Catching Up With... Eden Riegel

(ex-Bianca, ALL MY CHILDREN; exHeather, Y&R)

- Mara Levinsky

Next month marks the 19th anniversary of Eden Riegel’s ALL MY CHILDREN debut as Bianca Montgomery. Over the course of her Daytime Emmy-winning run, Riegel played out many milestone moments in the life of Erica Kane’s beloved daughter, including her landmark coming-out storyline in 2000, her first on-screen kiss (daytime’s first same-sex romantic smooch) in 2003, and her 2009 union to Reese, which was the first same-sex wedding on daytime television.

“I think, at this point, I can basically say that it is the biggest creative accomplishment in my life,” Riegel says today as she reflects on her time in Pine Valley. “To be a part of something for that long is really rare and to watch a character grow up and go through so many things is really incredible. And then that set! Everybody will tell you, it was just really magical. We all really loved each other and it really was like a family. That’s not to say we didn’t have our problems, like a normal family does, but we all knew that we were there for each other no matter what. When I did scenes with Susan [Lucci, ex-Erica] and Alicia [Minshew, who played Bianca’s half sister Kendall] and all those people, I didn’t even have to act anymore, because my feeling for them was so strong, our history together was so strong. All those bitches were at my wedding! We’re like family. We’re chosen family.”

AMC even played a key role in the creation of her real family: She met her husband, writer/producer Andrew Miller, via his childhood pal Cameron Mathison, who played Ryan. “Cameron got me a husband,” she grins. “I mean, Cameron is the reason that my children exist and that the most important person in my life came into my life! My life was absolutely changed by that experience by every way that it can be.”