Heartbreaking Update! The Doctor Is Out: General Hospital’s Leslie Charleson Is Reportedly Unlikely to Ever Play Monica Again
We suppose we were sort of prepared for this news, given how infrequently Leslie Charleson has appeared on General Hospital in recent years. Still, it feels crummy to be typing the words “It is unlikely that she will ever again return to the show.”
The veteran actress won the role of the future Monica Quartermaine back in 1977 (when the daytime drama recast Patsy Rahn, much to her co-stars’ chagrin). And for decades, the alum of A Flame in the Wind and As the World Turns resided on the frontburner as the mercurial doctor dealt with everything from breast cancer to husband Alan’s infidelity.
As years went by, health concerns began to slow Charleson’s roll. In 2018, for instance, she tripped over her dog and injured her leg (necessitating that a temp be hired to pinch-hit as Monica). A year later, she underwent surgery on her hand to repair “a fracture that I got rescuing my tortoise off of a hillside,” she Facebook’d.
Charleson made her last General Hospital appearance over the holidays in 2023. Her character has been mentioned often since then but has not turned up to exchange barbs with sister-in-law Tracy. Now, though Closer Weekly reports that the actress is “doing her best to recover” from her injuries, “it’s harder for her to get around at her age. [She’s] doing OK under the circumstances” — and at least getting out and about and seeing friends.
But “although she’d be welcomed back to the show with open arms,” the site’s source added, “it’s unlikely she’ll ever return.”
