General Hospital
Chris McKenna Shares How He Reconnected with Former TV Mom, Erika Slezak Upon Landing the Role of GH’s Jack Brennan
It’s been a full circle moment for General Hospital’s newest cast addition, Chris McKenna, upon taking on the role of WSB Port Charles Bureau Chief, Jack Brennan. Coming on to GH reunites McKenna with executive producer, Frank Valentini with whom he worked with when he started his soap career on One Life to Live when he was just 14-years old.
As previously reported, today on the February 4th episode of GH, McKenna makes his debut as Jack, replacing the outgoing Charles Mesure, who opted to leave the ABC daytime drama series and will be heavy in story with Laura Wright (Carly).
McKenna played Viki’s (Erika Slezak) son, Joey Buchanan from 1990-1993, and in a new interview with TV Insider, shared that him being the new Jack Brennan happened very fast. Chris shared, “Ive run into Frank over the years a couple of times, but he still thinks of me as 14 years old. So, I thought I was finally going to get in front of him and remind him that I’m an adult now (Laughs). As soon as I finished the read with Laura, which seemed to go pretty darn well, Frank said, ‘You were not this good when you were 12.’ And I said, ‘No s**t!’ ”

Photo: ABC
While Chris is used to playing the a spy or operative, this time on GH, he will be more of the James Bond-type as called for in the role of Jack, McKenna says he looks forward to the challenge, “I don’t usually play the guy in the suit; I’m in a tank top in the jungle, that kind of a CIA agent. So, this is a fun little twist on it.”
Perhaps most notable and touching is that McKenna reconnected with his former One Life to Live TV mom, Erika Slezak, when she was over the moon that he landed a role on GH.

Photo: ABC
Chris shared that Erika Slezak, “Apparently had just talked to Frank, and he told her that I was on the show, and she squealed and was so excited and she wrote me immediately to congratulate me, which is really great. She sends me Christmas cards and we exchange little messages, but that was the longest thing she’s written me, and I feel like we reconnected again because of that, so that was really cool.” Speaking the highest praise to the six-time Daytime Emmy-winning soap opera legend, McKenna added, “She’s my second mom.”
So, what do you think about the One Life to Live connection that brings Chris McKenna to General Hospital? What if Erika Slezak made a guest run as Jack Brennan’s mother? Are you willing to give Chris a chance to win you over as Jack Brennan? Comment below.
It is great to read he is still in touch with Erika. Let’s hope she is return to our screen soon too.
Yes!
He’s so hot and I wish Erika Slezak would go on a soap even if it was a for a few episodes here and there. She could be mistress of the plantation on Beyond the Gates or something.
You seriously didn’t suggest a soap legend should play “the mistress of the plantation” on a show with a predominantly Black cast in 2025?!?!?!
Disgusting.
OMG, that was so funny, I thought I’d never stop laughing. What Plantation, and I’m sure they buy their bananas, etc at Kroger, or whatever. I keep picturing Ms. Slezak in a big sun hat welcoming her visitors at her Plantation. Sorry for all this silliness but I can’t stop my imagination from going crazy.
I recently read that Kevin Fr m GH is on Beyond the gates.i haven’t seen it but did see him listed with the cast
You’re despicable!
Your continued racism is becoming quite old, Mimi.
Racism?!? Where?!? TF?!?
If you have to ask Nikki, then you are part of the problem.
“ What? Who me?” Love it when a person drops an obviously racist bomb predicated upon one of the most shameful period in US history and then acts bewildered when they’re called out on it. Mimi knows what she’s doing.
Excuse me??!! Talk about jackasses! You deserve so much more, but I am trying to keep it clean!
Recast for Monica….i love Leslie but would take her in the role. Imagine her sparring with Jane Elliott’s Tracy Q.
That will happen the day after I open a ski resort on Beelzebub Mountain
Not going to happen; she’s more likely being killed off, due to the real-life actor’s passing.
OH YEA!!
Just as Viki would never recasted after Erika played the role, Monica will never be recast.
Erika lives comfortably in Connecticut and would not move or regularly commute to LA for any role.
They had an actress playing Monica for a little bit, when she’s been sick in the past. Now we’re supposed to believe that Monica is in the bedroom upstairs
In real life, the actress passed away. So they need to either recast, or have her character also pass on the show. It’d be great if she left the house to Jason , Tracy would flip out!
As Leslie just passed away a few weeks ago, they need time to write a proper send off, gather clips and determine if any previous cast members should be invited back. They’ll give Monica/Leslie a proper send off sometime later this year.
As for who gets the house, I’ll save my projection until Monica’s passing is written in story.
If he brings Erica Slezak with him, I’ll give him all the chances in the world!
I am so happy that Chris stays in touch with Erika Slezak. They were so sweet as mother and son on One Life to Live. “She’s my second mom.” I love that.
I know that Erika lives very comfortably in the east; but, I’d LOVE for her to do a couple of episodes of GH as whatever character TPTB want to write for her. That would be fantastic. God bless her and her family.
would be fantastic if erika slezak whould be cast as brennan mother.
I’ve always been a big fan of Chris McKenna! I’m excited for him to make this role his own. I think he’ll do great.
I loved Chris on one life to live and I also love Erika Slezak ❤️
I’m already in love with with this Jack Brennan!
Me too! He’s a fantastic actor and love his take on Jack Brennan. He’s hot too!
Actually, I’d love to see Erick Slezak come on General Hospital as…Helena Cassadine! I know actress Constance Towers had retired and Helena is suppose to be dead, but she’s been ‘dead’ before and has come back , why not bring her back? Or maybe create a new Cassadine, Helena’s sister and have Erick play her
General Hospital
‘General Hospital’s’ Dominic Zamprogna Shares He Was ‘Happy to Hear’ of The Triangle Storyline Developing Between Dante/Elizabeth/Ric

