General Hospital: Shocking Real-Life Actor Divorces and Off-Screen Drama Revealed

Hey, General Hospital fans! Today, we’re going to talk about some of the behind-the-scenes, real-life divorces of actors from GH. Several of these couples met on the set of the ABC soap, but then things went off the rails in real life. We’re going to dive into some messy and some mellow divorces of some of the top stars on General Hospital.

General Hospital: Kirsten Storms & Brandon Barash: Co-Parenting Goals After Divorce

First, we’re going to talk about Maxie Jones actress Kirsten Storms and Johnny Zacchara actor Brandon Barash. Brandon and Kirsten met on the General Hospital set back in 2007. Their characters didn’t have a big romance or anything, and the actors were just friends, staying that way for a few years. She thought Brandon was cute, but not really in a romantic way. Then, in 2012, that changed.

Kirsten and Brandon started dating and got hitched at a super-secret Caesar’s Palace wedding in June of 2013. Kirsten and Brandon didn’t announce they were married until they also revealed that Kirsten was pregnant. They had daughter Harper Rose Barash in January of 2014. But two years later, all of a sudden, they were done. All of a sudden, from the public, they knew there was trouble brewing there because they spent a lot of time in therapy and invested a lot trying to make it work.

Their divorce really wasn’t messy, just shocking to fans because Kirsten and Brandon seemed so happy. Kirsten said that they were good friends and they still are, but said on a romantic level they just weren’t a fit. She’s a free-spirit type; Brandon’s a Type A guy. Everybody is different, right? He has remarried since then and had a son with his new wife, but has remained a very positive and easygoing co-parent with Kirsten for all these years.

In fact, when Brandon and his wife Isabel relocated to Nashville recently, Kirsten also moved so that they could remain a co-parenting unit. They still operate as a family. She’s very close to his new wife and his new son. In a world of messy celebrity divorces, Kirsten and Brandon are basically divorce goals.

Kristina and Jack Wagner: From General Hospital Supercouple to Real-Life Divorce and Co-Parenting

Next, let’s talk about two more actors that met on the GH set but had an on-and-off-screen romance. They got married, they got divorced. It’s Kristina Wagner and Jack Wagner. She still plays Felicia Scorpio, but Jack Wagner exited as Frisco Jones many years ago. He is rarely, if ever, seen. Now and then he gets a name drop.

Back in the 80s, they joined General Hospital. He came first as Frisco Jones in 1983, and Kristina was cast as Felicia the next year in 1984. Their on-screen chemistry as Frisco and Felicia was electric. They were a General Hospital supercouple back in that 80s soap heyday, and the on-screen chemistry of Frisco and Felicia translated into behind-the-scenes chemistry for Jack and Kristina.

Bear in mind, she was young, in her 20s. A lot of this was very overwhelming. On-screen acting and romance can influence your feelings that maybe wouldn’t have gone that way otherwise if not for that on-screen romance. By 1990, Jack and Kristina’s romance was public, and she gave birth to their son Peter in September of ’90. Three years later, they got married in December 1993 in a very romantic wedding in Lake Tahoe, and their second son Harrison was born two years later.

Things Went Downhill for Kristina & Jack

Things started falling apart not too long after that. Kristina and Jack seemed like the perfect couple. But in February of 2001, Kristina filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Then, like a soap opera plot twist, they reconciled in 2004. But a year later, they undid it all and refiled to get divorced, and it went through. Things are amicable between them.

A decade after that, Kristina was talking about the end of her marriage to Jack in an interview. She didn’t give any tawdry details, but she said she lost herself and didn’t think about her own needs in that marriage. Kristina said their marriage had been plagued with problems the whole time. Jack called their marriage an amazing ride, and Kristina said their divorce was the best thing for her. They get along, but they presented that divorce in very different terminology.

Kristina Wagner Dissapointed on General Hospital

Felicia and Frisco had an on-screen reunion at General Hospital in 2013 that Kristina didn’t like. She called it a big disappointment because they weren’t in a good place personally. But they have since sorted their residual issues and they work together again. You may have seen them over on When Calls the Heart, Jack Wagner’s big Hallmark show.

