Kelly Monaco leaves ‘General Hospital’ after 21 years

Kelly Monaco is set to leave “General Hospital” after more than two decades on the ABC soap opera, Variety has confirmed.

Monaco, who has played Sam McCall on “General Hospital” since 2003, will make her final appearance in Port Charles this fall due to the storyline.

Monaco joined the soap opera in 2003 after working on the spin-off series “Port Charles,” on which she played Livvie Locke from 2000 to 2003. ‘General Hospital’ introduced Monaco’s Sam as a con artist trying to turn around her family’s bad luck. The character is the biological daughter of mob boss Julian Jerome (William deVry) and lawyer Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn), as well as the illegal adoptive daughter of Cody McCall (Stanley Kamel) and Evelyn Bass.

Monaco has filmed more than 2,200 episodes of “General Hospital,” and in 2006 she received a Daytime Emmy nomination for her role as Sam.

In August 2020, Monaco was briefly recast, with Lindsay Hartley temporarily playing the role. Hartley later reappeared as the character in February 2020, and again in several episodes this year in January and again earlier this month.

Monaco’s departure comes amid the return of several “General Hospital” veterans, including Jonathan Jackson as Lucky Spencer, who returned to the long-running soap opera on Friday. Rick Hearst also returned as Ric Lansing.

In July, Variety exclusively reported that Emma Samms will reprise her role as Holly Sutton in early September. Her return ties in with Jackson’s.

Soap Opera Network was the first to report the news of Monaco’s departure.