General Hospital’s Dominic Zamprogna (Dante Falconeri) opened up about the burgeoning love triangle forming between his Port Charles alter-go, Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) and Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) after recently aired scenes, plus his hopes for the future of a Dante and Liz pairing during his appearance on the Sunday, April 23 edition of the That’s Awesome podcast with Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) and Bradford Anderson (Spinelli).
On last week’s GH Ric has made the decision that he wanted to propose to his ex-wife, only when he showed up at Elizabeth’s front door he misread the scenario he walked in with Liz tending to Dante’s injured leg from the softball game. From there, the legal eagle’s jealous streak is reemerging which may cause him to act out and do something unforgivable, or will he take the high road? Stay tuned,
Speaking with Steve Burton and Bradford Anderson about where Elizabeth stands in the annals of the long-running soap, Zamprogna said, “She’s up there with Steve and Maurice (Maurice Benard) as one of the most legacy-filled people on the show.”

Courtesy/ABC
HOW DANTE AND ELIZABETH CAME ABOUT
Dominic jokes it’s a far cry for where they were previously, “We had some scenes together years ago and we were both laughing. And Becky’s like, ‘Well, I guess we’re not going be paired up anytime soon.’ I remember we laughed immediately after they yelled ‘cut,”‘and said to each other, “Well, so much for that!”
Fast-forward to 2025, and “Elizabeth Korte (co-head writer, GH) came up to me at the General Hospital Christmas party, and I think it was a year and a half ago and she said we’re going to have you in scenes with Elizabeth, My internal monologue is going ‘I’m not with Lulu (Alexa Havins) anymore and Sam’s (Kelly Monaco) gone, so maybe they want to see if this works.’ I didn’t want to get scenes with Becky and try to find the chemistry. I just wanted to play whatever honestly was written and came across for both of us and hope it was what people liked, and I don’t know if it is. or not.”
Knowing how beloved Elizabeth is to the GH faithfuls, Zamprongna added, “She got a big fan base with Ric and a big fan base with with Jason and you know you’re going to piss somebody off. But, didn’t Ric drug Elizabeth and put Carly in a panic room?”

Photo: ABC
DANTE AND ELIZABETH PAIRING COULD STIR UP STORY FOR OTHERS IN PORT CHARLES
In closing, Dominic felt that the wide-reaching tentacles of a Dante and Elizabeth relationship is something he is down 100% to play. “The triangle thing; I was happy to hear it was with Ric and her, because I felt it’s important to have her the top of it as opposed to Dante, Lulu and Elizabeth.:
Zamprogna added, “When you get into relationships on a soap, things seem to fizzle out a little bit and the buildup is what’s the fun part, and the getting to know each other. and the people who are affected by this coming together. When with this case it’s going to affect Ric, Sonny, Lulu? So, much more story here. To me, it’s going to be a fun story to play.”
You can check out Dominic’s visit to That’s Awesome with Steve and Bradford below.
Now weigh-in: Are you rooting for Dante and Liz, or Dante and Ric at this juncture of the story, or neither of them for Elizabeth? Let us know your thoughts and picks via the comment section.
General Hospital
GH and OLTL Alum Patrick J. Gibbons Reveals the Story Behind Writing Trina’s Song on ‘General Hospital’ (Exclusive)

