Go ahead and gasp — it’s true. All My Children’s Maria was hitched to Seinfeld’s J. Peterman from 1992-94. Fans of the actress (most recently Young & Restless’ Celeste) more likely recall her marriage of nearly a decade to her All My Children leading man, the late John Callahan (Edmund) — opposite whom O’Hurley acted on Santa Barbara (as Craig and Stephen, respectively)! How’s that for full circle?
In 2005, the Guiding Light Emmy winners who played Jonathan and Dinah became an item. During an interview with Soap Opera Digest at the time, wardrobe stylist Martha Smith chuckled, “You have to make sure you knock on their dressing-room doors.” Tognoni married Joseph Chiarello in 2009; as of 2022, Pelphrey’s significant other has been Big Bang Theory alum Kaley Cuoco.
The General Hospital Emmy winner, who plays Jason, is now a happily married family guy. But back in 1996, he was all about his then-girlfriend, the future Sharknado star (briefly Ashley on Days of Our Lives). “Two weeks after we met, I just never left her house,” he told Soap Opera Digest at the time. “She’s everything I want.”
Long (long!) before meeting husband Scott Bailey (Sandy, Guiding Light), the soap-hopper, who’s played Amber on both The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, dated the frontman for the Goo Goo Dolls. “He’s a good balance for her,” Bold & Beautiful castmate Susan Flannery (ex-Stephanie) told People.com in 2001. “He seems able to calm and reassure her.”
Even at the end of their relationship in the early 1990s, the Guiding Light co-stars saved the drama for Harley and Mallet. Rumors persisted that the exes stopped speaking, but Ehlers told Soap Opera Digest in 2004, “I don’t know that we didn’t talk when we broke up… I don’t think we ever were fighting. We just grew apart.”
From the late 1980s to the mid-’90s, there wasn’t a tighter couple than the Another World heartthrob (who played Dean) and the future Baywatch star (who during that time went from Ryan’s Hope to One Life to Live); they even did two TV movies together. And when rumors swirled that their engagement was off in 1996, she insisted to the Sun-Sentinel that “people just like to make trouble.” If only.
The Days of Our Lives stars (who play Chloe and Shawn, respectively) would’ve had beautiful babies. But Bjorlin’s mother was most definitely not on board with their lengthy relationship. As Daytime Confidential reported in 2011, she told her daughter during an episode of Dirty Soap, “If you get married and have children, I will kill you myself.” Yikes.
The All My Children grad (who played Hayley) has been married to former leading man Mark Consuelos (Matéo) for so long now, it’s easy to forget that she had a life before him. But have a life, she did, one that included a brief 1994 romance with Young, then just a Hollywood wannabe a few years away from his big break on Beverly Hills, 90210.
Were it not for the pandemic, Young & Restless fans might never have known that Adam and Sharon’s portrayers were for a time an off-screen couple. “The reason why we finally mentioned it to the studio is… just so that we wouldn’t have to distance,” Case told the 90210MG iHeartRADIO podcast in 2021, “in case the show wanted to write us in scenes together.”
Way back in the mid-’80s, before the Another World Emmy winner (for her portrayal of twins Vicky and Marley) made headlines for her relationships with older man Steve Martin and older woman Ellen DeGeneres, she was quietly involved with her soap castmate, the future Young & Restless actor who was at the time playing a pimp named Chad. Yes, Chad.
In the mid-’80s, the Emmy winners — then playing Days of Our Lives’ Frankie and Santa Barbara’s Eden — were daytime’s It couple. Alas, “it” was the one thing they couldn’t make. After their two-year marriage, the actress, now wed to her fifth husband, told Soap Opera Digest, “He thought I was somehow more valuable than him, and I could never live it down.”
Almost two decades after they crossed paths as All My Children’s Matt and Robin, the former Deborah Hunter (best known as Bold & Beautiful shrink Taylor) called it quits with her husband (once Young & Restless twins Blade and Rick). “There are situations,” she told SoapCentral.com in 2005, “where sometimes certain healings need to take place, and they can’t do that unless there’s distance.”
