Kristian Alfonso

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MAMA MIA

As Kristian Alfonso Returns to DAYS, She Copes With Pregnancy, a Long-Distance Marriage-and Peter Reckell

Just back from a ten-day visit with her husband on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, Kristian Alfonso looks well, lightly tanned, and trim as she plops her diminutive frame into an over-sized chair in her publicist's Beverly Hills office. Taking time off between the season wrap of FALCON CREST and before starting to tape a three-month guest stint as Hope Brady on her aima mater, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, Kristian is only in Los Angeles for a few days before jetting off to visit her family in Boston. Dressed in a red, tasseled sweater and form-fitting black jeans, the former Vogue model barely reveals that she is three months pregnant.

Signs that something's afoot quickly surface, however. Folks pop in and whisper inquiries as to Kristian's well-being; a glass of water is requested and sent back for more ice. Once the OK has been given for the actress to discuss her state of expectancy, she seems to enjoy the many questions directed toward her delicate condition.

The lion-maned beauty says she and her husband of nearly three years, British realestate developer Simon Macauley, had an "if it happens, it happens" attitude about starting a family. Despite the casual stance, Simon was ecstatic upon learning the news, reports Kristian. "I was sitting in my dressing-room closet at FALCON because I wasn't one-hundred percent sure," she recalls. "And you know how rumors start. So, I had to tell him. He was on the next plane out - and then seven dozen roses showed up at my dressing room."

Although her first year of marriage was spent travellng and living under one roof in St. Maarten with Simon (she was in between stints at DAYS and FC), the two have maintained an untraditional relationship. She makes the twelve-hour, three plane-change trip to the Caribbean when ever she can; he flies to L.A. every two weeks for about two weeks.

How will pregnancy affect the couple's long-distance setup? "Actually, we've been spending a lot of time together, period," Kristian points out. "We've seen each other just about every week during the last few months; whether here, there, or in New York. Simon is normally here for all my doctor's appointments. He's not coming this month, because we have to go to England to see his dad, who's very ill. When we get to Boston, we're having another ultrasound so he can see the baby. And during September [she's due on the twenty-seventh], he'll be here the whole month. And my parents and family and everybody will be coming out."

Once the little Alfonso-Macauley cherub arrives on the scene, both Mom and Dad will take part in rearing the tot. "Simon's not going to show up and [the child is] going to say, 'Who's that man?"' she says adamantly, adding, "That's not the way it is." The possibility of Simon relocating to L.A. could become a reality, Kristian concedes, but "not right now. It's not good timing. That would be like him asking me to give up my career and move to St. Maarten; it's not fair. He's worked very hard for what he's done, and he's done it all on his own. We're going to take it one step at a time."

According to Kristian, the DAYS writers have opted not to write in her pregnancy. Since the actress will gestate from four to seven months during her return to the soap, some clever camera angles will be required.

The DAYS folks have been hounding Kristian for some time to come back. The combination of pregnancy and a FC hiatus seemed to be the perfect period to make that much-desired return. "I had my downs at DAYS with certain actors," Kristian admits. "But I also had wonderful, wonderful times - otherwise I wouldn't be going back. [Producer] Shelley Curtis and [Supervising Executive Producer] Al Rabin were great supporters of mine and I grew up as the character grew up. 1 always believe in going back to your roots and not forgetting where you came from."

While she has kept in touch with many of the old cast and crew members (Curtis is her best friend), Kristian and co-star Peter Reckell (Bo) have not seen each other since their characters sailed off into the sunset several years ago. It's no secret that the two haven't exactly been chummy in the past. Yet, after a turn at nighttime soaps (Reckell played Johnny Rourke on KNOTS LANDING), Bo and Hope are reunited, albeit briefly. "I don't want to bring up bad feelings," Kristian declares. "I don't believe in badmouthing, no matter who was right and who was wrong, and who was difficult and who wasn't. Peter Reckell is not a person I'm going to worry about. He is the least thing on my mind. I have a wonderful husband and I would not change anything in my life. I don't even think about Peter Reckell. If we're going to have problems, we're going to have problems. If we're not, we're not."

Kristian believes she's handled the often antagonistic relationship fairly well in DAYS gone by. "Many times I almost quit because of him," she confesses. "Because of the way I was treated and the stories he was having written about me in magazines ... that had nothing to do with the Bo and Hope story. 'And, I'm sorry, who was the actress playing it?' I don't believe in pettiness. I'm going to have fun and relax and be with people that I love and people that love me, and enjoy the experience again."

During her career, Kristian's devised an effective way to deal with difficult people: "I just ignore them. That's how I got through four years at DAYS. But don't get me wrong - there were good times as well." Regarding Reckell, she observes, "it was kind of like a brother sister, hatel love relationship. I have nothing bad to say about Peter. I mean, by gones are by gone. I never ripped him apart before and I'm not going to start now. I'm not stooping to that level."

Not all of Kristian's leading men cause her to bristle. FC husband Lorenzo Lamas (Lance) is a favorite. "He's very sensitive, a real gentleman. That goes for David Selby [Richard] as well. They're both such wonderful men, so caring and giving."

Although Kristian plans to get into films (she says she's gotten several offers, but hasn't been able to accept because of her pregnancy), she doesn't rule out the possibility of another return visit to DAYS. "I don't like to say never......"

Kristian's pregnancy creeps back into the conversation. Although they have no preference for a boy or girl, the Macauleys have made one name selection. If it's a boy, he'll be named after his grandfathers. "My dad's name is Eugene and his father is William. Eugene William Alfonso Macauley," Kristian announces.

Her husband will also be alongside her in Lamaze classes. "I'm just afraid Simon might be on the gurney next to me when I have it," Kristian frets. "He's no good when I'm ill or cut myself - he passes out. With anybody else, I'm telling you, he's like a brain surgeon. I cut my finger down to the bone a year ago in St. Maarten and I screamed, 'Simon!' He came over, looked at it, said'Ohhh. . .'and out he went."

Having endured a slew of diets as her weight see-sawed in the past, weight gain is a hefty concern for the now-svelte Mrs. Macauley. So far, she's been craving "everything. Buttercrunch ice cream from Friendly's in Boston. My mother's getting it for me. Potato chips. French fries, well-done and burnt." To combat her cravings, Kristian has devised a full-proof strategy.. "Oh, I'm telling you, i have scales in the hallway, in the bedroom, bathroom, upstairs, in the living room. Anytime someone comes over, I ask them to check my scales. I don't want to gain more than twenty pounds. I've gained five pounds in three months. I know I can't breathe in these jeans."

It's one o'clock in the afternoon, and talk of food and diets turn a lady's thoughts to lunch. Kristian jumps up with renewed energy, eager to satiate the next craving. "It hits me and then I have it and it's over and I go on to something else," she says. Somehow that seems a fitting philosophy for a woman who will jet across the continent for buttercrunch ice cream.

Back to Press Page

FAIRY TALES DO COME TRUE!

Kristian Alfonso Loses Her Baby Fat, Finds Her Prince Charming, and Lands a Job on FALCON CREST.

"Everybody wants what they can't have," announces Kristian Alfonso.

Generally speaking, she'd rather be, "taller, with long, slim legs." Specifically, she'd gladly trade places with Lesley Ann Warren or Jacqueline Bisset. "Actually," she says, "if I had time to think about it, I could come up with an entire list." Alas, the poor dear's stuck instead with the lusty, leonine looks of Sophia Loren mixed with the preppy, cover girl sweetness of Brooke Shields. In other words, a total stunner, but under no circumstances will she cop to it. Alfonso is fond of getting off the topic with an, "I don't see myself special by any means," or an "I've never been treated differently and I wouldn't want to be," but you don't buy it for a second. Maybe she's cagey, maybe polite, maybe she learned long ago that a "What, me gorgeous?" obliviousness was the best defense. Whatever the case - and no matter what she really thinks when she looks in the bathroom mirro - the actress is not about to talk turkey where beauty is concerned.

