It’s morning in Los Angeles and thousands of people are making the mad dash through the traffic to get their kids to school and themselves to work on time. It’s an everyday routine - even for A-list soap star Kristian Alfonso.
The actress, who plays Days of Our Lives heroine Hope Williams Brady, has just dropped her son, Jack, at school and is on her way to the set in Burbank, California, when we chat to her by phone.
She takes stardom in her stride. “I don’t put myself out there. I’d rather be at home with my family.”
Her family consists of four special people: her second husband, attorney Danny Daggenhurst, sons Gino (19) and Jack (7) and stepson Spartan, who is at university.
“I’m blessed to have such a loving, supportive family. They come first so I’m always making sure they’re fine.”
She’s more than a soapie star - she also has a thriving business designing a range of jewellery called Hope Faith Miracles. The collection, which she launched three years ago, includes necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings and watches, many bearing her favourite symbol, the fleur-de-lis.
As for her youthful appearance Kristian says her beauty secret is just being happy. “A smiling, happy outlook on life helps.”
Her gorgeous olive skin and dark tresses are inherited from her Italian dad, Gino, who owned a leather factory that made soles for men’s boots. Gino and Kristian’s housewife mom, Joanne, recognised her star power from an early age.
Headstrong Kristian was more interested in being an athlete and turned down a contract with a prestigious modelling agency to concentrate on ice-skating as a career. The gruelling hours of training paid off when she won a gold medal in figure skating at the Junior Olympics.
Her dreams of going for gold at the Olympics were shattered when at 13 she had a tobogganing accident, breaking her leg in five places. Although the accident ended her skating career she wouldn’t change a thing. After all, it set her on the road to stardom.
She especially enjoys working with Peter Reckell, who plays Bo Brady, her TV love interest although their future doesn’t look like smooth sailing. “There’s a devastating experience on a plane where someone very close to Bo dies, then he finds out he might be dying himself,” she hints. “So keep watching.”
Read the full article in the latest issue of YOU.