{"id":214387,"date":"2026-01-01T05:55:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/214387\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T05:55:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:55:25","slug":"general-hospitals-chris-mckenna-gets-candid-about-reaction-to-his-bipolar-diagnosis-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/214387\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018General Hospital\u2019s Chris McKenna Gets Candid About Reaction to His Bipolar Diagnosis Reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

General Hospital<\/a> fan favorite Chris McKenna (Jack)<\/a> appeared on co-star Maurice Benard\u2019s (Sonny) podcast State of Mind to reveal he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in his early 40s.<\/p>\n

Benard has been brutally honest about living with bipolar disorder and started State of Mind to have candid conversations about mental health. After joining General Hospital<\/a>, McKenna knew he wanted to be a guest on State of Mind<\/a> to reveal his own diagnosis and have a candid conversation about it.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfacSIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox\ud83c\udfac<\/a><\/p>\n

The two men appeared on CNN\u2019s The Story Is with Elex Michaelson after McKenna\u2019s State of Mind episode was released. Benard was in person, while McKenna appeared via video chat.<\/p>\n

During the segment, McKenna was asked about the reaction to his opening up about living with bipolar disorder. McKenna didn\u2019t hold back getting real about the response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been overwhelmingly positive, but yes, just in the last, you know, 36 hours, whatever it’s been, it’s been so humbling. The amount of love and support I’ve received, as well as really importantly, the amount of people who my story resonated with and the people who say they’re inspired by it and how it helped them understand their loved ones better who suffer. It’s been, you know, it was so great. It’s been so gratifying, and I’m really proud to have done this,\u201d the soap star expressed.<\/p>\n

Related: \u2018General Hospital\u2019 Icon Kin Shriner Gives Fans \u2018Scrap Book\u2019 Of Memories To Honor Anthony Geary<\/a><\/p>\n

McKenna admitted that once he joined General Hospital, he knew he wanted to share his story with Bernard on State of Mind. The actor expressed his gratitude<\/a> to Benard and shared a message about doing better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m really grateful to Maurice for providing this. This has been really important, and it’s also the effect it’s having on people is illustrative of how we have to do better in making these conversations happen. Talk about this, make it feel safe. It shouldn’t be an act of bravery to just tell your truth,\u201d McKenna declared.<\/p>\n

As Parade<\/a> reported, McKenna told Benard that he had his first breakdown as a teen but wasn\u2019t diagnosed until suffering an episode during the COVID-19 pandemic. McKenna ended up in the hospital during this time, which led to his diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI finally got my diagnosis that I needed my whole life<\/a> and got on medication, and that\u2019s where I am today,\u201d he told Benard on State of Mind.<\/a><\/p>\n

The support he\u2019s gotten from sharing his story has been overwhelming for Chris McKenna, who hopes to speak his truth, just as Maurice Benard<\/a> has, so that he can help others battling mental health.<\/p>\n

General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Next: \u2018The Young and the Restless\u2019 Icon Sends Direct Message to Critics<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Dec 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"General Hospital fan favorite Chris McKenna (Jack) appeared on co-star Maurice Benard\u2019s (Sonny) podcast State of Mind to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[18456,111245,111246,163,85,46,111244,522,523,119102],"class_list":{"0":"post-214387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-bipolar-disorder","9":"tag-chris-mckenna","10":"tag-general-hospital","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-maurice-benard","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-mentalhealth","17":"tag-state-of-mind"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}