Erika Slezak's Husband Never Watched Her on “One Life to Live” — But Loves This Soap Instead (Exclusive)

Erika Slezak starred for over 40 years as Victoria “Viki” Lord on One Life to Live and won 6 Emmys. But there’s one person who didn’t watch — her husband.

Slezak told PEOPLE exclusively that her husband Brian Davies, who she married in 1978, “never watched” One Life to Live for a simple reason: “He didn't want to see me kissing all my husbands.” During Slezak’s tenure, Viki was married seven times (twice to the same man). 

“He just didn't watch it. He would say, ‘How did it go today?’ when I came home,” the 79-year-old daytime legend remembered. “I said, ‘Fine. Was fine.’ ” 

But Slezak returned to soaps this fall with a role on the one daytime drama her husband does watch: General Hospital. 

“He watches General Hospital,” she said of Davies. At three o’clock most weekdays, he’ll tell her, “I have to see what's happening with Sonny,” referencing the GH mob boss Sonny Corinthos, played by Maurice Bernard since the character joined the show in 1993. 

“He loves the character of Sonny. He loves him,” she said.

Slezak joined the series as Veronica “Ronnie” Bard, the secret sister of Monica Quartermaine (played by the late Leslie Charleson, who died earlier this year). The actress was pleasantly surprised when she ended up filming with Bernard, 62. 

“When I saw the scene that I had with Sonny, I thought, ‘Why on Earth would I have a scene with Sonny?’ ” she remembered thinking. Ronnie’s plots were mostly about her dealings with the Quartermaine family and who Monica left the Quartermaine mansion to in her will. 

“Then it turned out to be so sweet, and it showed a side of Sonny that you don't see very often,” she said, crediting her husband’s viewing with giving her background on Sonny, who rarely shows his emotional side.

Slezak told Bernard about her husband’s love for his character. “I think [he] was kind of tickled by it,” she said. 

“There was nothing nasty, nothing cruel about [Sonny]. It was very simple and nice,” she said about their scenes. “I was a little bit, not nervous, a little bit trepidatious about working with Maurice because I thought, ‘I've never worked with him. I don't know what he's going to do,’ ” she said, and soaps have “very little rehearsal time” in their schedule. 

But after filming, Bernard told her, "That was really sweet. Wouldn't it be nice if they made us friends?"

Slezak agreed that it would be “lovely” to see the characters interact more in the future, if Ronnie returns to the show (which both she and the GH producers are open to). 

Slezak ended up having scenes with almost all the “big stars” on the show (and many scenes with Jane Elliot, who plays Tracy Quartermaine), plus One Life to Live alums Chris McKenna, and Josh Kelly. “The fact that they've put me together with all the major characters, or most of the major characters, and let me work with my cohorts for One Life, it was just a treat,” Slezak said. “It was lovely.”