Congratulations are in order for General Hospital and Days of Our Lives favorite Brandon Barash (ex-Johnny and ex-Stefan/Jake, respectively) and his wife, Isabella Devoto Barash, who welcomed their newborn son, Sebastian Antonio Barash back on June 5.

For the first time his Sebastian’s birth the couple is posting and beaming with pride at the new addition to the family. This is Brandon and Isabella’s second child and second son together following the birth of Joaquin Lee Barash back in September of 2023. Barash is also the father of Harper Rose Barash from his previous marriage to General Hospital star, Kirsten Storms (Maxie) who is now 12-years-old and big sister to do younger brothers!

In his heartfelt post on Instagram accompanied by several photos of his growing family, Brandon expressed, “The heart is indeed a muscle, and boy, can it stretch. We welcomed our newest addition Sebastian Antonio Barash (Antonio after Isa’s dad) on 6.5.26. Lil Seba, I vow to love you with undying ferocity and without condition. As for our new family of five, we have all already evolved for the better as we rise like the lotus through the muck of sleepless nights, soul-tingling baby whimpers, and yes, poopy diapers. These babies teach us a clinic on love…all we need to do is saddle up, be still, and take em in. Isabella Barash, you’re my hero. Thank you for the gift of your love. House is full, hearts fuller.”

Photo: BBarashIG

BRANDON’S BUDDIES CONGRATULATE HIM ON WELCOMING NEW SON

Several of Brandon’s former co-stars have already jumped in the commenting thread including, Rob Scott Wilson (Alex, DAYS) “Congrats my brotha!!,” Dan Feuerriegel (EJ, DAYD) and Eric Martsolf (Brady, DAYS), with whom Brandon appears with in the Day Players Band and more.

Back in April of this year, Brandon was granted an emergency restraining order against his ex-wife, Kirsten Storms claiming that the GH favorite was exhibiting concerning behavior and he feared for the well-being of their daughter, Harper. They each now live separate lives in Tennessee.

We send our well-wishes to Brandon, Isabella and their new son, Sebastian as they build their burgeoning family unit.

Take a look at Brandon and Isabella’s new little bundle of joy in the snaps below.

Now, share your congratulations to Brandon and Isabella  via the comment section!

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Daytime Emmy winner, Eric Martsolf talks about how he learned he was cast as Brady Black on Days of Our Lives on an all-new episode of Soapy Hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart dropping Tuesday, June 16. Martsolf, who is the special guest, related how he was out of a job following the end of his run as Passions’ Ethan Crane when the NBC soap was canceled in 2008.

In addition, Eric shares a heartbreaking and memorable conversation with the late Drake Hogestyn (John Black), who at the time was in the throes of chemotherapy following his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Ahead of the premiere of this heartfelt conversation, Michael Fairman TV is giving you an exclusive preview with two clips from Martsolf’s visit to the CBS podcast.

First, Eric recounted how he and his wife Lisa had recently welcomed twin boys, bought a house, and he did not know if he would find a way quick enough to support the family. Eric had already learned the part he read for at Days of Our Lives, he didn’t get. However, little did he know, that he was about to instead become the recast Brady Black, previously played by Kyle Lowder.

Photo: JPI

THE CALL THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

“I had my kids in their double-stroller in Porter Ranch, wondering how I’m going to pay for this house? Marnie Saitta (casting director, Days of Our Lives) calls me up, ‘Eric, can you get your butt to the studio right now?’ I’m like, ‘Why? I didn’t get the job.’ She’s like, ‘Well, maybe you got a job. They want you for Brady Black. They want to bring back this character. He’s been off the canvas for about three years.’ I said, ‘Marnie, Oh, my God! That is such great news. I have my kids, and my wife’s out of town.’ She’s like, ‘Bring your kids. Drop ’em off at my office!’ I dropped the boys off at her office, went and met with Gary Tomlin (former co-executive producer, DAYS), and he said, ‘You’re Brady now. Here’s your backstory. Welcome to the show.'”

