‘General Hospital’: How The ABC Sudser Said Goodbye To Kelly Monaco

SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the Nov. 1 episode of General Hospital.

Friday’s episode of General Hospital marked the last time fans will see Kelly Monaco, whose surprise departure was revealed in August after she appeared in more than 2,200 episodes as Sam McCall.

The way that GH would say goodbye to Sam wasn’t clear until recently, when her decision to donate her liver to Lulu Spencer would prove fatal. On Oct. 30, it is learned that doctors successfully removed her organ but not without Sam losing her life in the process.

On Friday’s episode, Sam’s mom Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) broke it to Sam’s longtime love Dante (Dom Zamprogna) that Monaco’s character had a heart attack after surgery. Other characters learned Sam’s fate on Friday, as well, including Carly (Laura Wright), Sonny (Maurice Benard), Drew (Cameron Mathison) and Laura (Genie Francis) — who initially wondered if something happened to Lulu when she saw Dante crying with his son at the hospital.

“How can she be gone? It doesn’t make any sense!” exclaimed Dante, who then begged Alexis to tell him what happened.

“She was showing me her engagement ring,” replied Alexis, weeping. “Then she said she couldn’t breathe and then closed her eyes.”

Before Monaco’s final episode, Grahn posted this on X.

Monaco hasn’t said much since news of her ouster. On Oct. 6, the actress posted a picture on Instagram from her final scene on GH with the message “still doesn’t make any sense to me” but later deleted it.

She also posted a response to a fan on Soap Hub who opined that the actress left because she “didn’t take the pay cut.” In the since-deleted response reported by People, Monaco wrote, “‘No primary role’.. do your homework. When Billy Miller was fired, Sam’s storyline stopped. Stripping Sam of every characteristic she had. Something I worked for decades to build… Slowly dismantling her, into a character that I did not recognize, let alone the audience. Call it what you will… retaliation at it [sic] finest. I will give a proper statement. The truth will set you free.”

Not suprisingly, GH began trending on X by 1 p.m. because fans were mourning the departure of McCall. A petition was still circulating that called for the sudser to reverse her departure.