Days of Our Lives Star Galen Gering Shares Terrifying Tunisia Story

Before becoming a soap opera star, Galen Gering experienced a harrowing near-death encounter that sounds more like a Hollywood thriller than real life. The “Days of Our Lives” actor recently opened up about his modeling days on Maurice Benard’s “State of Mind” podcast, revealing how an anti-American mob in Tunisia almost cost him his life when he was just 18 years old.

Gering, known for playing Rafe Hernandez on the long-running NBC drama and previously Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald on “Passions,” shared the incredible story during a casual conversation with “General Hospital‘s” Benard (Sonny Corinthos). The discussion began with lighthearted topics but quickly turned serious when Gering recounted his brush with death overseas.

The Los Angeles native was juggling college classes at NYU and later the University of Miami while building his modeling career. He filmed numerous commercials and traveled internationally for shoots, which led to a job with a prestigious Italian agency that sent him to Tunisia shortly after his high school graduation.

A Simple Question Turns Deadly

The dangerous situation began innocuously enough during filming in a small Tunisian village. When a local resident asked about his origins, Gering innocently replied that he was from Los Angeles. The follow-up question was whether that meant America, changing everything in an instant.

“America? We hate! We kill Americans!” the man began shouting, according to the former model. What happened next escalated rapidly into a life-threatening situation that the young model never could have anticipated.

The actor described to Benard how chaos erupted around him as more locals joined the hostile crowd. “They start banging like on pots and they’re like, ‘Kill, kill!’ And I’m like, ‘What happened?’ I’m like 18 years old, what is even going on?” Gering recalled during the podcast appearance.

The timing couldn’t have been worse, as anti-American sentiment was particularly high in the region following recent U.S. military actions in neighboring Libya, including an attack that killed Muammar Gaddafi’s son. These events made Gering’s nationality a dangerous liability at that moment.

An Unlikely Hero Emerges

Just when the situation seemed hopeless, an unexpected savior appeared. A local man approached Gering and urgently told him to follow. Despite his terror and thoughts about human trafficking scenarios he’d heard about, the young model had little choice but to trust this stranger.

“Some guy, some like little pudgy guy comes up, he’s like, ‘Come, come, come with me, come,'” Gering told Benar. For a terrifying moment, the actor admitted thinking this might be “how it happens” when people disappear abroad.

The mysterious helper led Gering to a nearby carpet shop, where he instructed the frightened teenager to lie down on the floor. The man then covered Gering completely with heavy rugs, creating a makeshift hiding place while the angry mob searched for him outside.

After what felt like an eternity but was actually about 15 minutes, Gering’s rescuer carefully led him out through a back exit and away from danger. “I hid under a pile of carpets… for like 15 minutes and then he like whisked me out some back way,” the actor explained to Benard.

Unfortunately, the ordeal wasn’t over yet. The modeling crew blamed Gering for the incident and refused to continue working with him, forcing the production to relocate to a remote location without him. The experience marked the end of what should have been an exciting international modeling opportunity.

This wasn’t even Gering’s only travel mishap during his modeling career. He also shared how he was deported from London within 24 hours on his first trip there, though he managed to catch an Anthony Hopkins Broadway performance before being sent home.