Kassie DePaiva revealed that she did not understand the popularity of One Life to Live’s famous couple Blair-Todd.
Table of Contents
The Unique Romance That Captivated Viewers
Kassie DePaiva played Blair Cramer on “One Life to Live” in 1993 not knowing she would soon be part of one of daytime TV’s most beloved couples.
But the funny thing is — she didn’t really understand why fans were so attached to Blair and Todd’s relationship.
“I still wonder how it worked,” DePaiva recently told Remind magazine.
“There was something magical between Todd and Blair that I thought, ‘OK, I don’t really understand this, but the fans love it.'”
From Controversy to Career-Defining Role
DePaiva’s casting wasn’t without its drama. She replaced Asian-American actress Mia Korf, whom she didn’t know about until after several callbacks.
“Someone said, ‘Do you know you’re replacing an Asian American actress?’ And I’m like, ‘What?’” she recalled.
Despite the unexpected situation, the role completely changed her life.
Why Blair and Todd’s chemistry worked
Initially, Blair’s relationship was with Max Holden (played by James DePaiva, who later became Kassie’s husband).
But viewers fell in love with the complicated dynamic between Blair and Todd Manning.
What made them tick? Both characters were betrayers at heart, struggled with trust issues and dealt with difficult childhoods.
Their relationship wasn’t just soap fluff — it had depth.
“Blair was addicted to Max and obsessed with him, but she grew to love Todd,” DePaiva explained. “And Todd understood her.”
Understanding came with time
Years later, DePaiva finally understood why viewers loved the pairing.
“If you watch some of the clips of Todd and Blair on YouTube, it’s really well written and complex,” she explained. “These people were really trying to understand their relationship, their dark, broken past — and now I get it.”
Painful goodbyes
When ABC pulled the plug on “One Life to Live” in 2011, DePaiva was heartbroken. Even worse was the hasty ending of Blair and Todd’s storyline when she briefly appeared on “General Hospital.”
“It was the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever done,” she admitted. “I thought I’d worked 20 years to build this brand, and you’d just give me three days to be angry at Todd, and that would be it?”
Moving on after the heartbreak
The show’s cancellation hit her hard. “It was like a punch in the stomach,” DePaiva said. “I couldn’t understand it and I missed it. It took me two years to mourn the loss.”
Despite the painful ending, she fondly remembers her soap opera journey, and later joined the cast of “Days of Our Lives” as Eve Donovan from 2014 to 2020.
“I’m grateful,” she reflected. “I have no regrets at all. It was amazing.”