How This Beloved TV Couple's Real-Life Divorce Was A True 'Awakening'

In the world of '80s soap operas, super-couples were super important. And there was perhaps no super-couple more well-known than Luke and Laura. This popular duo from "General Hospital" was a fan favorite for years, but when one of those actors unexpectedly left the show in 1984 , producers were looking for the next big pairing. Enter: Frisco and Felicia. 

The actors behind this new super-couple were Kristina and Jack Wagner, and as Kristina tells "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" in the above clip, there was no denying their chemistry -- on- and off-camera.

"Being thrown together on set in a romantic way, I think it was inevitable ," she says. "You know, Jack's fun. He's an entertaining guy and engaging." 

Kristina and Jack made their real-life relationship public in 1990, when Kristina became pregnant with their first child. Three years later, they married in a private ceremony in Lake Tahoe. Their second child was born in 1995. However, the Wagners' marriage was plagued with problems, and they divorced in 2006.

"This was an awakening," Kristina says of her post-divorce life. "I realized that I really needed to kind of figure out what was going on with me in order to move forward. It's easy to lose yourself when you're only in your young twenties and you're just doing what's expected of you, not really thinking about your own needs."

So, Kristina took the time to work on herself. The process, she says, helped her in more ways than she could have imagined.

"The divorce was the best thing that could have happened to me," Kristina states. "And for my children as well."

For as much as a parent worries about the effect of divorce on the children, Kristina says that being in a marriage that isn't working can be even more detrimental.

"I don't think I was being a very good mother at the time. I wasn't making good choices," she says. "I had to deal with myself first, because we ultimately have to take care of ourselves before we can help others."

Another revealing soap-star moment:

How Jack Wagner first met his daughter on a Rick Springfield cruise