Kassie DePaiva is known for portraying Blair Manning on One Life to Live, but the 46-year-old star is more than just a daytime actress. She is also an accomplished singer, having recently released her third album, “I Want To Love You,” and, most importantly, a devoted mother to son James Quentin, who was born deaf.
DePaiva’s son has not let his disability stop him from following in his parents footsteps. The ten-year-old was recently seen portraying a deaf child on another ABC soap, All My Children.
“I was so proud of my son on so many different levels. America doesn’t know how hard he’s struggled and worked to have that speech. But I know,” DePaiva told the Orlando Sentinel. “I know what he’s overcome. I think it’s just a really positive, inspirational story that they’re telling. It’s great that [All My Children] used a child with cochlear implants so a mama who just made a choice to implant her child or a parent, they can see that there’s hope.”
As Kassie DePaiva is proud of her son and what he has accomplished, so is she impressed with One Life to Live costar Kristen Alderson, who plays her onscreen daughter, Starr Manning.
“I love her, and I think she has just developed into a beautiful young woman,” DePaiva said. “So many people who go through the doors at an early age in entertainment really can be bratty or entitled. She is so not.”
Kassie DePaiva first got her taste of the spotlight at the fairly young age of 18, singing as a soloist at the Grand Ole Opry. After Nashville, she pursued her college studies, but later dropped out to entertain USO troops in Asia. She eventually made her way into the small screen, debuting on Guiding Light as Chelsea Reardon.
She joined the cast One Life to Live in 1993, and since has since then become one of the most prominent actresses on daytime television. Her and costar Trevor St. John’s (Todd Manning) characters have become one of the show’s avidly watched supercouples.
‘You know that they love each other, and they know that they love each other…but they’re both messed-up people,” DePaiva said of Blair and Todd’s on-and-off romance.
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Orlando Sentinel
(Image Courtesy of ABC)
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
