Jonathan Jackson didn’t think he was going to be leaving General Hospital anytime soon — so what caused his shocking early exit?
“No, it wasn’t the plan to leave,” Jackson, 43, told TV Insider on Monday, June 9, after news broke of his departure. “It was more of a real, sincere attempt from myself and from General Hospital to make it work for a longer period of time.”
The actor, who plays Lucky Spencer, said the “hope was to be able to stay on longer.” Earlier this month, soap opera fans were in for a surprise when Lucky proposed to Liz (Rebecca Herbst), but she turned him down because she didn’t think his life was in Port Charles. Lucky admitted the fictional New York city was “not his home anymore” before planning to leave.
Jackson cited the travel between his life in Tennessee and the General Hospital set in California as the motivation behind him taking a step back.
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“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,” he explained. “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.”
According to Jackson, he didn’t know until recently that he would be taking a step back.
“I was trying to stay in the moment as much as possible,” he added. “That’s really where my mindset was, taking it one day at a time, but also one month at a time, and just seeing how it was feeling. I have to say that none of this would have happened at all if Frank [Valentini, executive producer] wasn’t so open and helpful to even get it this far. So that’s definitely something I’ve been extremely blessed by.”
Jackson made his General Hospital debut in 1993 when he was 10 years old. He appeared on the soap on and off until 1999, when he chose to step back for a decade. While Jackson returned in 2009, he left again two years later to star in Nashville, which ran for six seasons.
Jackson was able to reappear on General Hospital for four special episodes in 2015 before reprising the role again in August 2024.
“I’m super excited, and I can’t wait to dig in and see what’s going on in Port Charles,” he said via Instagram at the time. “I’m excited to see Genie Francis, obviously, and so many others. I just wanted to say thank you to all of the fans over the years. Your persistence and love has certainly played a part in all of this, so I just wanted to say thank you.”
Jackson noted that he is walking away with great memories from his time with the show.
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“It’s always kind of nostalgic when I’m away from the show for a while and I come back,” he reflected. “In some ways, it’s always a bit overwhelming, because there aren’t that many situations in life that you get to go and enter into this world where a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same.”
He continued: “Seeing a lot of people in the crew, people you’ve known off and on for so many years, there are just those amazing connections. And then on top of that, you have the character you’re playing that has this history, and you get to work with so many people again.”
As for what is next?
“There’s some touring coming up,” Jackson teased. “I’ll be releasing a solo album later this year. I have at least one book that’s coming out later this year as well, a book of poetry and an anthology of poems that I’ve been working on for at least 15 years now. It’s called Anthology of Longing. And then there’s another book that came out in 2014 called The Mystery of Art … So, music and books and whatever other projects come along.”
