Soaps
A Deep Dive Into ‘General Hospital’ Vet Maurice Benard’s Marriage: How They Met & More
Maurice Benard has become a soap opera legend, playing mobster Sonny Corinthos on General Hospital over the last three decades. Sonny has loved many women over the years — Carly, Brenda, etc. — but only one woman has his heart in real life.
The Daytime Emmy winner has been happily married to Paula Benard for 35 years. The actor recently opened up about meeting his wife for the first time so many years ago. From how they met to why he stood her up at first to their family life today, Swooon is doing a deep dive into Maurice’s real-life love story with his beloved wife.
How did Maurice Benard and his wife meet?
Maurice first met Paula Smith at the mall in the 1980s when she was just 16 years old. The actor is five years her senior. “I was dating a lot, and I said, ‘She’s cute.’ She had big eyes, and she was dancing,” he said on The Maurice & Anna Show.
He asked her out at the time, and stood her up because of her age. A year later, Maurice asked Paula out again. During Paula’s State of Mind interview with Maurice, she admitted that she thought her now-husband was “very handsome” the first time she saw him. “I loved your curly hair,” she noted. “I thought you were way too handsome for me.”
In the same interview, Maurice revealed that he had spent time in a mental institution in the year after he’d first met her. (The actor and mental health advocate has been open about his bipolar disorder diagnosis.) When he returned to the mall and saw that she was still working at the same store, he asked her out again.
The couple moved to New York when he got the role of Nico Kelly on All My Children. The move was tough on their relationship, and they broke up for a period of time. “I did some stuff over a weekend that I should not have done,” he said on State of Mind.
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Maurice realized he wanted to get back together with Paula after he had a dream that she died. In the same dream, he won an Oscar and thanked her. He called Paula in the middle of the night and met up with her the next day. They got back together, and he threw her a surprise 21st birthday party in San Francisco. They’ve been together ever since.
When did Maurice Benard and his wife get married?
At Paula’s surprise birthday party, Maurice popped the question — sort of. “You said, ‘I want to make an announcement. I want to announce Paula and I are getting married.’ But you never asked me,” Paula admitted. “You made up for it later.” They officially married in 1990.
Maurice planned a surprise wedding for their 10th anniversary. “You finally asked me to marry you,” Paula quipped to Maurice during her State of Mind episode. “You gave me another ring because my original wedding ring was stolen.”
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Paula didn’t get the chance to wear her original wedding dress, but she boxed it up and later wore it to the couple’s second wedding.
During his discussion on The Maurice & Anna Show, Benard was candid about why he’s never strayed in his nearly 40-year marriage. “It’s love… and I got way too much to lose,” he said.
In 2023, he marked his 33rd wedding anniversary with a special post. “33 Years of Marriage. What can I say that I haven’t said 1000 times over. Sometimes you meet someone and you have no idea that this person is going to save your life many times over. Who is going to build a life that you could never have dreamed of. through the highs and lows through the peaks and valleys, what I have learned is, we will always have each other!” he wrote about his wife.
Do Maurice Benard and his wife have kids?
Maurice and Paula have four children: Cailey Sofia, Cassidy Rose, Heather Rose, and Joshua James. They also adopted Paula’s younger sister, Heather, when she was 15 after her mother’s death in 2008. Maurice and Paula now have three grandchildren.
“There’s nothing I’ve ever done in this life that’s meant more to me than having my kids,” Paula said in her interview with her husband.
General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC
