I haven’t watched Days of Our Lives in quite some time, but my mom was ever a big fan of it & watched it religiously.
A lot has happened in the soap opera since it first aired in 1965 – I loved the good ol’ days of the Bo and Hope storylines!
Kristin (Hope Brady) Alfonso is a great actress, and she and Peter (Bo Brady) Reckell were, in my opinion, one of the best couples of all time.
Sadly, Kristin unexpectedly left daytime drama in 2020 – the producers didn’t give a reason for her departure.
Now, months later, the well-known actress has decided to speak up, revealing why she had to leave Hope behind…
Junior Olympic Champion
Kristian-Joy Alfonso was born on September 5, 1963, in Brockton, Massachusetts.
”Of course I was born on Labor Day, which I guess fits into my life since I’m always running somewhere,” Alfonso said.
Her grandparents came from southern Italy and Sicily. Alfonso grew up in a city outside of Boston, side-by-side with her older sister, Lisa, and her parents, Gino and Joanne.
”I come from an amazing family. They’re incredible. Nurturing, supportive, loving. We’re all very close and talk to each other every single day,” Alfonso told North Bay Nugget in 2002.
The Italian-American actress has always been extremely proud of her heritage. Her favorite actors are Sophia Loren and Robert DeNiro, and she loves Italian food.
During the chilly winters in New England, far from the warm summer breezes in southern Italy, Alfonso developed an interest in figure skating.
That interest soon developed into a strong passion, and as a 10-year-old, Alfonso was considered one of the most promising figure skaters in the world. She even won the gold medal at the Junior Olympic Figure Skating Championships in 1978.
Accident crushed her leg
Speaking of chilly winters in New England, there was one thing in particular that residents enjoyed when it was snow season: tobogganing.
In Alfonso’s case, sadly, one sled ride would have unfortunate consequences. As a 13-year-old, she was involved in a tobogganing accident that left her with multiple fractures in her landing leg.
That ruined her plans to become a star in figure skating, ending a burgeoning career that had barely started. On the other hand, the accident opened up a different door that would change Alfonso’s life forever.
Kristian Alfonso height
Soon after her skating career ended, Alfonso was discovered by a modeling agency, leading to her graduating high school and moving to New York City to pursue a modeling career.
At 16, her dreams came true; she could make a living out of her new job. Standing 5’4″ tall without her heels, Alfonso traveled worldwide, charming everyone with her personality and “fancy face.”
Alfonso, who didn’t have acting aspirations while growing up, also started enrolling in drama classes while living in the Big Apple. She was discovered by a talent scout for NBC and, undaunted, Alfonso launched herself into a different career. She started doing TV commercials, before featuring alongside Rock Hudson in The Starmaker, a TV movie from 1981.
“I had a great time modelling, but I was glad to move on to acting,” Alfonso said but also confessed that she had ”no idea” what she was doing during the filming of The Starmaker.
”I didn’t know camera talk, film talk. Rock was wonderful in helping me out,” Alfonso told The Vancouver Sun.
Salary and net worth
During her long spell as a high-profile actor on daytime television, Alfonso has earned a decent amount of money over the years.
In addition to her acting and job as a model, she also created her own company. In 2006, Alfonso launched her jewelry and fashion line. The clothing brand was called Hope by Kristian Alfonso, and the jewelry was sold under the name Hope Faith Miracles.
The idea came after demand from her fans.
“I’ve always worn my own jewelery on the show. People have always inquired for so many years how they could purchase the pieces, but of course they could not because they were my own,” she told The Knoxville News-Sentinel in 2008.
After ten years, the actress took to social media and revealed that she had sold the company and was no longer designing clothes and jewelry.
According to Cheatsheet, Kristian earned $5,000 per episode on Days of Our Lives. That sounds pretty fair since the average soap opera star usually gets $2,000 and $5,000 per episode, according to International Business Times.
Today, the veteran actress has a net worth of $5 million, if we’re to believe sites like Celebrity Net Worth.