At the conclusion of today’s August 21 episode of General Hospital, Trina Robinson (Tabyana Ali) sings a lullaby to baby Dez, that went into a montage to close out the episode as her father Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) reports to Pentonville and winds up in his jail cell.
However, in a fun fact, the song entitled, “A Lonely Heart To Give” was actually written by none other than former One Life to Live and General Hospital actor, Patrick J. Gibbons.
Daytime fans first met Gibbons as Sam Manning on One Life to Live. At the time, when he started on the soap, he was just 5-years-old. Gibbons played the part from 2010-2013 on ABC and Prospect Park’s editions of the show. Fast-forward to 2018, Gibbons shows up on General Hospital as Wyatt Hoover, the scout who seemed always be injured, but in the thick of the drama. Patrick had appeared on GH multiple times as Wyatt including: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023.

Photo: ABC
FROM HIS GRANDMOTHER’S DEATH CAME THE INSPIRATION FOR HIS SONG
Now in 2026, General Hospital fans are getting to learn about another side of Gibbons’ talent as a songwriter and guitar player after “A Lonely Heart to Give” debuted today! Michael Fairman TV caught up with Patrick, who is now a senior at Penn State entering his final year as a finance major, to get the back-story of how his song wound up on GH!
Gibbons explained he wrote the song in honor of his grandmother who passed away a few years ago with whom he was, very, very close with. “Randomly, my grandmother had a downfall and passed away during the second semester of my sophomore year. I was in my dorm a lot and I was just playing with my guitar. And at the time, I was really into finger-style playing. I wrote the lyric and music to it (with a little help from my guitar teacher Lou), and my mom showed the rough demo to Frank Valentini (EP, General Hospital). He’s like an uncle to me. Frank loved it so much he said, “Finish that up. I want to hear the whole thing, and I want it on the show.”
MAKING MUSIC FOR GENERAL HOSPITAL
Gibbons and his parents took the next steps! “So now, all we needed was a female voice, because I thought that would fit the song well,” Patrick shared. “At the golf club we go to my parents were at a dinner. They liked the singer that was performing and spoke to her about the song, and she says she would like to bring it to her ‘boss’ who ended up being Eric Bazilian of the Hooters fame!” (Bazilian also wrote the smash hit song “One of Us” for Joan Osborne).
Next, “We went in the studio and recorded it and the song came together and it was beautiful. We loved it. They loved it at General Hospital and now they’re putting it the show and they are coming in with a piano, instead of a guitar. Paul Glass, the GH musical director, has been keeping us updated over the last six months of how it was coming along, and when it would air, and how GH put their own arrangement to it. I can’t wait to see and hear what they did with it.”

Photo: JPI
PATRICK’S ONE LIFE TO LIVE FAMILY
Everyone knows that the One Life to Live extended family share a very tight bond, and Patrick said he does stay in touch with a few of his former One Life to Live co-stars, especially those from the Manning family! “I stayed in touch with Kassie DePaiva (ex-Blair) and sent her little videos here and there. She was like my second mom for five years. We keep in contact with Kristen Alderson (ex-Starr) over X the most, and she can’t believe how big I’ve gotten. Like, none of them can! (laughs). I also loved working with Roger Howarth (ex-Todd) and Trevor St. John (ex-Todd and Victor Jr.), and to me since I was so young, they were just my friends, ‘Roger and Trevor,’ not Todd Manning or Victor Jr.”
It was a trip to California and a visit to Port Charles that ultimately led to Gibbons second soap role of Wyatt Hoover. Patrick explains, “In 2016, Frank Valentini invited us out to Los Angeles to visit the set of General Hospital. I think he heard me say, ‘This is so much fun. I miss being on the set.’ He goes, ‘You should come out. I’ll bring you on the show. We can make you a character.'”
A few years later, Patrick’s dream became a reality! “Then, by the summer of 2018, I was playing Wyatt, the scout, and shared scenes with Wes Ramsey (Peter August), and the best was when I shared a scene with Roger Howarth and Michael Easton (ex-John, OLTL and ex-Silas, Finn et al, GH), it was like chemistry from the old days.”

