General Hospital news says that you think you know everything about him until you realize there’s so much more you could still learn about him. Of course, we are talking about actor Maurice Benard, who plays Sonny Corinthos on the hit ABC soap. Here’s a run down of just a few of the more tragic details of his life.
General Hospital News: Tragic Details About Maurice Benard
In 2022, and while on Good Morning America, Maurice talked about his battle with bipolar disorder. He said, “I was 21 when I started; I had my first nervous breakdown and was in a mental institution, strapped down to a bed. At that time, I had a lot of bad thoughts and I was thinking, you know, like, how do I get out of here? And I knew that there was a reason. And then I got General Hospital and I played a character with bipolar. Then I did a book about my mental health and now I’m doing a show called State of Mind about mental health and I know because when I was in the at period in the mental institution, I knew there was a reason why I was doing this, why I was there. I knew deep down inside there was a reason, and it’s for me to help other people with mental illness.”
He’s also weighed in on his popular YouTube series. Maurice said that when he began State of Mind, all he wanted to do was have a place for his friends, family and co-stars to talk about some mental health issues that otherwise aren’t talked about unless it’s behind closed doors. He puts i this way, “All I want is for this to be two people in a room having a conversation with each other and somebody’s looking through a peephole going, “Wow.” No interview. I tell everybody the same thing — the way I free people’s minds is I say, “Look, whatever you say you don’t want [in the finished product], I’ll cut, so you don’t have to worry about, ‘Oh, should I say this?’ ” And out of 90 interviews, only one person has had me cut something.”
Back in 2020, both Maurice and his wife Paula Benard talked about their relationship in a way that they’ve never opened up about before. Maurice admitted that things were pretty tough for them behind closed doors because of his bipolar disease. At one point, Maurice even admitted that he wanted to do some serious harm to his beloved wife. Maurice admitted that after he stopped taking his meds, he heard voices in his head that told him to threaten his wife.
But Paula said despite everything she’s been through with him, she never even once thought about leaving him. She said, “It’s no different than living with anyone with any other problem… I mean, yes, it’s difficult, but you know… I don’t know. I don’t think twice about it. I just do whatever we have to do to manage it,” she continued. “When times are hard, then we dig deeper and figure out what we need to do. But to me, it’s almost a question that shouldn’t even be asked.”
General Hospital News: What’s Next For Maurice?
In September, Maurice said he wants to talk more about suicide prevention. Maurice shared a video on social media and said he promise there will be many more YouTube episodes in which he talks about suicide and depression. He started off his clip by saying, “When I hear about a suicide. I don’t know what it is in me, I feel like I could have done something about it… even though I probably couldn’t. I don’t know how to fix it. We have to figure it out. Because look — we only hear about the celebrities that commit suicide. We don’t hear about all the other people that you know, that I know. The only way that I know how to fix it… it by what I’m doing here. And that’s talking… bringing awareness.”
Let us know what you think by leaving us a line with your thoughts in our comments section below. General Hospital airs weekdays on the ABC network. Check your local listings for times.
Be sure to catch up with everything on GH right now. Come back here often for General Hospital spoilers, news and updates.