They’ll always have Santa Barbara. That’s the soap that paired up Irizarry (best known as All My Children baddie David) and Coleman (later Young & Restless’ Hope) as star-crossed lovers Scott and Celeste in the late-’80s. The couple’s real-life marriage lasted only a few years, but it left them with more than memories: They have a daughter together, Siena.
From 1992-2006 — back when they were All My Children’s Tad and Loving’s Tess (and, later, One Life to Live’s Lindsay) — the former marrieds were a real-life soap supercouple. In a 1994 interview with People.com, the Emmy winner (now a General Hospital scene stealer) recalled meeting David Hasselhoff’s ex-wife at her 35th birthday party as being “like falling in clover.” Aww.
Daytime’s “it” couple in the early 2020s split up only eight weeks after their lavish steampunk-inspired wedding. What’s more, they were never really married, the General Hospital star (who plays Michael) revealed in 2022. “We didn’t actually sign anything.” Why’d they separate? “There wasn’t anything terrible that happened,” he said, adding that he’s “still on good terms” with the soap-hopper who took Sally from Bold & Beautiful to Young & Restless.
Before Duell’s romance with Hope, he was seriously involved with the One Life to Live vet who played Starr and then Kiki to his Michael on General Hospital. When they split up after three years, she tweeted that “it wasn’t an easy decision for us, but we’ve remained optimistic and friends.”
A decade before Young & Restless’ Victoria married leading man Thad Luckinbill (ex-J.T.), she divorced another of her leading men, the future NCIS and Bull star who played Cooper to her Steffi on Loving in the mid-’90s. Perhaps more shocking than that they were a couple is the fact that their son, August, is now — what?!? — in his 20s.
After the future Bold & Beautiful leading man was cast as Carlo on Days of Our Lives in 1984, he began a relationship with co-star Gloria Loring, who played Liz. They were “together for three years,” the former Mrs. Alan Thicke told Michael Fairman TV. “Don treated me with such kindness and respect,” in so doing teaching her to treat herself better.
While working on Young & Restless (as Ashley and Brad), the castmates became…well, more than castmates. In his book, My Seven Sons and How We Raised Each Other, the Bold & Beautiful leading man describes her as “a bit aloof, with a biting sense of humor.” But “I don’t think that’s the [full] impression I gave of her,” he told TV Insider, adding, “That’s not the whole of who Eileen is.”
Three years after saying “I do,” the soap vets — who currently play Kevin on General Hospital and Ashley on Young & Restless — decided that they were done. But “this is an amicable situation,” Lindstrom told SoapCentral.com in 2000. “We remain the best of friends.” He’s now wed to Cady McClain (Dixie, All My Children); Davidson, to Vincent Van Patten.
You didn’t need to be a doctor to diagnose these smitten General Hospital alumni, who met while playing Britt and Morgan, respectively: During their 2013-16 relationship — which culminated in an engagement in 2015 — what the since-separated sweethearts were…was lovesick.
In 1976, when they were young New Yorkers getting their starts in showbiz, Bergman (still years away from being cast as All My Children doc Cliff) and Ebersole (the future Tony winner who recurred on Ryan’s Hope as kooky Lily) tied the knot. Though the marriage didn’t last, they still get along — so well that the Young & Restless star (who plays Jack) and his wife of 35 years, Mariellen, went to see his ex perform in L.A., he told Watch!
Between stints on General Hospital, the Emmy winner spent two seasons on Beverly Hills, 90210, where she got involved with — and even engaged to — castmate Brian Austin Green, with whom she has a son, Kassius. Mind you, that pairing isn’t nearly as surprising as this last one…
Though IMDb, Wikipedia and every site in between say that Brenda’s portrayer was hitched to the former child star from 1989-93, she insisted to EW.com in ’99 that their marriage was “actually a joke we played on our friends. We were messed-up kids, you know?” You bet, Vanessa. Been there!
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