By Bill Libengood

Drake Hogestyn is a devoted husband and father who enjoys life to the fullest with his wife and children. Drake met Victoria when he was a teenager and the two were married on New Year’s Eve in 1984. Drake admits that he and Victoria went through a roller coaster ride of a relationship, all of the boyfriend/girlfriend and high school things, but has enjoyed every minute of life with Victoria and the kids. We conclude our talk with Drake this week, with the actor discussing marriage and family and how his life changed when he exchanged vows with Victoria.
 

UltimateTV: How would you describe marriage and family?
 

Drake Hogestyn: I thing that national statistics bear me out to be in the minority because, first of all, you don’t take marriage lightly and you don’t take on a spouse or mate in life unless you put your spouse ahead of yourself. I do that. I love her and adore her. She’s my best friend and I go to her for advice. It’s a nurturing relationship. She’s supportive of what I do and what I do is not easy. Victoria is very strong and has such high self-esteem. Then when you talk about bringing children into your life, it’s a big responsibility. First of all, if you want to have children, you want to be around kids and you have to love your kids. It’s just great to see a little bit of yourself and a little bit of the woman who you adore in these children and their mannerisms. It’s totally a miracle.
 

UltimateTV: It’s obviously more important for you to be around your family than going out and doing the Hollywood circuit, among other things.
 

Drake Hogestyn: I don’t need to go out and stimulate myself that way. I can watch a ballgame on TV. I don’t need to socialize at dinner parties. I get my socialization here at work through fantastic castmates and then when I go home, that’s their time. That’s my time with them and I’m selfish with that time. To sum it up, marriage is work. I’m not going to say that it’s always a bed of roses. If Victoria and I have any conflicts, it’s because of the children. It’s because of maybe different views of avenues that they should take. I’m more conservative and Victoria is more liberal in some respects. In other respects, it’s a flip-flop, which makes me scratch my head.
 

UltimateTV: Do you feel that there is any pressure on the family with being a top soap star?
 

Drake Hogestyn: I don’t feel that at all because I’ve always believed from the day that I started on this show or any other show, that tomorrow it could end. I’ve been prepared for that from my days in baseball. In that, you’re only as good as your last game. When you put crooked numbers on the board, you’re going to stick around. If you don’t, you pick up and move on. I enjoy where I’m at right now. I’m grateful for the position that the show has given me and I don’t have any desire to wander. Acting is acting. Unless something fantastic came up that would really stimulate and excite me, I can’t see why I would ever want to leave this show because what they’ve done to the character of John Black, the Pawn, Roman, Father John and Forrest Alamain. They have kept me stimulated and emotionally involved in the character. I don’t take that lightly. I work hard at it. As the kids study every night, we sit at the table and do our homework together. They can bounce the questions off of me. I have my script there and they ask me if they can run lines with me. They see how I work and I think that’s going to be good for them to know that whatever job you have, you will always do homework.
 

UltimateTV: So you leave everything here at the studio before you go home?
 

Drake Hogenstyn: There have only been a couple storylines that I took home. Also, I’m a competitive person. I don’t like to admit it too often, but I know that I am. I want each scene that I do to be the centerpiece of my work that day. I know when it works and when it doesn’t work. I took the dungeon storyline home because there was such drastic weight loss and mentally, I was trying to fall into that area that I thought we needed to sell. The priest storyline was the hardest storyline and I didn’t take it home because I couldn’t. I was living it here on the set and it was very disconcerting and draining. I was emotionally tired. It was just too fatiguing mentally. It took a while to bounce back from that. The religious aspect of that storyline really touched me, bothered me, enlightened me and changed me for the better.

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