General Hospital
Rebecca Budig Clarifies Status With General Hospital
The name Hayden Barnes has been brought back up over the last several months on General Hospital, leading many to believe that the character may be on her way back on to the canvas, and in turn, that would bring back fan favorite, Rebecca Budig to the role.
Rebecca spoke to Soap Opera Digest for their upcoming issue out this Friday, about a possible return in the near future. However, she intimated that it does not look, for now, that she will be back.
In addition, she clarified that she did not turn down an offer to come back to ABC daytime drama series, either.
Budig expressed: “Listen, I love (executive producer) Frank (Valentini), and Frank and I are friends, but I haven’t been asked back since I left the show (in 2019).”
So, would you like to see Rebecca back on GH, sooner than later? Weigh-in via the comment section below.
Please bring her back!
Why bring Hayden back when it might interfere with the Corinthos Crime Hour? Seriously, it’s time to bring her back, even in a different role. She could have Peter’s screen time…and salary. Or Esme. Or Drew. Or Michael. Or Sam and Dante. Or half of Carly’s time. I can dream, can’t I?
Soaphound,
It’s more like a nightmare. I think I’d tell Rebecca, if they don’t intend on asking her back, then quit using her name.
@Violet – While I’d like her back, she has zero say in what TPTB do with the Hayden name/character…
I don’t want to see her and Elizabeth conflicted over Finn… and further.. it sort of make me uncomfortable with these two pairing up anyway, with Elizabeth becoming an “aunt-mom” being with Finn. Finn will aleays br better paired with Anna…but i likw Anna and Valentine, and Elizabeth with Drew
Their bringing back a different actress in her place so what your thinking is irrelevant.
How so ? Elizabeth and Hayden are half sisters regardless whomever plays the role of Hayden. So Eliazbeth raising Voliet would make her an “Aunt-mom” to Voliet if paired with Finn.
Kitty… do watch General Hospital?
Kitty, it’s they’re, not their, and you’re, not your. And how is what Brian said irrelevant? It’s his opinion. Geez. Moving on—Brian, I really love Anna with Valentin and I think Finn has the most chemistry with Hayden. I just think Anna and Finn are delightful together as dear friends, not lovers.
Cheers to Anna & Finn, and to you Harry.
Brian, cheers to you and Harry, you both Crack me up!
Probably just as well that they don’t bring her back, because you know the first thing they would do is force her into a pairing with NuDrew. AMC never aired a single episode in Hell, but even I know those two were a “thing” on that show.
Not that it’s a guaranteed fit when you revisit pairings on a different show. Remember when Maxie had the very short lived relationship with Patrick’s little brother (can’t even remember what they called him)?? Didn’t work out so well, despite their history as the “iconic” legacy teen supercouple from Days (and they remain the definitive version of those characters)
On the other horn you had Stefan Cassadine & Katherine Bell…. who were just Steve & Kayla without the eye patch. That was the rare case where it actually worked… and they didn’t even really change the names by much.
Of course this DOES leave the hanging question of who the screaming woman was in one of the cells in the Cassadine basement prison. If it wasn’t Hayden, then it must have been Holly…. but there’s nothing indicating she’s about to return either.
Who else could it be? Psycho Nelle? What would Victor Cassadine want with her??
Haven’t you heard their bringing back an actress to replace her who used to be in a different role.
No I haven’t heard anything about that. Who are you talking about, and what’s your source for the info?
Not that I would be entirely surprised, given all the insane casting moves in the last few weeks. Firing Jason, aging all the kids with new kids that look nothing like them, and replacing one kid who could act with…. well, I’ll just leave it there…..
The RUMOR is that Marie Wilson (ex-Karen Wexler #2) is coming in to play Hayden, but that’s NOT from a reputable source.
I certainly hope that’s not the case. I only liked the original Karen Wexler. And as for Marie Wilson’s last role on Days…. don’t even get a Devil started on that abortion of a storyline.
What would anyone want with her? Nelle that is.
Well, I’d hire her to be a succubus here in Hell. The fact that she’s NOT doing that at the moment is proof that she’s not actually dead.
Bring her back. The writers and producers don’t have a clue with what they are doing and couldn’t care less what the fans want.