Still, few of God's creatures come more exquisite (this magazine named her one of TV's most beautiful women) and few seem to have it as made-in-the-shade. Alfonso, at twenty-five, has parlayed her success as Hope on DAYS OF OUR LIVES (in soap annals, she's second only to Genie Franceis - now DAYS's Diana, but most famously Laura on GENERAL HOSPITAL - in the all-time, popular heroine category) into a prime-time niche as FALCON CREST's spicy Pilar Ortega. In a to-die-for ceremony, she wed British real estate whiz Simon Macauley in Boston's historic Old South Church. "All I had to do was put on my dress," she admits, and that was hardly a chore. The eye-popper gown, which she originally wore when Hope married Bo, only required some nipping and tucking by a seamstress while Mom and Pop did the rest, from teh invitations ("They sent me a copy and I said 'I love em, send 'em off!'") to the decor ("The lace on the tablecloths matched the bridesmaid's dresses adn the tables had orchids and lillies in sterling silver bowls, which the guests got to take home"). She and Macauley honeymooned by taking the Concorde to Paris, then the Orient Express to Venice ("I never wanted to go to Venice unless I was truly in love"), and later dropped by Rome, Monaco, Cannes and Nice. She now globe-trots between their homes high atop LA's Sunset Strip and on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten. She practically never cooks. Off hours are filled, she says, "by catching up on things I don't have time to do, like getting my hair cut and having a facial," and, perhaps better than all the above, she's never been skinnier.

Now generally tipping the scales at a microscopic 107 (although, today, she's feeling horribly bloated at 110), the former Vogue model has at least triumphed over the one, true stumbling block i her quest for happiness - excess poundage. "I've been up and down all my life," Kristian notes. "There was the grapefruit and coffee for a week diet, the banana diet, the Scarsdale diet, the pineapple diet where your lips are bleeding - you name it. They just don't work. The secret is sensible eating. Have whatever you want but don't gorge yourself. Every now and again you ahve to break out and be bad. If you want a piece of chocolate cake, have it, just have it, beecause by the next day all you can think about is why didn't I have that cake? When I deprived myself totally, I'd have food dreams where I'd be at a party and a waiter would come up with a tray of great hor d'oeuvres. I'd say, 'I can't, I'm on a diet,' and he'd say, 'You jerk! You're in a dream, have it!'"

It was impending marriage, however, that proved the true key in her fight against blubber. Voluntarily free from DAYS, but not yet signed for her current gig, she bided the time until the "I Dos" vactioning on Macauley's tropical isle with constant swimming, scuba diving and snorkeling to slim and trim her, and basking in the sizzling heat to dull her appetite. The weight gradually melted and she now feels she's beaten it once and for all. Not, perhaps, a solution available to your average citizen, but then one getst he impression that Alfonso is in no way average.

She doesn't appear to be all that complex, at least not yet. Born in 1963, she has only a vague awareness of John F. Kennedy or The Bay of Pigs. "I thought the Monkees were the Beatles," she giggles, offering no further explanation. She is, however, interested in the accoutrements of priveleged youth, such as image ("When Simon first proposed to me, I said, 'You can't ask me now! Look at me, I'm in jeans, a sweat-shirt and no makeup!") and luxury ("When I don't want to make dinner, I say, 'Oh, honey, I can't tonight. Take me Out!'") and, needless to say, being in love.

She speaks of the twists and turns of the romance (he popped the question after knowing her but one month; she learned of their living arrangements after he discussed them in a man-to-man with her father) as if they were plot points in an unfolding fairy tale. Her parents, she reports, were flabbergasted by the engagement. "My mom siad, 'Honey, I always said I'd go downt he aisle with pom-poms, but I didn't think it'd be this soon,' while my dad just started laughing. Finally, he said, 'Kristian, he's Mister August. C'mon, there'll be somebody new in September.'" Her girlfriends, Krisitan says, tell her she's never been more relaxed. "Sometimes, you assume a different personality to suit another people's needs. You may not even be conscious of doing it - that is until they leave the room and you're relieved. With Simon, I can say what I want, be who I am. It's a great feeling. It's like I've known him all my life."

Have there been many others? Was he the first she took home to meet the folks?

