In this episode of State of Mind, Maurice Benard sits down with actress Kelly Thiebaud for a raw, funny, and surprisingly deep conversation about what it really means to start over.

Kelly opens up about growing up in a small town, being a sports kid turned model, and how the modeling world messed with her relationship to food, her body, and her self-worth. She shares what it was like moving to Los Angeles at 17, experiencing an early heartbreak that shaped how she viewed love, and why she didn’t fully step into acting until later in life.

Maurice and Kelly also get real about mental health: therapy, bitterness, anxiety, medication decisions, and the pressure of having to “perform” when you’re privately falling apart. Together, they talk about learning to be alone, rebuilding after blowing up your life, and treating your past not as proof you’re broken—but as information that helps you grow.

In this episode:

• The hidden toll of modeling: body image, starving, and laxatives

• Moving to LA at 17 and the heartbreak that changed everything

• Why Kelly didn’t truly start acting until her late 20s (and why she still trains)

• Therapy as a weekly practice for unloading what you carry

• Maurice on anxiety, medication, and the reality of “sixth gear” mental health

• Starting over after 40: loneliness, regret, hope, and self-respect

• General Hospital, leaving, returning, and navigating change

A conversation about reinvention, self-compassion, and the kind of honesty that feels like real communion.

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Read Maurice’s New York Times Bestselling Book! Nothing General About It: How Love (and Lithium) Saved Me On and Off General Hospital

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mbstateofmind/ State Of Mind Merch:https://www.mbstateofmind.com State of Mind Production Team: Host & Editorial: Maurice Benard Executive Producer: Paula Benard Director of Production: Anthony Cammarata Audio/Video/Editorial: Anthony Cammarata Podcast Consultant: Aaron Calafato