Moments after General Hospital fans saw Maxie Jones try Deception’s new Youth Truth serum, she stumbled on set and collapsed, leaving her family and friends in shock. We still don’t know the cause of the collapse – was it a heart condition or poison? – and as her friends, including Lulu, worry over whether Maxie will slip into a coma, the actress who plays Maxie has spoken out about her future on the ABC series.
Kirsten Storms has played Maxie for 20 years now, after joining the series in 2005 (she had one hiatus between 2011 and 2012), but is now taking a temporary leave of absence to move to Nashville with her daughter. In a video posted on Instagram in early July, Kristen revealed that ABC has replaced her with another actress for the time being, confirming Maxie is not dying, and shared that she will return later in the year.
“I’m very excited to be making Tennessee my home! I can’t wait to return to GH, once Harper and I are settled in our new town,” she captioned the post. “I plan on documenting as much of this new journey on my social media as I can. It’s always been a dream of mine to move to a place like this; it’s hard to believe it’s really happening.”
In the video, Kirsten went on to share that it had been a lifelong dream to move to the south, and she was grateful to the show’s executive producer, Frank Valentini, for helping her to have the best of both worlds.
“In March, I asked Frank Valentini, our amazing executive producer. I had a conversation with him [about] my reasons for wanting to move and my desire to not leave the show,” she explained, adding: “Now, when you approach a job like this, they can always be like, ‘Forget it. We’ll let you out of the contract if you’re going to leave the state.’ GH did not do that. Which was kind of amazing.”
Kirsten has already filmed her final scenes and has already made the trip to Tennessee, but she added that it was “possible I will be back in December, maybe November”.
“I really want to thank GH, the ABC executives, the writers, for agreeing to let me take this time, and I know Frank and the producers there know my reasons, and I am so grateful that they understand and are supportive,” she concluded. Addressing rumors that she was leaving the soap, Kirsten insisted this “is just me, very long-winded explaining that I am taking a break and moving to Tennessee”.
© Getty ImagesKirsten welcomed her daughter Harper in early January 2014 with her then-husband, Brandon Barash, who also appeared in General Hospital. They got married in June 2013, but on April 8 2016, it was revealed that they had filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
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