Kassie DePaiva Says 'One Life to Live' Ending Took 2 Years to ‘Get Over’

One Life to Live standout Kassie DePaiva admittedly struggled with the soap opera’s sudden 2011 cancelation.

“It was a gut punch,” DePaiva, 64, recalled to Remind magazine in a profile published on Wednesday, July 16. “We were brought onto the stage of The View, and it was One Life to Live and All My Children. We were fully expecting for them to make the announcement that All My Children was being canceled, but then they did both, and it was just awful.”

DePaiva, who portrayed Blair Cramer on One Life to Live, then immediately returned to the soap’s set to close out production.

“We had to go back on set and work, and I just remember going down to my dressing room and calling my mom,” she added to the outlet. “It was really sad, and it was just so bizarre that it was canceled. It was doing so well, and our numbers were really good.”

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DePaiva added, “I just didn’t understand it, and I missed it. I had to mourn. It took me two years to get over that [and] to grieve that loss.”

The actress spent nearly two decades working on One Life to Live — and she said that she loved every minute and aspect of it.

Kassie Depaiva and Paul Satterfield on ‘One Life to Live.’ Heidi Gutman / ABC / Courtesy of Everett Collection

“I loved the whole umbrella of doing soap operas,” she gushed to the outlet. “I loved the pace. I loved the challenge of doing it. I was able to overcome fears and anxieties, like doing that live week [in May 2002] was something that I thought I was too much of a nervous Nellie to do. … I probably did my best work under that pressure. One Life to Live was pretty special.”

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After One Life to Live wrapped in 2012, DePaiva reprised her role for an episode of General Hospital. (Blair’s then-husband, Todd Manning, became a recurring character on the medical soap after One Life to Live was canceled.)

“I was just a lucky, lucky girl to walk into that part and I feel like I made it my own, and it was something that I protected,” DePaiva said. “When One Life to Live ended and they took me to General Hospital for those three or four days to break Todd and Blair up so Todd could be with Carly [Spencer], it was the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever done. That’s how emotionally attached I was to it because I felt I’d worked 20 years to build this brand, and you’re gonna give me three days to be pissed off at Todd, and that’s gonna be it?”

Despite the series’ abrupt end, DePaiva looks back on her One Life to Live tenure with gratitude.

“I’m grateful. I don’t have a one little speck of regret whatsoever. It was wonderful. I met lifelong friends,” she said, “It’s all positive.”