You don’t have to be a fan of General Hospital to know who Maurice Benard is. The three-time Emmy winning actor who has portrayed ultra popular Port Charles don Sonny Corinthos since 1993, is practically synonymous with soap operas. Though he’s best known for playing an Italian mobster, the California born Benard is actually of Salvadoran and Nicaraguan descent and started in modeling in the ’80s before moving into acting.

Benard’s first acting and daytime job was on ABC’s now-defunct soap opera, All My Children, where he played Nico Kelly from 1987 to 1990. But daytime isn’t all the versatile performer has done, having famously portrayed Desi Arnez to Frances Fisher’s Lucille Ball in 1991’s Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter, and even crime boss John Gotti in the Lifetime film, Victoria Gotti: My Father’s Daughter.

In 2017, Benard starred in the independent film The Ghost and the Whale, which was produced by his wife, making clear that the Benards are a true power couple. So keep reading to find out everything you could want to know about Paula and the Benards’ wonderful family.

Who Is Maurice Benard Married To?

Paula Benard (née Smith) was originally from Texas and has been married to the General Hospital actor for nearly 34 years now after they tied the knot on August 11, 1990. They’ve had not just one, but two weddings, and the two have been open about the difficult lives they’ve lived.

As Sonny’s portrayer wrote on Instagram with a photo from their wedding day, “Sometimes in life you meet someone who not only changes your life but becomes your life. That person teaches you to be a better husband, a better father and most important, a better man. Thank you Paula for being one in a million.”

On their tenth anniversary, Benard surprised his wife with a second wedding, done right. The wedding they had planned the first time around didn’t happen because, as Paula shared on her husband’s podcast, State of Mind, Benard had booked a job. They kept putting off the big ceremony, then the kids came along and it just never happened. Then, in 2000, they finally had the wedding of their dreams.

How Did Maurice Benard Meet Paula?

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The two first met, the husband and wife recalled on State of Mind, when they were young. At the time, Paula worked in the mall at long-defunct clothing retailer Merry-Go-Round. “You were gonna say you weren’t dancing, but I saw it with my own two eyes,” Benard teased his wife, before asking her first impression.

“Very handsome,” Paula revealed. “I loved your curly hair, which your son now has. He had very, very curly hair. And your dimples, and just, I thought you were way too handsome for me.” He wasn’t, and when he asked her out on a date, she said yes — only to be stood up by her future husband because she was too young!

Shortly after, the future Sonny Corinthos’ battles with bipolar disorder landed him in a mental institution, but when he got out, he once again found the beautiful Paula at the same mall and asked her out a second time. She said yes again, but it wasn’t until the final kiss of the night that the sparks turned to fireworks. “The kiss blew me away,” Benard admitted. “I thought, ‘Damn, something’s different here. Special.’ Then we started going out.”

Who Are Maurice and Paula Benard’s Children?

Benard with his daughters, Cailey, Cassidy and Heather and son Joshua back in 2010.

Credit: John Paschal/JPI

The Benards are parents to four incredible children. His eldest, daughter Cailey, was born in 1994. Benard married the now-30-year-old to Carlos Avila in a beautiful ceremony at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Benard’s second daughter, Cassidy, was born in 1999 and is now 25. And son Joshua came along in 2005, making him 19. Of course, as General Hospital fans know, Joshua also followed dad into acting and has had a recurring role on the ABC soap opera as the troubled Adam Wright. The Benard family was only complete, though, in 2008, when they adopted Paula’s half-sister, Heather, at the age of 15 after their mother passed away.

The Benards are also grandparents to three kids, Heather’s daughter, Eloise, born in 2020, and Cailey’s children, Tiana (who’s been affectionately dubbed TT) who was also born in 2020, and little Milo, who came into the world in 2023.

As Benard wrote on Instagram in 2017 in a photo with Paula, “Sometimes you have to look back to see what you’ve accomplished. By far, my biggest accomplishment is my family. I have not been perfect but they really have shown me the way.”