General Hospital Famous Feuds: Carly And Ava

Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) has had her fair share of rivalries over the years on "General Hospital" — most notably her famous feud with Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros). But she's also been at odds with former mobster Ava Jerome (Maura West). Carly was well-versed in the dangers of the mafia lifestyle, as she was married to Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) several times over the years and was best friends with his chief enforcer, Jason Morgan (Steve Burton). However, she didn't know that the blonde art dealer that had just arrived in Port Charles was planning to take down Sonny's organization — and use her family to do it.

When Ava initially came to Port Charles, it was under the pretense that the father of her daughter, Kiki Jerome (then Kristen Alderson), was Franco Baldwin (Roger Howarth), who was believed to have been Jason's long-lost twin brother. Jason's birth family was the wealthy Quartermaines. Ava had her sights on using Kiki as a new Quartermaine heir to get a piece of the family's fortune. At the time, Kiki was dating Carly's son, Morgan Corinthos (Bryan Craig), and had no idea that Dr. Silas Clay (Michael Easton) was actually her biological dad. Morgan learned the truth, but Ava urged him to keep the secret. However, all was revealed eventually, and not only did Kiki kick Morgan to the curb for lying to her, but Ava became something of a pariah in town for trying to swindle the Quartermaines.

Soon, Morgan and Ava hooked up — a move that would ignite the feud between her and Carly.

Ava Jerome has had a failed and flawed love life throughout the years, but she and Morgan were happy for a short while, despite their significant age gap that garnered much disapproval. However, Ava soon betrayed her young lover in the worst way, inciting a series of life-changing ramifications.

The Jeromes were a major crime family back in the day, and Ava Jerome's brother Julian — who was going by the alias Derek Wells in 2013 — was believed to have died in 1990. In truth, Ava and Julian were working to secretly revitalize their mob empire and take Sonny down. When Sonny's girlfriend, Connie Falconeri (Kelly Sullivan), overheard Ava refer to Derek as Julian, she planned on telling Sonny the man's true identity, but Ava killed Connie before she could. Connie's last action was to scrawl the letters "AJ" in blood on the ground.

Sony mistakenly concluded that his nemesis, AJ Quartermaine (Sean Kanan) — the biological father of Sonny and Carly's son Michael Corinthos — was Connie's killer. On the night of her murder, AJ suffered a drunken blackout and thought it was possible he committed the murder. Eventually, he regained his memory and realized Ava was the murderer. He went to confront her and began strangling her in a rage. Sonny walked in on the scene and shot AJ, killing him. Later, at AJ's funeral, Ava and Sonny commiserated about their lives and had spontaneous sex in the Quartermaine crypt.

Soon after AJ Quartermaine's death, Sonny learned Ava Jerome was Connie Falconeri's killer. He intended to murder Ava as revenge, but his plan was thwarted when she announced she was pregnant. By this time, Sonny and Carly had gotten back together. She was still furious that Ava had a romantic relationship with her son, and Ava's pregnancy only worsened those feelings — especially because nobody knew if the baby belonged to Sonny or Morgan Corinthos.

Ava eventually gave birth to a daughter, Avery, and Sonny was confirmed to be the little girl's father. Kiki Jerome contemplated suing for custody of her little sister but ultimately decided against it. Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell) took up the fight and won, though he eventually gave Avery back to Sonny. During this time, Ava had been sentenced to prison for Connie's murder, escaped, was shot, and then diagnosed with cancer, which she was secretly treated for overseas. Due to her absence, Avery was raised by the Corinthos family and considered Carly to be her mother figure, calling her "Mama Carly."

Ava eventually returned to Port Charles as a free woman, having struck a deal with law enforcement, and Carly worked hard to keep her out of Avery's life. A nasty custody battle ensued between the three parents, with blackmail on both sides. Sonny was ultimately granted custody, with Ava allowed visitation. Over the years, Ava and Carly have often clashed over Avery's care. Though Carly no longer has a legal claim on Avery since her divorce from Sonny, Ava still allows the two to spend time together.

When Morgan Corinthos discovered that Ava Jerome had slept with his father, he quickly broke up with her. He then got back together with Kiki Jerome, who was equally horrified at their parents' actions. Ava couldn't stand the idea of Morgan and Kiki reuniting, so she desperately schemed to break them up.

Morgan had bipolar disorder but was managing it with medication. In an effort to drive him and Kiki away from each other, Ava switched his pills with placebos, causing Morgan to become increasingly unbalanced. At one point, Morgan was so agitated that he ran off and stole Julian Jerome's car and took off. However, he was unaware that a hit had been put out on the mob boss and that there was a bomb placed in the vehicle. Morgan pulled over near a cliff called Angel's Bluff and was standing beside the car when it blew up, killing him.

Eventually, Sonny figured out that Ava had tampered with Morgan's medication, unbeknownst to the young man. Though Ava was only indirectly responsible for Morgan's death, a devastated and furious Carly still blamed her and planned to hold her accountable. Sonny and Carly confronted Ava at her art gallery, where she buckled under the interrogation and admitted to what she'd done. During the altercation, Ava threw a lantern which started a fire. Sonny and Carly escaped unscathed, but Ava suffered severe third-degree burns — though she eventually recovered with reconstructive surgery.

When Sonny Corinthos was later presumed dead in early 2021 — though actually alive in the town of Nixon Falls with amnesia — Ava Jerome took Avery from Carly Corinthos' care in a dastardly and heartbreaking move. However, she eventually brought the child back when she was being stalked and feared for her daughter's safety. While away and living as a small-town bartender named Mike, Sonny fell in love with Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros), who happened to be a friend of Ava's. He eventually recovered his memories and returned to Port Charles to resume his marriage to Carly. However, Ava tried hard to push Nina and Sonny together, and he and Carly eventually broke up.

Despite Carly and Ava's animosity over the years, they've been able to come together every so often in recent times. Ava swallowed her pride, offering her condolences to Carly when they believed Sonny was dead. When Kiki Jerome (Hayley Erin) was killed by serial killer Ryan Chamberlain (Jon Lindstrom) because Ava unwittingly entered into a relationship with him, Carly was able to give a drunk and inconsolable Ava some understanding. She encouraged Ava to deal with the tragedies of life and losing a child. Carly and Ava also buried the hatchet when they worked with Laura Collins (Genie Francis) to take down the drug lord, Cyrus Renault.

Despite years of hatred for each other, the one thing that Carly and Ava will always have in common is little Avery, who warms their hearts in even the darkest moments.