General Hospital found a way to write off a central character after the actor’s exit from the show.
During the Thursday, July 23, episode of General Hospital, Cody (Josh Kelly) told Molly (Kristen Vaganos) that Maxie (Kirsten Storms), Spinelli (Bradford Anderson) and their kids were moving to Australia.
Maxie also left her Deception shares to Michael (Rory Gibson) amid Lucy (Lynn Herring) and Tracy’s (Jane Elliot) battle for them.
TV Insider reported that Storms, 42, is not currently part of the active General Hospital cast. She previously returned to the show earlier this year when Maxie woke up from a coma. Storms hadn’t played the character in several months amid offscreen changes, including her move to Nashville following her split from ex-husband Brandon Barash.
The former couple, who share daughter Harper, 12, divorced in 2016 after three years of marriage. Barash filed for custody of Harper in December 2025, and months later, he filed for an emergency restraining order against Storms amid concerns for her mental health.
A judge granted the request after Barash claimed that he feared for their daughter’s well-being. Storms broke her silence on the legal drama with her ex with a social media statement shared in June.
“Moving to Tennessee, as a single mom who lives alone 50 [percent] of the time, with a newly discovered brain aneurysm … well, I don’t think I need to explain how upsetting this entire situation has been for me,” she wrote via her Instagram Stories.
Storms continued, “Realizing that not only was my apartment/space/privacy being violated, but this person also gained access to my WiFi and cellphone. I haven’t been online much because of how the circumstances have been twisted into something that it shouldn’t be. This has been a very serious thing for me to go through.”
Storms has also battled health issues, taking a leave of absence from General Hospital in 2025 to undergo brain surgery. Amid the ups and downs in her personal life, Storms gave an update on her future with General Hospital.
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“Given what’s been going on, I can’t say I will feel comfortable heading back to Los Angeles and returning to work,” she wrote via Instagram in June. “This has been an eye opening experience about the downside of my profession. My daughter is my entire life, she is (and always will be) my first priority.”
One month later, Storms debuted a new look and hinted at her move away from Hollywood. “Despite everything that’s been going on in my life right now (…and I will be honest, it’s more than upsetting) – I still feel that the move to Tennessee was the best choice for me,” she captioned an Instagram post, adding that “LA never felt like my real home.”