Photo: PGibbons
IT’S ALL IN THE NUMBERS
As to his future aspirations, it’s a career in the finance game that has piqued Gibbons’ real-life interest. But never say never to a return to acting. Patrick explained, “I’ve always enjoyed numbers. And on top of that, one of the biggest parts of finance is being personable and outgoing.”
He continued, “That’s one of the greatest skills I developed growing up. I really love the markets. I’m super interested. I’m never going to close the door to acting. I’m always open to that because I just love it so much. It’s such a great art.”
Take note! If there are any investment bankers or private equity folks among the GH faithful looking for a young analyst next year, Patrick’s DMs are open. You can find him on X at @PatrickJGibbons.”
So, what did you think of the song sung by Trina on today’s GH that was written by Patrick J. Gibbons? Did you enjoy Patrick’s performances as One Life’s Sam and GH’s Wyatt? Would you like to see him back on GH at some point? Let us know via the comment section.
General Hospital
‘General Hospital’ Alum Chad Duell Admits That He Didn’t Expect the Role of Michael Corinthos to be Recast, and Would Consider Working on Another Soap (Exclusive)

Chad Duell, the Daytime Emmy-winning actor, who stepped away from the pivotal role of Michael Corinthos on General Hospital, opened up about: his previous decision to leave the series after nearly 15 years, where’s he’s at now after time away from the demands of a daytime soap opera, and took a stroll down memory lane with some of Michael’s most-acclaimed storyline during his run, during a livestream chat on August 19 on You Tube’s Michael Fairman Channel.
Viewers last saw Duell on-screen as Michael in January of 2025, and with his successor in the role, Rory Gibson making his debut at the GH Nurses’ Ball in episodes that aired later in May. It was clear that during the conversation, Chad was a bit surprised that the GH brass decided to recast him when he thought he was just taking some much needed time off.
Burn-out of the daily grind of being on a soap was definitely a part of Chad’s decision to take a break. Duell explained “People know when you’re doing something for so long or your character is kind of in the same place for so long or doing the same stuff over and over again, you do get a a little burnt out, you get a little stiff, stale, a little stiff at times. I didn’t want that to be any sort of lasting impression. I have 15 years of a body of work of I’ve done on that show, which is fantastic.”

Photo: ABC
WHILE CHAD WAS AWAY GH RECAST MICHAEL CORINTHOS WITH RORY GIBSON
Chad shared, his mindset when leaving GH was, “I’m taking some time away, we’ll see what happens.” Then he added, “Obviously, they decided to go in a different direction with Michael when I was gone. I didn’t think they were going to bring somebody back in my place. But you know, it’s the business. You never know what can happen.”
Duell also shared he has not watched a single episode of General Hospital since he left the series, but now feels he reenergized following the loss of his father and stepping away from the GH, “I’m in a place now mentally, where I’m ready to sink my teeth into it again.”

Courtesy/ABC
Even though he is no longer Michael on GH, Chad was very happy with his final storyline where Michael was set on fire when a bomb exploded at Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) penthouse. “It was fun to put him in a dangerous situation, because I was wanting Michael to be in something scary instead of trying to be a hero character or just things happening around him, but to be the center point of tragedy happening to him. (I always saw) Michael as the heart of the (Corinthos) family.”
When Michael was badly burned the show chose not burn his face, which normally a soap does when they are recasting role and switching actors. Chad weighed-in, “They didn’t burn my face because I told Frank Valentini (EP, GH) I’m willing to come back. It was just a little bit of a break. So, I assumed that if they would have burned my face, they could have brought somebody back looking different than me… if that’s what their plan was.”

Courtesy/ABC
MEMORABLE MICHAEL STORYLINES
One of Chad’s most memorable performances was the in the storyline of Michael’s rape while he was sentenced to prison in 2010 and the confession of it in 2011. “It was so well-written and I was very nervous,” recalled Chad. “When I get really nervous about something, it ends up being really good when I do it, because it just means I care a lot about it”
“I have to put a lot of effort and work into it, and I really want it to be good. I was working with Dominic Zamprogna (Dante) and Steve Burton (Jason) a lot during those scenes, and Laura Wright (Carly). It was great working with Steve and Dominic, especially, during that storyline.
A NEW SOAP ROLE FOR CHAD?
As to a future soap opera role, Chad is open to the idea and would love to jump back in to a juicy role, “I know people over at The Bold and the Beautiful, and The Young and the Restless. They know that if they’re interested, I would love to come in for a screen test or something, and they can see what I’m doing.”
Meanwhile, Chad has been busy putting out new music under the moniker Duelly and during the interview he explains how he creates his EDM tracks and much more. You can stream his latest single, Static in the Quiet Room on Spotify, Apple Music and You Tube Music.
You can check out the full conversation with Chad Duell below.
Now let us know: what show would you like to see Chad cast on down the line? BTG, DAYS, B&B, Y&R, or a new role on GH? What did you think of his thoughts on the casting switch while he was away in the role of Michael? What was your favorite Michael storyline during Chad’s 15-year run on the ABC soap opera? Let us know via the comment section.
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