General Hospital Star Maurice Benard Opens Up About His Exit and Sonny’s Recast
In July 2024, General Hospital star Maurice Benard had a mental health emergency that forced him to stay away from the GH sets. As a result, the unparalleled star of the soap could not film his character, Sonny Corinthis, for two long weeks. Maurice admitted that the 2-week stretch was a really dark time for him.
It all started when his wife and son left him alone at home and headed for a trip to Europe. He admitted that his mental health saw a steep decline during that period. Maurice filmed an episode for his YouTube talk show, State of Mind, and in it he divulged that had he stayed away from filming General Hospital for another week, the ABC soap would have had to recast him.
“If I had to stay away another week. They would have to recast. And I’ll tell you right now, if they had to recast I’d have been in really bad shape,” Maurice stated. After his revelation, many fans and online portals started speculating that GH exec Frank Valentini had threatened to recast Sonny if Maurice didn’t resume filming.
However, in a recent Instagram post, Maurice Benard clarified that the speculations weren’t true at all. He asserted that GH’s executive producer, Frank Valentini did not put any pressure on him to return or threaten him with a recast. Furthermore, the GH mainstay added, ” I can’t tell you how generous and great, and amazing Frank Valentini was during that period.”
Maurice clarified that “it kind of seemed that some people thought that he was threatening me in some kind of way to recast if I didn’t come back, and that wasn’t the case at all.” He went on to say that Frank is very generous and that he has known him for a long time, and he has always been like that.
It is good to hear that Maurice Benard was treated with love and compassion by the production of the soap he has given so many decades of his life. Anything contrasting to that would have been absolutely heartbreaking. Stay tuned to Soap Opera Daily for more General Hospital spoilers. Also, bear in mind that the filming stretch that Maurice missed is up for airing soon, so fans may see a little less of Sonny in the upcoming episodes.
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Source: The Wall Street Journal
