Sonny's 5 Best General Hospital Love Connections

Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) has had several memorable weddings, and has been with many women over the years on "General Hospital." Newer fans may not know that before he became the affable racketeer that we all love, he was a sleazy, low-level thug who operated a strip club called the Paradise Lounge. He had a physical relationship with the underaged Karen Wexler (Cari Shayne) who performed at his club and provided her with drugs. After they parted ways, Sonny lost his sleaze as he climbed the mafia ladder to the top. He briefly romanced Hannah Scott (Lisa Vultaggio) until he learned she was an undercover FBI agent, then kicked her to the curb. 

A one-night stand with his then-attorney Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahan), resulted in their daughter, Kristina. He also had a brief fling with Alexis' daughter, Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco), getting her pregnant also, but sadly she lost the baby. Don't worry, no one was aware at the time that Alexis and Sam were mother and daughter, so it's not as icky as it sounds. He had a strange romance with Emily Quartermaine (Natalia Livingston) who was much younger than him; a rather short fling with his childhood friend, Olivia Falconeri (Lisa LoCicero); and he married the scheming mobster Claudia Zacchara (Sarah Brown) — but mafia marriages don't last on soaps. Currently, he's with Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros), but odds are, they won't last. 

Sonny Corinthos and Connie Falconeri planned to run away and get married as teens, but she left him high and dry at their meeting spot. They would later reconnect as adults. What Sonny didn't know was that Connie had suffered abuse at the hands of Joe Scully Jr. (Richard Steinmetz), and had skipped town to reinvent herself. When she arrived in Port Charles, she was using the name Kate Howard (then played by Megan Ward), had shed her New York accent, and was a successful fashionista. It took a while for Sonny to realize who she was, but they finally reconnected. As it often happens in soaps, "Kate" was shot at the altar when she and Sonny were getting married. Needless to say, the nuptials were kaput.

They broke up for a while but later got back together again and headed down the aisle. But Connie's abuse as a teenager had splintered her personality, creating separate Connie and Kate personas. Of course, before they could say their vows this time around, Connie (Kelly Sullivan) emerged and revealed that she had already married Sonny's rival, Johnny Zacchara (Brandon Barash)! Things spiraled out of control, and when she eventually learned that the Jerome Crime family was out to get him, Ava Jerome (Maura West) shot and killed Connie before she could warn Sonny. 

Sometimes, in order to keep the peace, a mobster has to make a deal with another mobster. Such is the case with Sonny Corinthos when he had to marry Lily Rivera (Lilly Melgar) so that her mafia don father, Hernando Rivera (Ismao "East" Carlo), would use his mobster magic to get criminal charges that he was facing dropped. Lily had become friendly with many people in town and was beloved in Port Charles. But Sonny and his former girlfriend Brenda Barrett (Vanessa Marcil) realized they were still in love with each other, so he planned to leave his wife. However, Hernando caught wind of this, and seeing it as a breach of their agreement, ordered a hit on Sonny.

Meanwhile, Lilly told Sonny she was pregnant, but felt he wanted to be with Brenda. He decided to stay with her and pleaded with her to give it a shot. She agreed, and he dumped Brenda unceremoniously. But it was too late. Hernando didn't know that Sonny was going to stay with his daughter and had a bomb planted in his car. Unfortunately, Lilly got into it outside of Luke's Club, and she was killed when it exploded. Sonny's grief over the death of his wife and child was the first time we truly saw his vulnerable side, and this story helped him win the fans' hearts while casting his sleazy past into obscurity.

There's nothing like a little hate sex to spice up a good soap opera storyline, and boy, was this a shocker! The story of former mobster Ava Jerome and Sonny Corinthos' tryst is considered one of the most strange and twisted stories on "General Hospital." Sonny was already mad that Ava's crime family tried to take his territory, but he was doubly angered by the fact that she was sleeping with his son, Morgan Corinthos (Bryan Craig). When Connie Falconeri turned up dead with the letters "A.J." written in blood next to her body, he assumed that  A.J. Quartermaine (Sean Kanan) killed her. Sonny went gunning for him and happened upon A.J. busily trying to strangle Ava. So, Sonny did what everyone would expect him to do — he killed the Quartermaine scion. Sonny and Ava covered it up, and at A.J.'s funeral, they ruminated over what happened, which led to them having sex in the Quartermaine crypt!

However, when Sonny learned that Ava was the one who killed Connie Falconeri, he planned to kill her in cold blood. But, the savvy Ava revealed the fact that she was pregnant with either his or Morgan's child, so he couldn't do it. Baby Avery turned out to be Sonny's, and nowadays he and Ava get along as swimmingly as one would expect. Even though they've never been involved romantically, and because they're both mobsters, they can confide in each other in a way that no others can.

Why the fans still fondly remember the romance between Brenda Barrett and Sonny Corinthos is beyond us. It's sort of like eating a mountain of delicious bacon, only to realize the cholesterol could cause heart failure. They never could get it right. Sonny broke up with her the first time because Lily Rivera warned him that Brenda was wearing a wire for the cops. Then, when they finally did get back together and planned to marry, Sonny left her stranded at the altar because his criminal lifestyle was too dangerous. Then there's that pesky Jasper "Jax" Jax (Ingo Rademacher). For years, Brenda couldn't decide if she wanted to be with him or Sonny. After the first or second time of her rekindling things with Jax, you'd think Sonny would see the red flags and steer clear of her.

But no, he kept trying to be with her, and even though she was going to marry Jax, they kissed. Now it was Jax's turn to dump her at the altar. So, she did what anyone would do and finally married Sonny. But then she got blown up in a limousine. Or was she? She wasn't. She was just kidnapped and Sonny rescued her. It turned out she had a son from another man, and when they were caught in the crossfire of a mob war, Brenda and the kid left town. That troublesome violent lifestyle of Sonny's, and her indecision, would always keep the cute couple apart.

Love her or hate her, Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) has been a major part of Sonny's life for over two decades and will always be connected to him on "General Hospital."  What began as a one-night stand, Carly and Sonny would soon enter into a tumultuous decades-long relationship in which the two would get married and divorced several times over. She used the surname Corinthos that she took on when they first got married, but after their divorce in February 2022, she changed it to Spencer. Over the years, Sonny had seven children, two of whom were with Carly: Morgan Corinthos (Bryan Craig), who died when a car he stole exploded, and Donna Corinthos, who was born in 2019.

Despite the fact that they've consistently cheated on each other over the years, they always found their way back to one another. As annoying as Carly can be sometimes by inserting herself into other people's business, the two have undeniable chemistry. Carly herself is a force of nature, and while she's currently with Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) and he's with Nina Reeves, it's only a matter of time before they find themselves back in each other's arms. She's the only one who understands his lifestyle as a career criminal and is able to not only keep his secrets but also realize that his mafia power kept the peace in Port Charles and protected their family. That's why fans still hold out hope for their eventual reunion.