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Rebecca Budig returns to General Hospital next week as Hayden Barnes, and it looks like she’ll be sticking around for a while!
In the new issue of Soap Opera Digest, the magazine reports the actress began taping a few weeks ago and is now on contract. Budig says she was surprised when Executive Producer Frank Valentini called and asked her to return. Though he expressed a desire to have her come back near the end of her stint in the spring, Budig didn’t know if it would materialize. “I just never really believe stuff like that until it happens. Until I’m there, until I have dates booked, I just don’t really buy it. I thought I came in and did my job, and that was all I was meant to do – come in, cause some trouble in leave.”
The former All My Children star joined GH in March in the “killer” role of Hayden Barnes, a devious vixen who pretends to be married to Jake aka Jason (Billy Miller) at the behest of Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst). When she wasn’t conning Jake, she was sexing up Port Charles’ favorite broody prince, Nikolas (Tyler Christopher). After her charade was exposed during the Nurses’ Ball by Jake’s BFF Carly (Laura Wright), Hayden had nothing left to lose threatened to reveal the hidden players involved in the Jake conspiracy. Before she could tell Jake and Sam (Kelly Monaco) about his true identity, she was shot on Nikolas’ orders and slipped into a coma!
Next week, Hayden wakes up from her two-month coma! No one knows Nikolas is behind Hayden’s shooting…that is until Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) finds out. Liz and Nikolas have kept Jake’s real identity a secret for months and stand to lose a great deal if Hayden dishes the truth. Meanwhile, as Sam and Jake intensify their investigation into Nikolas’ connection to Hayden, they too will be interested in hearing what she has to say. For more on what happens next week on GH, check out our preview for the week of August 3.
General Hospital marks Budig’s third soap role. The actress previously starred as Guiding Light’s Michelle Bauer from 1995-1998, later joining All My Children as Greenlee Smythe, a role she would reprise off and on from 1999-2011.
For more on what Budig has to say about her return to GH, pick up the Aug. 10 edition of Soap Opera Digest, available digitally now.
If Ron what’s his name was responsible for letting Rebecca Budig go..then he got exactly what he deserved.
Finally…a soap alum got a a truly interesting character..and a wonderful actress to portray her.
Bye Ron…HELLO AGAIN REBECCA!
This is excellent news! Hayden had large potential when Rebecca came on earlier this year, and always felt as if she could’ve done so much more than what was being given to her. She worked well with the cast, and now, it seems like she’ll finally have the right chance to be apart of the show in a full-time capacity. I look forward to seeing how the new regime is able to fully develop Hayden Barnes as a long-term character!