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Dimples for Days: Maurice Benard’s Missus Takes Over the General Hospital Birthday Boy’s Instagram to Share a ‘Few Fun Photos to Show People What I Fell For in the Early Days’
Tuesday, March 1st, 2022
“You are a man of purpose and determined to make a change, for that I am proud to be your wife.”
General Hospital fans, please join us in wishing Maurice Benard (Sonny) a very happy birthday today! As an added bonus — for us — his wife Paula decided to take over his Instagram page to let her hubby know just how much she loves him.
“I can’t help falling in love with you,” Paula began. “Happy 59th, honey!” To honor his special day, she posted a video, featuring the Elvis Presley hit “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” filled with numerous photos of Benard — most were from the days of old with a few family shots thrown in.
More: Sunday’s When Calls the Heart premiere sneak peek
“Here are a few fun photos to show people what I fell for in the early days,” she shared. “Then just a few more of what I am so proud of.” She went on to express how he is “a man of purpose and determined to make a change” and “for that” she is “proud to be” his wife.
Paula closed out the tribute with a promise, “And I will always be by your side and stand behind you always,” then joked, “Hope you don’t mind me taking over your Instagram today… Mine just isn’t as cool as yours.”
Again, we send the ABC soap vet our very best on his special day!
Now that Paula has given us a peek into the man she’s been married to for almost 32 years, we invite readers to help celebrate Benard’s birthday by looking back on his Port Charles character… from made man to ladies’ man to family man — and everything in between!
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Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
1/20
<p>When Maurice Benard made his<em> General Hospital</em> debut in 1993, Sonny Corinthos wasn’t yet the underworld overlord that he is today. He was but a low-level flunky of big kahuna Frank Smith’s, the proprietor of a strip club where he enticed underage Karen Wexler onto his stage and into his bed.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
2/20
<p>As Sonny became more of a mover and a shaker in the Mob, he became the target of not just rival mafiosos but Cupid: When the cherub took aim, the smooth criminal fell hard for Karen’s former high-school classmate Brenda Barrett. If only she hadn’t gone and worn that wire on him…</p>
Image: Andrew Eccles/ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
3/20
<p>Over the years, Sonny suffered one loss (wife Lily Rivera and their unborn child) after another (ward Stone Cates). But after brain damage turned would-be doctor Jason Quartermaine into hired gun Jason “Stone Cold” Morgan, the racketeer finally got a BF whom he could call a BFF.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
4/20
<p>Determined to keep Brenda from renewing her vows with Aussie interloper Jasper “Jax” Jacks, Sonny attended the couple’s ceremony with a surprise guest: the groom’s “late” wife, Miranda. As you can see, Brenda was extremely displeased to have her seating chart thrown into disarray.</p>
Image: Craig Sjodin/ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
5/20
<p>After Sonny won Brenda back — only to leave her at the altar for her safety’s sake! — he got involved with her lookalike, Hannah Scott. Upon learning that his new honey was a federal agent, not a waitress, he wound up having hate sex with Jason’s ticked-off lover, Carly Benson (then Sarah Brown).</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI, ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
6/20
<p>After Sonny and Carly married to ensure that she couldn’t be compelled to testify against him, they wound up developing real feelings for one another. But when she tried to “help” him leave the Mob, he showed her the door and knocked up his attorney, Alexis Davis.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
7/20
<p>As time went on, Sonny and Carly (then Tamara Braun) broke up and made up like clockwork. All the while, he was beset by threats ranging from half brother Ric Lansing to the Alcazar twins, Luis and Lorenzo. Somewhere in there, Port Charles’ Don Corleone also found time to have affairs with Sam McCall and Emily Quartermaine and discover that he had bipolar disorder.</p>
Image: Adam Larkey/ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Sean Smith/JPI
8/20
<p>Sonny thought that he’d managed to leave “the business” in order to start a new life with lost love Kate Howard — until the bride was shot on their wedding day. Reeling, he married back into the Mob by taking as his bride Mafia princess Claudia Zacchara (yep, Brown again).</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
9/20
<p>After stealing away son Micheal from biological father A.J. Quartermaine, and having kids with Carly (Morgan) and Alexis (Kristina), Sonny discovered that he also had a grown child… only <em>after</em> he had shot in cold blood Dante Falconeri, the undercover cop who’d been trying to bring him to justice.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
10/20
<p>When Brenda returned to Port Charles, Sonny finally managed to put a ring on it — only for her to bail on their new marriage in order to protect newfound son Alec from a stepfather who was so unscrupulous, he’d frame Jax in order to ensure that Carly got custody of their daughter, Josslyn.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
11/20
<p>Following Brenda’s hasty retreat, Sonny reconnected once again with Kate, who turned out to be suffering from multiple-personality disorder. And to put it mildly, her alternate personality — Connie Falconeri — was <em>not</em> a fan of his. So on their wedding day, she revealed that she was already hitched to Johnny Zacchara. Bazinga!</p>
Image: ABC
12/20
<p>When Sonny caught A.J. throttling Ava Jerome, he permanently “removed” the longtime thorn in his side, unaware that Michael’s dad had just cause to wring the Mafia donna’s neck: She was framing him for Connie’s murder. In the aftermath, Sonny cheated on new squeeze Olivia Falconeri — you know, Dante’s mother — with Ava, who just happened to <em>also</em> be shtupping his son, Morgan.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
13/20
<p>Though Carly (now Laura Wright) became engaged to reformed serial killer Franco Baldwin, she threw caution to the wind and strayed with her ex, Sonny. In retaliation, Franco got her made man on the side sent up the river for life for A.J.’s murder. Of course, “for life” really turned out be more like “for a few months.”</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
14/20
<p>Nelle Benson hit Port Charles with an axe to grind — preferably in Carly’s back. So she pretended that she and Sonny had slept together, then handed off her son with Michael to Brad Cooper to raise in place of <em>his</em> short-lived baby. Honestly, she was lucky that <em>this</em> was the kind of “hit” that was taken out on her.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
15/20
<p>As Alzheimer’s disease took an ever greater toll on Sonny’s estranged father, Mike, the two of them were finally able to make peace with their past. In the end, if they were left with one regret, it was that they hadn’t taken better advantage of the time that they had while they’d had it.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
16/20
<p>As they are wont to do, Sonny and Carly remarried (again and again) and did their best to keep any more of their children from meeting as untimely a demise as Morgan had. But the fates refused to leave them alone for long. So after Sonny tried to neutralize the threat posed by new Big Bad Cyrus Renault, he was left to struggle to remember who he even <em>was</em> after an amnesia-inducing tumble from a bridge.</p>
Image: ABC screenshot
17/20
<p>Though Nina Reeves discovered that Sonny had only lost his memory, not his life — as Carly & Co. believed — Nelle’s vengeful mom kept that little tidbit of information to herself and accidentally wound up falling for “Mike,” the Mr. Nice Guy that the gangster could’ve been if his life had gone down a different path.</p>
Image: ABC
18/20
<p>The fit really hit the shan when Sonny finally made his way back to his family. But after the dust settled, as much as it ever does in Port Charles, Jason was in the grave, Nina was on “Mike’s” arm, and Carly and Michael were <em>pissed</em>. How pissed were they?</p>
Image: ABC
19/20
<p>Michael hired Dex Heller to infiltrate Sonny’s “business” so that he could do what the Port Charles PD had never been able to and bring down the godfather’s criminal empire once and for all. Considering how Sonny felt about betrayal, it was a good thing that Dex looked so hot hung from a meat hook.</p>
Image: ABC
20/20
