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The Young and the Restless (Y&R) star Courtney Hope has spoken out for the first time about her brief marriage to General Hospital (GH) star Chad Duell.
A year after Hope and Duell’s dramatic, well-publicized ceremony, the actress has marked the occasion on social media.
“One year ago, I was getting ready for what I thought would be one of the biggest dreams-come-true of my life,” Hope wrote on Instagram. “Little did I know it was the beginning of the end.”
Hope forewarned that she wouldn’t go into details about why the couple split, “because honestly it’s nobody else’s business but the parties involved”. She also addressed the speculation surrounding their sudden break-up.
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“I’ve come to recognize everyone has their own version or assessment that best fits their narrative of a ‘good story’ and helps them rationalize and sleep at night,” Hope continued, “often involving scrutinizing, villainizing, and discrediting one of the greatest, albeit testing times, half a decade of my life.”
Describing her romance with Duell as “a love that was built through memories, patience, adventure, lessons, challenges and laughter” and “a love that did not stand the test of time”, Hope reveals that it will “forever hold a place in my heart because it changed me”.
Despite keeping the details of their split private, Hope revealed how deeply the aftermath of their break-up affected her.
“The story of how I’ve spent the last year scraping myself off of the floor, time and time again, and then walking out in the world trying to seem ‘OK’, will be housed safely in the hearts of those closest to me who had to bear witness to it and live through it with me,” she acknowledged.
That’s why, in honor of her friends and family, Hope wants to celebrate her wedding day – however ill-fated it turned out to be.
“I have finally come to terms with the fact that a lot of energy went into creating this day,” Hope continued. “And today I want to honor that, for myself, for those involved, for those who have loved and lost, for those who fought with everything they had, for those who have learned hard lessons in love and had to pick themselves up off of the floor when they thought they may never kneel again, let alone stand.”
The actress also gave fans an update on how she’s doing. “Though I’m still picking up pieces, where I’m at greatly surpasses anywhere I’ve ever been before,” Hope shared. “This is my one year celebration, and though it may not be like the rest or what I imagined, I’m at peace with it and I’m thankful for where I’m headed next.”
Is Y&R co-star Mark Grossman part of that future? It seems more and more likely!
Although Hope’s social media post features images from her wedding day, Duell is not present in any of them. For his part, the GH star has described the split as “mutual”.
“We didn’t actually sign anything,” he told Maurice Benard during an appearance on State Of Mind. “We weren’t really, like, you know, married or anything, really.”
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