I really like her as an actress. I think she needs to come back, that’s the only thing that makes sense
I truly look forward to seeing her back as I have followed her for years since I saw her as Greenlee. I love her acting but wh at is so frustrating with her is that she doesn’t stay very long on any soap. Her coming and going each time raises how dedicated is she in her career? .
Sandy
I think she must have been pretty dedicated on GL. She played Michelle quite a while.
I liked Hayden’s character. She was interesting with Nicholas, but I wasn’t fond of her with Finn. (I liked him with Anna). Maybe she’d have chemistry with the new Nicholas? I don’t see her with the new Drew. Of course she doesn’t have to be with a guy to be interesting, as long as they conger up a compelling story for her. She’s good at demonstrating strength & tenacity, with a convincing softer side. Sure, bring her back if there’s a good storyline
Bring her back and the spin could be all victor’s doing.
I would like to see her back, but I equally feel like they need to wrap up the stories they have going before thy tie up the Hayden story and set her onto another story. Hayden is Violet’s mom, but now Liz is heading toward Finn. Liz being Hayden’s half-sister, how will that play out? Plus, weren’t they also hinting at Jeff Weber returning? There’s a lot out there right now: Marshall just arrived, Phyllis has yet to find her estranged relative in PC, we’re waiting for someone to (please) kill Peter, Victor has it in for Laura for some reason, Cain just came back, Jason hasn’t been found, the whole canvas has so many stories playing out. I’d rather wait for some of these stories to conclude before another one is introduced or expanded.
Rebecca is the greatest asset to GH. Her portrayal of Hayden has been endearing and at times mysterious. She’s a great soap actress and doesn’t need to be replaced with Marie! Give us a break. Why does Frank keep replacing our favorite actors? It doesn’t make sense!!
why is the show prolonging her return? nudrew is back, everyone knows the actors have a history, i’m not saying pair them together but gees at least have them interact and give the old AMC fans a bone to chew on, actress Rebecca Budig just like Rebecca Herbts have chemistry w/ anyone they interact with, I would love to see them have a storyline together so much going on here, theres their father story to play out, hayden coming back as liz and finn get closer, hayden mother just got killed, by who? Victor Cassadine? Nikolas ? Shawn is in the mix. So much going on here, come on GH bring her back.
I don’t think GH knows what they’re doing half the time anymore. Between propping Whiny Heiny (and propping the equally useless Frodd for several years before that)… throwing Jason under the bus for the second time in less than a decade, recasting every child in the cast at the same time, and the programming this week…. Xmas on the 22nd, after Xmas on the 23rd and a completely irrelevant rerun on the 24th, and also the dropped storylines with Jeff Webber (is he coming back or not??) and the identity of the screaming woman in the cell next to Drew on Cassadine Island…. things seem to be a bit chaotic at the moment. Hell only knows when they’ll get back on track.
Yeah, Satan, that was really weird, even for GH. Who reruns a tepid Valentine’s Day episode, from 2021 at that, as a Christmas show? There must be so many vintage episodes to run instead –just pick one out of a hat. And my 87 year-old mom can’t tell the new Rocco from the new Danny (who I thought had to be Jake). Not a good move on the recasts, either.
I think they painted themselves into a corner with a Jake recast. Their first error there was when they super SORASed Josslyn from the “corn girl” to the teenager. Of course at that time everybody believed Jake was dead, so it wasn’t an issue. But when they brought him back, initially as the same kid who allegedly got ran over by his own grandpa (Luke) in front of Liz’s house, we were reminded that 4 year old Jake supposedly gave a kidney to Joss who was about 18 months old at the time.
But if you SORASed Jake to be 4 years older than Joss now, he would also be 4 years older than his brother Cameron, and obviously that won’t work. But now they have aged Danny & Rocco, and Jake would obviously be several years older than them.
They’ll probably aim for the middle and put him at somewhere around 15 or 16, but that’s not really accurate in comparison to the age difference between Jake and either of his half-brothers, especially Danny who should be just short of 10 years old.
O,K you are making me nuts!I thought Olivia and Robert heard a screaming woman, supposedly Holly in that casino they went to a while back ?
Yeah that was definitely Holly. That’s when we saw the brief 10 second scene of Holly being held prisoner somewhere. The scene was filmed on a cell phone, obviously due to Emma Samms COVID status at the time, but it was enough to establish that she was, in fact, being held prisoner, and not dead, although they had just attended her “funeral”.
By the time Maxi gets her kid back, she’ll be in nursery school.