"So...anyway," she squirms, signaling that a change of subject is clearly desirable. While Alfonso can glow like a Hallmark card when she wants to, she also not about to get down to certain basics. Sitting in her Hollywood pad while Macauley toils three thousand miles away, she ahs publicist Cindy Guagenti in tow for the interview, as well as the added buffers of her two yapping Yorkies, which she cuddles alternately. "They aren't related," she explains with a blush, "but they weill be very soon." The girl, August, is by far the better behaved. The boy, Rambo (who inexplicably is the one wearing th epink hair bow), is a royal demon who divides his time between munching the rattan furniture and laying on his back spread-eagled. "Put your legs together, you silly boy," Kristian tells him. When Rambo starts gagging in the nearby kitchen, she sighs, "Are you sick or do you just want my attention?"

Finally, she responds to the question at hand. "I'd brought some guys to meet my parents, but Simon I brought to meet them."

She's no more chatty about the girlfriend, with whom she vacationed in the Caribbean, who was responsible for introducing them. What does she think abou the match made in Heaven? "Uhhhhhh....mmmmmm....I don't know," shrugs the actress, indicating there's a good story lurking there somewhere.

Kids? "When our lives are more settled." Near future, distnat future? "I don't want to be in my thirties when I have kids, but it really depends on what's happening with his career, with mine, and how we're going to consolidate it all." Macauley visits LA only ten days a month. Since starting FALCON CREST, she's only been able to make the trek to him once. "It's stressful on the relationship," says Kristian. "They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder - and it does - but when you get so close to someone and then suddenly they're not there, you feel kind of lost. We keep AT&T in business, and probably talk more than most couples, but when we have kids we'll have to make some decisions here." She confesses she's scared to sleep by herself and gets through the lonely nights only with the TV on.

And what about the emphasis on beauty in Hollywood casting? "I wouldn't want to get a role because I was physically right for it," she says hesitantly, not sure where the conversation is leading. "I'd only want a role if it's felt I can contribute to the project." To deflect any possible "Looks vs. Talent" discussion, she interjects with great coquetry, "I must say, I'm impressed that you don't have all your questions written out."

Cast by incoming FALCON CREST Producer Michael Filerman without a screen test or even a reading of any kind, she doesn't care to speculate on how much, if at all, her DAYS popularity influenced the decision. "That's not for me to answer," she says. "You should ask Michael." The phone rings, just in the nick of time, and Kristian quickly leaps to answer it with an, "I'll just get that qucik."

She has little to say about TV flame Lorenzo Lamas (Lance), except, "Sweet guy ... very easy to work with ... really nice." When pressed for fuller details, she oddly offers, "It's important that the chemistry happens, but you can't make it happen."

Alfonso never was one for publicly gushing about her TV beaus. Her offscreen relationship with Reckell is well known to have been a stormy one, which made her onscreen performance all the more amazing - but she's very protective of her former perch as DAYS's queen bee. "Do you think anyone's taken our place yet?" she suddenly blurts. "It's very flattering when someone comes up to me and says, 'We miss you,' or 'We haven't watched the show since you left.'" Frankly, Kristian would have preferred a bit more of this on a recent visit to the DAYS set. There to hang out with good pal Shelley Curtis (the show's producer and one of Kristian's bridesmaids), she recalls, "there were so many people there that I didn't know. They'd look at me as if to say, 'Well, who's she?' It was very strange." At least the guard at the Susnet Gower Studios gate remembered her. "I jsut waved at him as I always did. He flagged me through and, just as always, told me to slow down."

Does she miss the hoopla that accompanied her as Number ONe? "I was never in it for the limelight," she claims. "What I loved was the pretending. Even now in my real life, my husband will say, 'Are we fighting or are you acting?'"

She gets up and crosses the living room to straighten out several paintings - crooked, she says, dute to an earthquake which no one else present seems to have been aware of - and thus displays her first sign of true domesticity. Does she feel guilty about being a less-than-ideal home-maker? "Oh, he knew I was not the type to have his slippers and his dinner ready when he gets home. He knew what he was getting into." But, don't gorget, she is very, very Italian. "When I do go down to St. Maarten, I make little, separate lasagnas and put them in the freezer for him so all he has to do is pop them in the oven."

And then the actress puts a hand on her now-prominent hip bone an dsays, "Since we got married, he's gained twenty pounds."

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