Kirsten Storms Exits ‘General Hospital’ (For Now) – You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!
Kirsten Storms is making a move to Tennessee like her fellow “General Hospital” co-star Steve Burton (Jason) has done. Although Nicole Paggi will appear again as Maxie in episodes on July 30 and Aug. 13, Storms will be back on-air the week of Aug. 18 in pre-taped scenes to fulfill her current story. After that she won’t be seen again until, at the earliest, much later in the year.
Storms, who has played Maxie on the historic soap opera since May 2005, was temporarily replaced on the series on July 3 by Paggi, due to scheduling conflicts. Storms took to Instagram Monday to announce her move out of state, and what that meant to her time on “General Hospital.”
“I’m very excited to be making Tennessee my home!” she wrote alongside a video. Adding what her plans are with her 11-year-old daughter, she continued: “I can’t wait to return to ‘GH,’ once 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. It’s always been a dream of mine to move to a place like this, it’s hard to believe it’s really happening.”
She goes on to say in the video that she had taped her final episode for the year, but “it’s possible I will be back in December, maybe November. I promise you the storyline they have going on until my return to Port Charles is kind of incredible. You guys are going to freak out, actually. Can’t wait to see the comments online about that.”
After expressing her deep gratitude to the show, network execs and series writers for understanding her need to take time off, Storms addressed online rumors of her permanent departure with a simple “take it with a grain of salt.”
In March, Storms spoke with executive producer Frank Valentini about her wanting to move — and her desire to not leave the show. “Now, when you approach a job like this they can always be like, ‘Forget it. I will let you out of your contract if you’re going to leave the state.’ ‘GH’ did not do that, which is kind of amazing because I also asked for some time off.”
This isn’t the first time that another actress has subbed in to play Storms’ character of Maxie. Jen Lilley took on the role in September 2011 when Storms was forced to take medical leave after being diagnosed with endometriosis. Storms returned to the show a year later.
In a sit-down with Soap Opera Digest upon her return, Storms said that she was at first surprised to hear that she’d be tagged out of the role during her absence, but was glad that someone would be there to keep her storyline going.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was taken aback a bit by it,” she said. “I would prefer that someone play Maxie and be playing Maxie well to keep the character relevant and in the soap world still because it doesn’t take much for a character to die off and for somebody else to come in and be in a front-burner storyline. I was very excited just to know that she was still going to be in Port Charles and doing lots of things.”
This also isn’t the first time Paggi stepped in to play Maxie. She played the role in December 2023. Her other credits include “Clipped,” “The Rookie: Feds,” “9-1-9,” “Rizzoli & Isles” and “Mad Love.”
