General Hospital’s latest guest arc became a sentimental homecoming for Erika Slezak

Erika Slezak’s short visit to General Hospital landed with the quiet weight of something sweeter than a stunt cameo. Ronnie Bard may have slipped in and out of Port Charles in a blink, but Slezak carried a whole history with her — decades of storytelling, friendships, and a kind of dignity that never feels manufactured. Seeing the legend at it again, albeit in a different milieu, felt like you were home again. And for Slezak, returning to Los Angeles was a time for wonderful reconnection.

Revisiting old roots on General Hospital

Erika Slezak spoke with Soap Opera Digest about the experience, starting with the thrill of sharing scenes with familiar faces from her One Life to Live years. She singled out the writers for pairing her with Josh Kelly (Cody) and Amanda Setton (Brook Lynn), saying, “It was wonderful, the way the writers put me together with all my old One Life to Live pals in one way or another.” You could feel the affection in every syllable — that kind of comfort only comes from actors who’ve weathered a lifetime of soap story arcs together.

Then came the moment that clearly meant the most to her: crossing paths again with General Hospital’s Chris McKenna (Jack), who once played Joey, Viki Buchanan’s son. She didn’t hold back, calling him “my darling Joey, who grew up to be the most handsome and wonderful actor.” She talked about his mother, Marianne, and the years they spent side-by-side on set when he was just a kid. Seeing McKenna bring his wife and baby to the studio felt, to her, like a full-circle visit — a little reunion tucked between takes.

Slezak also carved out time away from the studio to reconnect with Roger Howarth (ex-Franco Baldwin, GH) and Tuc Watkins (ex-Pierce Dorman, GH), catching up at Watkins’s L.A. home, the kind of easy, late-night visit that carries years of shared history. And she met up separately with Mark Derwin, who played her on-screen husband for a chunk of OLTL’s run. The General Hospital actress talked about how well they always worked together, how easy it felt to slip back into conversation. That’s the part fans sometimes forget: these relationships don’t evaporate when the credits roll.

A little real-life warmth

Her dinner with Derwin and his partner, Toni, ended up being another highlight of her trip. She described Toni as “the most wonderful, charming, beautiful woman in the world,” a line that tumbled out of her with a smile you can hear even off the page. At one point during dinner, she turned to Derwin and joked, “Look, I’m not ignoring you, I’m just really interested in Toni!”

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Later, she wrote to Derwin telling him he’d made “a very good choice,” teasing that Toni might have made the riskier decision by choosing him. The affection in that story sits right at the heart of why this General Hospital stint hit differently. It wasn’t about Ronnie Bard. It wasn’t even about Port Charles. It was the way Slezak slipped back into old friendships as if no time had passed, turning a limited arc into a soft, sentimental homecoming.

General Hospital can be seen weekdays on ABC and Hulu.

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