Chris McKenna Reveals Bipolar Diagnosis

General Hospital fan favorite Chris L. McKenna (Jack Brennan) is the latest guest on Maurice Benard’s (Sonny) YouTube series State of Mind, and the conversation is as heartfelt as it is eye‑opening.

The episode kicks off with the usual intro banter, and Maurice wastes no time sharing a fun personal note: his mom is a big fan of McKenna.
“My mom thinks he’s George Clooney,” Maurice joked before they dove into the real conversation.

Chris McKenna’s Acting Career

McKenna began acting at just 7 years old, joining the Yale Theater Ensemble and performing play after play at an age when most kids are still figuring out recess. Maurice was clearly impressed.

But McKenna admits confidence wasn’t part of the package back then. He was scared, yet he loved that fear because it was exhilarating. He shares that he didn’t think he had a good voice, had a speech impediment, and dealt with a tongue thrust, yet he kept going anyway.

From ages 12 to 16, McKenna starred on One Life to Live, where he famously quips, “I went through puberty on television. I don’t recommend it.”

Still, he says the experience was incredible. Acting every day suited him, and as a precocious kid, the workload never felt overwhelming. He also played Erika Slezak’s on‑screen son and says, “You couldn’t have asked for a better mentor.”

Back In the Days…

Balancing school and stardom wasn’t easy. McKenna explains that teachers weren’t thrilled with the special treatment he sometimes received, and kids his own age didn’t quite know how to relate to him.

He didn’t know how to relate to them either; he was spending most of his time with adults who thought he was amazing. The result? McKenna got picked on. He was smart, and socially, being smart wasn’t exactly cool. He wanted friends, like any kid.

Eventually, he outgrew the role, literally. “They were trying to do adult storylines with me. I was 6’3” playing 18, but I was only 15,” he explains. His first on‑screen kiss was with a 20‑year‑old, something he notes would never happen today. After three and a half years, he was replaced by Nathan Fillion.

Returning to Watertown High School for his senior year was a reset. Over time, classmates realized what he’d done was actually pretty cool, and the added bonus is that they realized he wasn’t a jerk.

McKenna adds that back then, he was absolutely terrified of dating. However, he would later meet the love of his life. The conversation moves through the ups and downs of his career: having his own show, riding the highs, and facing the lows. He revisits his daytime roots, explaining that after OLTL, he worked on The Young and the Restless, and years later, General Hospital.

Over the years, GH kept calling, asking if he’d ever want to come back to daytime and even throwing around the idea of reading with Laura Wright. For a while, it never went anywhere, but eventually, it all came to fruition. And now, here he is.

COVID

McKenna also opens up about meeting his wife, Lovisa, online and how everything just seemed to fall into place. From there, the conversation takes a more serious turn as they talk about the pandemic.

Just before COVID hit, his mother was in a serious car accident. McKenna gets emotional as he remembers moving back to Connecticut to take care of her. He says that even though she was in constant pain and couldn’t do much on her own, she kept an incredible attitude. Through it all, Lovisa—who wasn’t yet his wife—never left his side.

Tragically, the facility where his mother was staying was hit hard during the pandemic, and many of the residents didn’t survive. McKenna says it felt like his mom narrowly escaped with her life just a week and a half after bringing her home.

Bipolar Disorder

In a powerful and vulnerable moment, McKenna reveals publicly for the first time: “I have bipolar disorder.” He shares that he had his first breakdown as a teenager and lived undiagnosed for most of his life. During COVID, he experienced severe depression and a psychotic episode. It was only after hospitalization that he finally received a diagnosis.

While he says suicidal isolation was never part of his experience, McKenna explains that during his darkest moments, he was paralyzed by fear of death. “At the worst of the depression during COVID, I couldn’t figure out what the point of living was,” he says through tears. “I couldn’t imagine how I’d ever find joy again. I couldn’t make sense of it, and I knew I’d been in that place before.”

It’s a raw, honest, and deeply human conversation.

You can watch the full interview with Chris McKenna and Maurice Benard on State of Mind below.

Photo Credit: ABC/Disney.

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