longtime general hospital star kelly monaco will leave the soap opera after over two decades.
after the soap opera network first reported the news on monday, monaco’s departure was confirmed by variety, deadline, us weekly and other outlets.
according to the soap opera network , monaco’s exit will be permanent following her character’s death in an episode set to air later this fall.
sources told the outlet that the two-time daytime emmy nominee was “blindsided” by the news that abc has “decided to terminate her character.” the move, deadline reported, echoes a casting change that happened on cbs’ the bold & the beautiful earlier this year when executive producer brad bell decided to kill off sheila carter, played by the popular kimberlin brown. at the time, carter called the decision a “hard pillow to swallow,” but she was eventually brought back in a shocking twist.
after playing livvie locke from 2000 to 2003 on the spinoff port charles , monaco joined general hospital as sam, a con artist who is the biological daughter of mob boss julian jerome (william devry) and attorney alexis davis (nancy lee grahn).
last year, during the series’ 20th anniversary celebrations, monaco reflected on a lengthy character arc, which included a recent relationship with dominic zamprogna’s dante.
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monaco also revealed that landing a role on general hospital was her “ dream” job, saying she also met with producers of one life to live and all my children after port charles ended in 2003.
“w hen i got the call that port charles was being cancelled and my heart sunk,” she recalled. “i was so new and just getting my feet wet in the soap community, earning (a fan base), establishing a family. i was like, ‘okay, well, back to the drawing board! gonna start auditioning again!’
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“kelly monaco has been one of the best parts of gh . even with a lack of storyline, i look forward to seeing her on the screen,” they added.
in addition to her work on general hospital , monaco appeared on the first season of dancing with the stars in 2005, winning the mirror ball trophy with her partner val chmerkovskiy. monaco returned for the reality competition’s all stars season in 2012.
the shakeup comes after deadline revealed earlier this month that co-head writer patrick mulcahey is leaving the show with chris van etten returning to run the writers’ room with elizabeth korte.
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