going to be her maid of honor. After seven seasons of waiting to hear this from Penny, Amy explodes in happiness and runs to hug Penny, screaming, "Bestie!"

Amy is quite the accomplished woman and a brilliant neurobiologist. In real life, Amy's portrayer, Mayim Bialik, shares a lot of the same attributes, not least the fact that they both have a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Bialik started in acting, though, starring in the sitcom "Blossom" that ran for five seasons.

In an op-ed for the New York Times, Bialik wrote about how she left the entertainment industry because she "craved being around people who valued me more for what was inside my brain than what was inside my bra." She continued to talk about how she was constantly berated in reviews of "Blossom" for her appearance, and that the incessant stress made her want to leave the industry altogether. She also said "after 12 years away from Hollywood, I returned to acting, largely because I had no health insurance and missed performing and making people laugh."

Many people forget that Sheldon and Amy actually met through an online dating service — mostly because it seems unheard of that either character would ever use one. Because Sheldon was so focused on his work and had an aversion to romantic relationships, Raj and Howard had to serve as the catalyst for "Shamy." In Season 3, Episode 23, "The Lunar Excitation," Raj and Howard decide to sign Sheldon up for an online dating service as an experiment to see if they can find a match. Their experiment pans out and the service matches Sheldon with Amy, whom the boys email to set up a meeting with her. When they tell Sheldon, he's extremely skeptical at first, assuming Raj and Howard have no idea how to answer the questions the way he would, but they eventually convince him based on blackmail and experimental curiosity.

Of course we know why Sheldon was signed up, but when Sheldon and Amy meet it's clear she wouldn't sign up for a dating service of her own accord. She explains to him that she's only there because she told her mother she would date once per year. Both of them are awkward and unwilling at the beginning of the meeting, and have very similar personalities and verbiage. However, Sheldon really gets hooked when Amy mentions that she won't be engaging in most physical activity with him, including coitus. Amy's similarity to Sheldon and the reason she signed up for the dating service make them an instant match.

Amy has close individual relationships with most of the friend group, but one character she has little screen time with is Howard. However, in Season 7, Episode 3, "The Scavenger Vortex," Amy and Howard are paired together for a scavenger hunt. Raj sets up a bunch of clues for the three sets of partners to figure out, and though Howard and Amy feel awkward at first being paired together, they quickly break the ice because of one musician: Neil Diamond. When trying to find common ground, the two discover they're both fans of the artist, and spend the rest of the episode singing "Sweet Caroline," "America," "Love on the Rocks," and "Cherry, Cherry," and they even buy tickets to an upcoming Neil Diamond concert.

In her interview with TBS, Mayim Bialik talked about how that episode was one of her favorites, but not because of Amy's love for Neil Diamond. Rather, the episode was extremely special because of Bialik's affection for Howard's actor, Simon Helberg. To TBS, Bialik said, "I am his biggest fan and I tell him that pretty much weekly. Singing with Simon was a highlight of 'TBBT' for me. He's so fun, he's so brilliant and I just hope I can somehow match his skills someday!" As it's one of the episodes that gives us more insight into Amy's likes, "The Scavenger Vortex" is definitely a highlight for Amy fans as well.

Throughout the show, Amy isn't known for being in favor of physical activity. From her initial aversion to physical intimacy to her inability to ride horses because of her narrow pelvis, Amy is much more of a brain-centered activities woman. This is proven in Season 8, Episode 12, "The Space Probe Disintegration," when Amy and Penny are trying to figure out something to do for fun and Penny suggests ice skating, but Amy says she's unable to ice skate because of her unnaturally brittle ankles. Because of her history with other physical struggles, this is easy for the audience to believe.

However, according to an article from Express UK, fans were quick to point out that this fact about Amy contradicts another episode. In Season 9, Episode 2, "The Separation Oscillation," Sheldon and Amy have broken up, and Sheldon is returning Amy's scarf from an ice skating date. To this, Amy responds, "You mean the night that I went ice skating and you stood at the rail Googling the symptoms of hypothermia?" It's unlikely that within the span of not even a full season Amy would've strengthened her brittle ankles, so it's been singled out by fans as a plot hole.

For "Shamy" fans who wondered what happened after Sheldon and Amy fell in love, got married, and won a Nobel Prize, "Young Sheldon" just might have the answers. Though "The Big Bang Theory" ends with the couple receiving the prestigious award, that's not the end of their love story. After "The Big Bang Theory" had primetime success, the franchise expanded with a spinoff show about Sheldon Cooper's childhood, "Young Sheldon," which features adult Sheldon actor Jim Parsons contributing a voiceover. Some details about Sheldon's life have been revealed through Parsons' lines, and because of his marriage to Amy, some of the details of her post-"Big Bang" life are revealed, too.

In "Young Sheldon" Season 4, Episode 1, "Graduation," Sheldon talks about how the graduation party he and his family attended was the best one they'd been to until his son's graduation. It's revealed that their child's name is Leonard, no doubt after both their best friend Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon's idol and "Star Trek" actor Leonard Nimoy. Sheldon then says he wanted to name their son Leonard Nimoy Cooper, to which Mayim Bialik's Amy interjects and says "Be happy I let you name him Leonard." This episode not only brings back Amy and the witty banter between the couple, but it also shows that Amy and Sheldon's relationship is stronger than ever, with a child to continue their brilliant legacies.