GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Sonny: His Five Nastiest Breakups

Sonny’s passionate love affair with Brenda (Vanessa Marcil) hit a major snag when Brenda agreed to wear a wire to aid in the Mac-led investigation into Sonny’s criminal activities. Brenda was hopeful that Sonny would come clean with her about his less-than-legal dealings and was hurt when he didn’t confide in her. Lily overheard Brenda discussing the wire plan with Ned, Lois and Mac and ran straight to Sonny. The first time she wore the wire, she chickened out and hid the device, but when she tried again, he found the wire and went ballistic. Brenda was horrified when she realized he knew she’d agreed to work with the authorities. “I never believed you would do this to me,” he spat. He left her sobbing on the ground, and soon took Lily as a lover.

When Sonny struck up a romantic relationship with Hannah (Lisa Vultaggio Jackson), he was blissfully ignorant to the fact that she was a federal agent working undercover to take him down. Hannah genuinely fell for Sonny, but Sonny got wise to her agenda and played her by feeding his live-in lover false information to relay to her higher-ups. Finally, one night, Sonny exploded at Hannah, revealing that he’d known for months that she was playing him. Hannah insisted that she truly loved Sonny, but he wasn’t having it. “Look at me!” he snarled. “You’re nothing! Not to me, not to anyone.” He then coldly kicked her out of the penthouse.

Carly (then-Tamara Braun) and Sonny’s first marriage blew up big-time when Carly, desperate for her husband to extricate himself from the mob, pitched a partnership with Roy whereby the FBI would arrest Sonny, forcing him to cut a deal with the feds and go into Witness Protection. The FBI busted Sonny, and when he got home on bail, he confirmed his suspicion that Carly had orchestrated his arrest by checking her cell phone, which showed her calls to Roy. Sonny berated Carly for betraying him and was unmoved when she donned her wedding dress to remind him of the promises they’d made to one another. He promptly threw her (and little Michael) out of the penthouse.

Sonny’s back-on love affair with high school sweetheart Connie/Kate (Kelly Sullivan) was complicated by her dissociative identity disorder. Sonny loved Kate and wanted to marry her, and when her personalities appeared to be integrated, they happily planned a wedding. However, unbeknownst to Sonny, Connie re-emerged and plotted to thwart the nuptials. The oblivious groom received a most unpleasant surprise at the ceremony when the officiant asked if anyone objected to the union. A smirking Connie said that she did and announced that she couldn’t go through with the marriage because she was already married — to Johnny Zacchara (who she’d blackmailed into marriage)! As it dawned on Sonny that it was Connie, not Kate, who stood before him, Connie savored every moment of Sonny’s public humiliation.

Sonny and Carly’s (Laura Wright) most recent divorce occurred in the wake of his return from Nixon Falls, where, as amnesiac “Mike”, he had fallen hard for Nina. Though Sonny returned to the loving bosom of his family, he couldn’t shake his pull to Nina, and Carly was so stung when she found out that “Mike” and Nina had been romantically involved — and that Sonny had concealed their relationship from her — that she decided she needed time apart from her husband. In the throes of a manic episode, Sonny worked fervently to win Carly back, but when he thought she’d him up at The Haunted Star, he wound up in bed with Nina — and Carly walked in on them. “We are over, and this is on you,” she barked at him. Soon enough, she had lawyered up.