General Hospital is losing another longtime star — but only for a bit.
Kirsten Storms, 41, who has starred as Maxie Jones on the long-running soap opera since 2005, announced she will be taking a break from her role while she settles into her new home in Tennessee.
In an Instagram video posted Tuesday, the actor shared that she had a conversation with the show’s executive producer, Frank Valentini, in March about her desire to move out of California, as well as her desire to stay on the show.
“Now, when you approach a job like this, they can always be like, ‘Forget it. We will let you out of your contract if you’re going to leave the state’,” Storms explained, but “GH did not do that. Which was kind of amazing because I also asked for some time off.”
She revealed that she recently completed her “final taping day for the year,” teasing that it’s possible she might return as early as November or December.
Storms assured fans that her character’s storyline during her absence is “kind of incredible. You guys are going to freak out.”
“Can’t wait to see the comments online about that,” she added, thanking the show’s writers, ABC network executives, and producers for being understanding and supportive of her decision.
“I’m very excited to be making Tennessee my home! I can’t wait to return to GH, once [daughter] Harper and I are settled in our new town. I plan on documenting as much of this new journey on my social media as I can,” she wrote in the caption of the video, revealing that it’s always been a dream of hers to “move to a place like this. It’s hard to believe it’s really happening.”
Harper, who in 2015 briefly joined the long-running soap opera as Georgie Spinelli, the daughter of her mother’s Maxie, is Storms’s only child, whom she shares with her ex-husband, former General Hospital co-star Brandon Barash.
Storms first joined the ABC series in 2005, taking over the role of Maxie from Robyn Richards, who originated the character in 1993. Storms later took an extended medical leave in 2011, and was temporarily replaced by Jen Lilley.
Her current short-term departure comes a month after Jonathan Jackson, who reprised his role as Lucky Spencer for the fourth time last year, exited the series.
While he revealed that his intentions were to stay on the show longer, Jackson told TV Line last month that the logistics of traveling between his home in Tennessee and the show’s tapings in California had taken a toll on his family life.
“There was always that possibility because it was a bit of an experiment on my part to see if I could make it work with the family dynamic,” said the father-of-three.
“There were moments where I thought, ‘I think I can find this balance with the family and time back and forth,’ and then you just have to pray about it and try to do what you feel is right. We gave it our best shot, but we weren’t able to keep it going.”
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