‘General Hospital’ Spoilers: Star Kirsten Storms Not Leaving Role Of Maxie As Rumored [Debunked, Updated]

Kirsten Storms plays Maxie on General Hospital, and her character is currently pregnant with her late husband’s child. Ryan Paevey, who played Nathan West, left GH a few months ago and reports started swirling on Friday that Storms is leaving as well. However, it sounds as if this was a misunderstanding of sorts and that the actress has no plans to take another break or depart entirely at this point.

The buzz started when several outlets started reporting that Kirsten Storms was leaving General Hospital, supposedly for another short break as she’s done multiple times previously. Some sites were crediting the latest issue of ABC Soaps in Depth for the news, but there was nothing new on their site or social media pages about this happening.

Soon, some existing links about Storms leaving General Hospital disappeared and the one site that was popping up in searches talking about Kirsten’s departure was an ABC Soaps in Depth report from March 2017. It looks like somehow this 2017 article started showing up for many as a new May 2018 report and the rumors about Kirsten leaving GH this spring spread like wildfire.

Soap Opera Spy confirms that Kirsten is not leaving General Hospital as had previously been erroneously reported by several sites. It’s not entirely shocking that reports like this would begin to swirl in the first place, as Storms has gone on hiatus previously more than once to work through some personal challenges.

Storms has been portraying Maxie off and on since 2005. The past couple of years presented Kirsten with some personal issues she needed to work through and each time she took a leave of absence from General Hospital for a while. Temporary recasts were brought in for both of those departures, but GH fans would hate to see that happening now with so much going on with the character of Maxie.

Kirsten’s character is due to give birth soon, and spoilers hint that she’ll soon learn the truth about Peter being Henrik and be left shaken by that news. Given her front burner storyline status right now, it would be difficult to write Storms out of the action or have a recast step into the role. Luckily, it sounds as if this was a simple mix-up and the General Hospital actress isn’t going anywhere. It’s also worth noting, as was previously reported by the Inquisitr, that Storms is not pregnant in real life so there is no maternity leave pending for the actress as some have speculated.

General Hospital fans are thrilled to hear that Kirsten Storms isn’t leaving the soap and that she’ll be sticking with her character of Maxie as she navigates the difficult days ahead. Stay tuned for spoilers regarding what’s coming next and don’t miss a minute of the action said to be on the way.

Update: Storms caught up with the rumors that she was leaving General Hospital and confirmed via Twitter that she’s staying put. It looks like she was gone from tapings for a couple of days due to an illness, but she is back and has re-signed a new contract with plans to stick around for quite some time.

To address the internet rumors, no I’m not leaving GH. I had to take 2 sick days due to the flu and that is all. ? I also recently re-signed with the show and I’m very happy to be continuing with Maxie’s journey. Thanks @valentinifrank for being so great while I was sick. ??

— Kirsten Storms (@teenystweeting) May 18, 2018