He plays Bill Avery, and Kristina was cast for a certain number of episodes to play Nora Avery, the ex-wife of Jack’s character—kind of an art-imitates-life thing. Kristina and Jack Wagner also stood strong for each other when they lost their youngest son, Harrison, in June 2022 after years of him struggling with addiction issues.

Rena Sofer and Wally Kurth: When General Hospital Characters Fall in Love, Not the Actors

Another on-screen and off-screen pairing at General Hospital that ended in divorce was Rena Sofer and Wally Kurth. This is a weird ending to a marriage, kind of twisted, kind of soapy. Rena Sofer plays Lois Cerullo and Wally Kurth played Ned Ashton Quartermaine. They met on the set of GH in the early 90s.

Rena joined General Hospital as Lois in 1993, two years after Wally made his debut as Ned Ashton. He didn’t call himself Quartermaine back then. When their characters fell hard in this amazing love story and got married on the show in 1994, Rena and Wally’s real-life romance was happening in parallel. They began dating the same year that Lois and Ned got married.

In March 1995, Rena and Wally got married in real life. They have one daughter, Rosabelle Kurth, born in September 1996, but her pregnancy was not shown on the show, even though Lois and Ned also had a daughter in 1996, Brook Lynn Ashton (Amanda Setton), later to become BLQ/Brook Lynn Quartermaine. Everything seemed perfect for them: on-screen chemistry, a real-life romance, and a new baby.

Surprising Reason for Rena & Wally’s Split

But when Rena left General Hospital in 1996, everything fell apart. They divorced in 1997. What’s weird is the reason for their divorce. The Lois actress said on a podcast that she and Wally never fell in love with each other. She said their characters fell in love on TV. Rena said then when she left the show, she and Wally realized, “Oh, we weren’t in love. Our characters were in love.” They knew it wasn’t working, and it just got confusing because their work as Lois and Ned was really intense, and they got a divorce. She said, “Wally’s incredible, just not the guy for me.”

They each remarried other people in 2003. Rena’s second marriage was its own soap opera. She and Sanford Bookstaver divorced and remarried a few times, but they still remain together right now. Things took a twist with Rena coming back to GH as Lois in 2023, but she and Ned are not involved. Like Wally in real life, Ned’s got another wife he’s devoted to. For now, Rena is gone again from GH as she is embracing semi-retirement from acting.

GH Star Steve Burton’s Explosive Divorce: Infidelity, New Marriages, and Co-Parenting Drama

We’re going to talk about one last divorce, and this one is pretty explosive. This is Steve Burton and Sheree Gustin. This is a very soapy split for the Jason Morgan actor and his longtime wife Sheree Gustin, with whom he shares three children. She’s got a couple more that came about in a very interesting and soapy way.

Steve and Sheree met on General Hospital. He was on-screen as Jason Morgan, and she worked behind the scenes at GH. They got married way back in 1999, and fans thought Steve and Sheree were solid. Then this bombshell dropped in May of 2022 after 23 years of marriage. She posted a photo announcing her pregnancy with child number four. People went over and were congratulating Steve on his social media, and he shocked fans saying, “Oh, that’s not my kid.”

Steve Burton’s Shocking Announcement

The Jason actor said, “I want to clear something up. Sheree and I are separated. She recently announced that she’s expecting her fourth child. That child is not mine.” This came months after GH let Steve go because he refused the COVID vaccine for religious reasons. That firing reportedly caused issues in the marriage. Then there’s this alleged infidelity because Sheree popped up pregnant by another man while they were very much still married.

She has since had two daughters with her new guy, about whom not much is known. Sheree married this new guy, Jason Amador, in February 2025, and they’ve got two daughters on top of the three kids she has with Steve. She did say that both of her pregnancies were unplanned with this guy. Meanwhile, Steve Burton married his new wife, Michelle Lundstrom, in May of 2025. Very, very soapy.