GH Star Vanessa Marcil Posts Touching Instagram Message to Maurice Benard

The actress posted a message directed at her onetime GH co-star

Emotional Time

The past two weeks have been emotional ones for Marcil (ex-Brenda). Her dad, Pete Ortiz, passed away on September 15, and in light of this personal loss, Marcil posted a message on Instagram that alluded to a previously fraught father/daughter relationship that had recently healed.  It was accompanied by a vintage photo of Brenda and Sonny (Benard) in an intimate moment. Marcil referred in the post to her friend and one time GH co-star Benard as being a positive influence in her life, thereby helping her to mend the rift. Benard responded to this heartfelt tweet via his Twitter, saying, “Wow, I truly don’t know what to say. I’m touched and moved. And you know I will always be here for u,” ending the sentence with a gift emoji.

@mauricebenard was handed a bigger job than he was expecting. A brutally abused young girl. He picked me up, healed my heart & mended by broken wings so that I could fly away from him. Yes, a father. Because of the extra work Mo put in, I was able to forgive my father & break a chain that changed my life & the lives of my children. I forgave my dad because my tiny heart could finally take it after MO patched it back together. Look at this pic of us. Sonny was Brenda’s daddy. Beautiful scared child…

A post shared by vanessamarcilmlovesk (@vanessamarcilmlovesk) on Sep 21, 2017 at 1:19pm PDT

Wow I truly don’t know what to say. I’m touched and moved. And you know I will always be here for U🎁 https://t.co/sqmSsYiEsY

— Maurice Benard (@MauriceBenard) September 21, 2017

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Making Up for Lost Time

Marcil’s post is all the more poignant, as she had not spoken to her father in practically 20 years until several years ago. She was upbeat when she told TV Insider at that time that she and her dad had exciting plans for a cooking show that would feature them both, called Pete’s Taco. “I hadn’t seen or spoken to my father and a lot of my family in almost 20 years, after some really unforgivable stuff went down. I had been bullheaded for a really long time, so it was a very big deal for me to forgive him. Now, we’re opening two restaurants together–one in Texas, one in California, and doing a TV pilot about it. That’s my life. Things turn around in the most interesting ways.”

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Moving Forward

Many Brenda fans out there await the day when the popular actress returns to the soap, on which she last appeared in 2013 for the show’s 50th anniversary broadcast. Since then, Marcil has starred in several Hallmark Channel movies, the reality series Queens of Drama, and hosts her own podcast. Soap Cities extends its sympathies to Marcil and her family on the loss of her dad. We hope to see more of her soon, and of course will bring our readers any news once we hear!

Before You Go: This Port Charles favorite is coming back–probably!

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