General Hospital
‘General Hospital’s’ Tabyana Ali on a Potential Kai/Trina/Gio/Emma Quadrangle, ‘I Don’t Think That’s Impossible, But That Would Be Messy’
On recent episodes of General Hospital, music executive Simon Craft (Grady Eldridge) has been pushing and demanding that Trina (Tabyana Ali) and Gio (Giovanni Mazza) play up a faux relationship when they are onstage, or in front of the camera, to add to their allure as new recording artists to his label.
Simon knows full well that Gio is dating Emma (Braedyn Bruner), and Trina is with Kai (Jens Austin Astrup). It was apparent from the start, that Kai seemed a bit more comfortable with the “arrangement” understanding this was for business, and not pleasure, while Emma initially didn’t like the idea.
Now with Trina’s stalker story in full gear, and as fans eventually find out who is completely obsessed with the budding young singer, while initially seeming to be Simon that would seem to be too easy of a choice. But is GH toying with the idea that somehow Gio and Trina get stuck in a situation and one thing leads to another and they develop feelings one another, too?
Photo: ABC
SIMON’S MANUEVERS
In addition, after Curtis (Donnell Turner) and Sidwell’s (Carlo Rota) beatdown at Pentonville, where everyone is accusing Sonny (Maurice Benard) of ordering the deed, will this find Gio and Trina on the same side, believing it’s Sonny, or will Gio end up sticking by his grandfather when by week’s end he was also questioning if he was telling the truth?
During a new conversation on the Michael Fairman Channel, Tabyana Ali shared her thoughts that if Gio and Trina were pushed closer together, what that would mean for their relationships with Emma and Kai, respectively.
Photo: ABC
MUSICAL CHAIRS?
Pondering the soap staple, Tabyana exclaimed, “Oh, my goodness. Who knows? I mean, quite honestly, I don’t think it’s it’s impossible, but, oh, wow! That would be messy!” Ali added that its something that could be quite intriguing to play. “There’s a part of me that wants it to happen just to see, how does it play out? Right? Then, there’s another part of me that’s like, “You can’t do that to Emma and Kai.” That’s so wrong,” believed Ali.
However, Tabyana did admit a complicated love story wasn’t far from her mind. “Originally, I wanted something like a quadrangle. I really wanted that to happen. And if this is a moment where it could happen, I think that would be fun too.”
When asked to tease what’s coming up for Trina in the next several weeks, she offered up three words. Things for her will “(get) Suspicious, (be ) spontaneous, (and) very dangerous.”
So, do you think the GH writing team is teeing up a situation where Trina and Gio become more than friends and musical artists together? Would you be down for it, or be against it? do you like Emma with Gio and Kai with Trina? Share your thoughts via the comment section, nd in case you missed it, check our chat with Tabyana below.
General Hospital
GENERAL HOSPITAL: Sonny Tells Dante, “I Don’t Want a Son Like You,” While Michael Tells Brook Lynn to Bide Her Time Till Chase and Willow Have an Affair
On the Thursday, October 1 episode of General Hospital, both Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and Michael Corinthos (Rory Gibson) had some things to say and what they had to say didn’t go over well with whom they were talking to!
Sonny had a confrontation with his son, Dante (Dominic Zamprogna), while Michael leveled with Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) over Chase (Josh Swickard).
GH is setting up a scenario where everyone is going to make it look like Sonny was responsible for having Sidwell (Carlo Rota) beat up in Pentonville; while viewers already know Ava (Maura West) and Drew (Cameron Mathison) were behind it.
Courtesy/ABC
A VISIT WITH DAD
Now, Dante comes to Sonny’s house. He wants to know straight up from his dad if he ordered the attack at Pentonville. Sonny flatly denies any culpability or responsibility, but Dante refuses to believe him.
Dante informs Sonny he has video footage of Sully and Vito at the prison. Sonny explains to Dante he doesn’t know why Sully beat up both Curtis and Dante. Things escalated when Sonny was deeply hurt that Dante refused to believe him. Dante says he was disappointed that his father didn’t respect him enough to be truthful with him!
Sonny asks Dante to consider that he was being set up. He says all he did was to tell Vito to instruct Sully to keep a watchful eye on Sidwell, not to harm him. No matter what Sonny said, Dante continued hammering him with how he knew deep down, even though he said he left the mob, he had to finish off Sidwell for himself.