Eric continued, “I went back to Marnie’s and I knocked on the door and they’re my kids. One has the Apple remote in his hand or whatever hitting it against the desk, the other one’s playing with the keyboard. Marnie says, ‘Congratulations, get your kids out of my office now.” I was like, ‘I’m so sorry. I love you. Just send me the bill for the damage.’ Eventually, my wife Lisa came home. I said, ‘I’m on DAYS now.’ We cried and we hugged, and I’ve been with DAYS ever since.”

THE HEARTBREAKING MOMENT WITH DRAKE HOGESTYN

The Days of Our Lives family lost one of its most beloved members when Drake Hogestyn who played John Black for 38 years passed away from pancreatic cancer on September 28, 2024. It wasn’t until June of 2025, that DAYS viewers saw the story play out where John succumbed to internal injuries sustained in an explosion saving the experimental serum to bring Bo Brady back to life. It was John’s final mission.

During his visit to Soapy, Eric Martsolf was asked to share one of his greatest memories of working with Drake as his TV son. In an emotional moment, Martsolf recalled trying to tape a scene with Drake when he clearly was feeling the effects of the chemotherapy he was undergoing at the time, while he tried to soldier on as Drake was known to do.

Photo: JPI

“Not to get too sentimental, but I think it was one of the last scenes we did together. We were in the interrogation room at the Salem PD. John is talking to Brady about something and he had to stop tape because he was on chemo and he would have to excuse himself from the set, come back, gather himself, and just go right back into the scene. You could tell he was really struggling. He didn’t talk to me much about what was going on. I heard through the grapevine what was wrong with him. I just looked at him and I went, ‘How you doing?’ We had a five minute break, and he said, ‘I’m just on a journey. It’s going to be good. It’s going to be fine.’ That just broke my heart. He still wanted to keep telling the story even though his body wasn’t letting him. Drake never complained, never bitched.”

Martsolf added, “My memory of Drake is just a man of fortitude, and a man that was a storyteller until the end that just wanted to keep doing his job. He gave Ken Corday (executive producer, Days of Our Lives) his blessing to film John Black’s funeral while he was still on this planet. Ken said to him, ‘Are you sure?’ Drake was like, ‘Tell the story.’ That’s a man. That’s a guy who is dedicated to what he had been doing for the last 40, 50 years.”

Soapy Hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart features weekly lively and often nostalgic conversations with beloved past and present stars and creatives from across the entire soap opera community and all networks and platforms, including daytime and primetime. Whether a lifelong fan or discovering the genre for the first time, the series shares that it, “offers a fresh, fun behind-the-scenes look at the stories – and storytellers – that define daytime drama.”

Episodes from the audio/video podcast series are available for free via Audacy and the CBS brand You Tube Channel. The podcast is produced by the Paramount Multiplatform Production Group, with Mike Benson serving as executive producer.

Take a look at these exclusive previews below with Eric Martsolf.

Now let us know, were you touched by Eric’s memories of Drake struggling to work as he battled cancer? What did you think of Eric’s casting story of how he became the new Brady Black? Have you enjoyed Eric’s performance over the last 18 years in the role? Weigh-in via the comment section.

It’s one of the most controversial storylines in soap opera history, when Luke (the late Anthony Geary) raped Laura (Genie Francis) back in an episode that aired in 1979. In the story, one fateful night while believing his latest assignment for the mob would get him killed, Luke drank heavily, and confessed his love to Laura. She had been working at the disco at the time and tried to comfort him.

Luke said, “I’m not going to die without holding you in my arms just one time. Dance with me.” As Herb Alpert’s “Rise,” played in the background, Laura tried to leave as she was getting fearful of Luke. The camera panned away as Luke forced himself on her and Laura screamed, “No!” The aftermath also became a huge problem for the series years later. GH tried to pass it off as a seduction, while viewer outcry, and as the world evolved over the decades called it then and now what it was, “rape.”

The script writer for that episode was prolific soap opera writer and three-time Emmy winner, Sheri Anderson. The popular scribe is best-known for her work on Days of Our Lives and also her tenure as its co-head writer, but she also spent a few years at General Hospital smack dab in the late 70s and early 80s, under then legendary executive producer, Gloria Monty.

