The soap world mourned when beloved longtime The Young and the Restless star Kristoff St. John passed away in early 2019. His mental health struggles had been well known for several years and became especially prevalent after the death of his son, Julian, in 2014. While his 2019 death was due to heart problems, his ex-wife Mia has spent the last five years advocating for mental health issues on behalf of her son and ex-husband. Now, a new documentary simply titled Kristoff is set to premiere in 2025.
Directed by Bobby Razak, Kristoff details St. John's journey from child star to soap star, delving into his drug use and claims of sexual assault when he was a boy. People published the trailer for the film on June 6, previewing the struggles St. John endured.
St. John is known for his work as a boy on series like Wonder Woman, Happy Days, and The Bad News Bears. In the trailer, St. John talks about his childhood growing up in the Los Angeles suburbs and living the "all-American middle-class dream," but that time wasn't all idyllic.
According to the trailer, St. John's family was a follower of the spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba, and St. John claimed the man sexually assaulted him as a child.
"With shame and embarrassment, I told my dad in Baba's private room, Baba had fondled me and sworn me to secrecy, claiming that he was giving me divine purification," St. John says in the documentary.
Mia explains that St. John didn't know how to have a normal life.
"As a child actor, he never really got to know who he was or to learn how to be a normal child," Mia says in the trailer.
The documentary also delves into St. John's drug use, as told by Mia. There is also footage of the actor using drugs.
Although St. John found adult success in Hollywood on daytime television, winning two Daytime Emmy awards for his role as Y&R's Neil Winters, Mia reveals in the film that mental health problems were always there, explaining that her ex-husband had a hard time dealing with their son's issues as well as his own.
"What most people didn't know about Kristoff was that he was bipolar," she says. "He was suffering from a mental illness."
What are your favorite memories of Kristoff St. John as Y&R's Neil? Will you be watching the documentary about his life? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