Next, Sonny explains everything he has ever done was to provide for and to protect his family. Dante fired back that he doesn’t want to deal anymore with Sonny’s half-baked truths. As the two men argue, Gio (Giovanni Mazza) shows up at Sonny’s front door and overhears Sonny losing his temper and shouting at Dante, “Get out of my house! I don’t want a son like you!” The scenes featured an excellent performance by Maurice Benard.
Courtesy/ABC
MICHAEL THE MANIPULATOR
While this is going down, outside the Quartermaine boathouse, Brook Lynn opens up to Michael about living at the Q’s with Chase being there, since he only came back due to legal advice from his lawyer, Monet Mitchell (Blythe Howard).
Brook Lynn questioned whether they should get legally separate. Michael insisted that would be a big mistake. When she asks why, Michael tells Brook Lynn to bide her time until Chase and Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) have an affair; then she’d have full custody of Phoebe.
An angered Brook Lynn pushed Michael into the water and accuses him of moving Willow back into the gatehouse with intent on putting Chase and Willow in closer proximity and sacrificing Brook Lynn’s family in the process. As the two cousins bicker, Chase shows up asking Brook Lynn if she is OK. Michael punctuates their talk with “You know, I’m right.”
CURTIS FIGURES OUT A WAY TO GET OUT OF THE SLAMMER
At GH, Willow visits Curtis (Donnell Turner) in his hospital room. Curtis wants Willow to get him pardoned and keep him out of jail, and in return, he will help her nail Sonny.
Next, Willow tells Dr. Tristan Roberts (Dean Geyer) she wants Curtis held for observation for three more days. He agrees to do so under one condition, that she understands that he may need to call in a favor from a congresswoman.
So, what did you think of how Dante accused his father and refused to believe Sonny’s answers? Is this the end of their father and son relationship for good? Is Michael the most manipulative person of all, except for Willow? Do the two deserve each other? Do you want Chase and Willow to have an affair? And what of Curtis? Does he have many redeeming qualities left? Share your thoughts via the comment section, but first check out the talk Michael had with Brook Lynn.
General Hospital
GH Alum Tajh Bellow and Y&R Alum Loren Lott Star in New Tiktok and Microdrama ‘Love Island’ Spoof
Two soap opera alums very familiar to fans of General Hospital and The Young and the Restless are paired together in a new short-form digital series from none other than Issa Rae’s production entity HOORAE Digital.
Look for Tajh Bellow (ex-TJ Ashford, GH)) and Loren Lott (ex-Ana Hamilton, Y&R) as part of the cast of The Compatibility Experiment, premiering on October 14, 2026, exclusively on TikTok and its companion microdrama platform, PineDrama.
In the video teaser, it appears that Bellow and Lott play a couple, Kelvin and Camila, set in a Love Island reality show-esque environment trying to win the one million dollar cash prize, only what could go wrong?
Photo: HOORAE
The Compatibility Experiment loglines share that it brings a fast-paced, relationship-focused reality check—much like Love Island with a twist. The show takes a participant’s current relationship, introduces them to a potentially more compatible partner, and forces them to navigate the differences with life-changing money on the line.
The new series is part of a groundbreaking content deal between HOORAE Digital and TikTok to develop premium short-form storytelling. The ensemble cast also features; Ayona, Reggie Luck, JaNa Craig, Tosin Morohunfola, Jessica Jacoby, Georgia Warner, and Nick Cassidy.
General Hospital fans know Tajh Bellow for his performances as TJ Ashford, and who earned two Daytime Emmy nominations along the way during his run. Bellow took over the role in 2018 and last appeared on the ABC daytime drama series in December of 2024.
Loren Lott first appeared as Devon’s (Bryton James) sister Ana Hamilton on The Young and the Restless from 2018 to 2019; making a brief return in 2024. She has continued to perform on the stage and screen with recent credits including: Bel-Air, Cherish the Day, and All American: Homecoming.
Check out the trailer for The Compatibility Experiment below and let us know what you think of its concept and if you are glad to see Tajh and Loren again? Hoping they might return to daytime in their GH and Y&R roles at some point in the future? Weigh-in via the comment section.
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GH Alum Tajh Bellow and Y&R Alum Loren Lott Star in New Tiktok and Microdrama ‘Love Island’ Spoof
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