Photo: JPI

During her visit last week to the Michael Fairman Channel, where Anderson opened up about a specific moments throughout her storied writing career, as well as the state of the soaps now in our culture, she recalled the events that transpired before and after that led to her scripting the infamous rape episode on GH.

ABC NETWORK EXEC DECIDES LUKE SHOULD RAPE LAURA

Sheri began, “What happened was Pat Falken Smith (then head writer, GH) came in from a meeting and she was stoned-faced, and we said, ‘What’s going on?’ She said Jackie Smith, who was head of the network, wants Luke to rape Laura and we were like, ‘What? We can’t do that!” She said that’s what we were going to so, because we were exploring ‘date rape’ at the time.”

“So, on General Hospital, or any show that I’ve been involved with, we would get as much research as we could on the subject, especially when I was writing,” explained Anderson. “I would always send the script to a therapist and say, ‘is this accurate? Is this emotionally correct?'”

Anderson shared from the writers viewpoint what the story was about at that time: “Luke was from the wrong side of the tracks. He was trying to prove himself to the mob and they said to prove it, you have to go kill a senator Mitch Williams. Luke couldn’t go through with it, which meant he was a dead man. He went back to the Campus Disco which he owned and Laura was there. She was waiting for her husband (Scotty Baldwin). So, when Laura was trying to comfort Luke, things started to get out of control.”

THE COINED “SEDUCTION”

“The script which I wrote was 110 pages, which was typical at the time. Gloria Monty, who was a brilliant executive producer and director who changed daytime, was the director of that episode,” explained Anderson on the writing for the soap back in the late 70s. “They probably cut 30 pages of material, because she was so intent on the rape and making it as brutal as she could. So, we were just going forward and thinking, ‘Oh, my God! That was really awful.'”

Over decades, the moment was called as aforementioned, “a seduction,” a “date rape,” and then as GH viewers recalled, it was in 1998 that Luke admitted to his son Lucky (Jonathan Jackson) that he actually raped his mother, Laura.

Photo: ABC

ANDERSON COULD NO LONGER DEFEND THE STORY POINT

It is not lost on Anderson, how GH at the time, tried to pass off the on-screen incident, “In retrospect, and I believe Michelle Val Jean (creator, head-writer, executive producer of Beyond the Gates) once said that it upset her, that we would say it was really a ‘seduction’ and all of those things, because it was not. It was rape, and (back then) I would try to, in a sense, defend it, and frankly, I was wrong,” revealed Sheri.

“I wrote the rape episode and I actually wrote the episode after it and we had Emily McLaughlin who played nurse Jessie Brewer who came to me later and said, ‘thank you.’ Because she said, ‘I wrote the aftermath of it so poignantly for her and Genie,’ recalled Sheri. “Then, we had Irene Kassorla, the real-life therapist come in, and on the show do group therapy sessions. So, it was really fascinating for me  I thought that we were doing it extremely well, and I still think we did it extremely well. But, yes, it was rape, and it was wrong.”

Photo: ABC

GLORIA MONTY SWORE SHE WOULD NEVER MARRY LUKE AND LAURA

In an ironic twist, when Pat Falken Smith and Sheri left General Hospital to return to Days of Our Lives, suddenly Luke and Laura were getting married, after Gloria Monty swore she would never let them tie the knot. As soap fans know, the wedding remains the most-watched episode in soap opera in history with over 30 million people tuning-in on November 16 and 17 of 1981.

“People talk about that story thinking Luke raped Laura, and then they got married. No! Luke raped Laura, but it destroyed their lives with the secrets that they carried. Laura would not tell anybody that Luke was the one who raped her, and their lives were altered in so many ways. It took a long time to bring them back as a couple because they had such chemistry personally, so it was just the obvious way to go,” explained Anderson of the writers mindset at the time. “Gloria Monty said to us, ‘We’ll never marry them.’ Then, when as a writing team we left and went to Days of Our Lives, she married them two months later.”

You can catch our full informative chat with Sheri Anderson below.

So, what did you think about what really went on behind the scenes at General Hospital when the decision came down to have Luke rape Laura in the controversial scenes? Did you appreciate the insight provided by Sheri? Is it still one of the more troubling plot points in the storied history of Luke and Laura to you? Weigh-in via the comment section below.