Kirsten Storms “Blindsided” by Sudden Replacement on General Hospital – Fans Outraged!
Kirsten Storms Was ‘Taken Aback’ When She Learned She’d Be Temporarily Replaced on ‘General Hospital’
Kirsten Storms is opening up about what it was like to be temporarily replaced in her long-running “General Hospital” role.
Storms, who has played Maxie on the historic soap opera since May 2005, was recently replaced temporarily by Nicole Paggi due to scheduling conflicts. In a recent sit-down with Soap Opera Digest, Storms said that she was at first surprised to hear that she’d be tagged out of the role during her absence, but was glad that someone would be there to keep her storyline going.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was taken aback a bit by it,” she said. “I would prefer that someone play Maxie and be playing Maxie well to keep the character relevant and in the soap world still because it doesn’t take much for a character to die off and for somebody else to come in and be in a front-burner storyline. I was very excited just to know that she was still going to be in Port Charles and doing lots of things.”
This isn’t the first time that another actress has subbed in to play Maxie. Jen Lilley stepped in to play the role in September 2011 when Storms was forced to take medical leave after being diagnosed with endometriosis. Storms returned to the show a year later.
This also isn’t the first time Paggi stepped in to play Maxie. She played the role in December 2023. Her other credits include “Clipped,” “The Rookie: Feds,” “9-1-9,” “Rizzoli & Isles” and “Mad Love.”
Kirsten Storms Temporarily Replaced On General Hospital; Nicole Paggi Steps In As Maxie
Maxie will look a little different to fans tuning in to the July 3 episode of General Hospital. Kirsten Storms, who has played the role since May 2005, is being temporarily replaced by Nicole Paggi.
A Brief Absence
Paggi last played Maxie in December 2023, when Storms was unavailable, and Paggi’s current stint will see her taking over as the fashionista and Deception maven for a similarly short amount of time. This time around, Paggi was also called to Maxie duty when scheduling conflicts prevented Storms from being able to film the episodes in question.
Multiple actresses have stepped in for Storms over the years, for stints of varying lengths. In September 2011, Storms’s battle with endometriosis forced her to take an extended medical leave from the show. Jen Lilley (who would go on to play Theresa Donovan on Days of Our Lives) was tapped to play Maxie until Storms was well enough to reclaim the role. Storms came back to GH in September 2012.
In an exclusive interview with Soap Opera Digest upon her return, Storms admitted that when she first learned GH intended to recast Maxie in her absence, “I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was taken aback a bit by it.” However, she noted, “I would prefer that someone play Maxie and be playing Maxie well to keep the character relevant and in the soap world still because it doesn’t take much for a character to die off and for somebody else to come in and be in a front-burner storyline. I was very excited just to know that she was still going to be in Port Charles and doing lots of things.”
In 2016, Storms took another medical leave from the show in order to heal from skin issues, and GH brought in DAYS alum Molly Burnett to temporarily replace her. Burnett returned for another short stint as Maxie in 2018 when Storms was sidelined with the flu.
In 2021, the actress was hit with another medical crisis: She revealed on social media that she had undergone brain surgery to remove a noncancerous cyst that had split in two and would be taking some time off of work while she convalesced. To accommodate Storms’s absence at that time, Maxie was written out of the storyline and took an extended trip to Texas.
Paggi’s television credits include the role of Jennie Bradbury on Pasadena and Sydney Shanowski on Hope & Faith, where she co-starred with soap alumnae Faith Ford (ex-Muffy, One Life to Live; ex-Julia, Another World) and Kelly Ripa (ex-Hayley, All My Children). More recently, she has appeared on 9-1-1 and The Rookie: FEDS.
