General Hospital Explainer: Connie Falconeri's Alternate Personality

On "General Hospital," Constanza "Connie" Falconeri was the girlfriend of Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) when they were teenagers. The two planned to run away together from Bensonhurst and get married, but Connie ditched him, seeking a different life. Over time, she became a fashionista, changing her name to Kate Howard. Upon arriving in Port Charles in 2007, Kate was played by Megan Ward; in 2011, Kelly Sullivan took over the role. Kate would later remember why she left Sonny in the first place: mobster Joe Scully Jr. (Richard Steinmetz) had raped her, getting her pregnant. Soon after the birth, she abandoned the child and set out to reinvent herself, completely unaware that the trauma she endured had splintered her personality and her alter ego would later emerge to raise havoc in Port Charles.

Reuniting as adults, Sonny proposed and swore he would leave the mafia for her. However, on their wedding day, one of Sonny's enemies shot Kate, but she survived. Her cousin, Olivia Falconeri (Lisa LoCicero), arrived for the wedding and decided to stay in town. After Sonny slept with his ex-wife Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright), Kate found out and broke up with him, but she had her own secret — she knew that Olivia had given birth to Sonny's child when they were teenagers. With this revelation, Sonny and Kate knew their relationship wouldn't work, so she left Port Charles. Kate later returned to town, buying half of the Metro Court Hotel.

One night, Kate Howard found herself mysteriously wearing her bloody wedding dress on the docks. Psychiatrist Dr. Ewan Keenen (Nathin Butler) spotted her, and she explained to him that weird things were happening, including discovering notes and phone numbers that weren't hers. She also had several periods of inexplicable lost time. Ewen theorized that Kate possibly had Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and they began therapy. Under hypnosis, an alter ego emerged, going by the name of Connie. She claimed her purpose was to break up Sonny and Kate because he constantly put her in danger. Eventually, Kate re-emerged.

Ewen felt Connie might be a danger to people, including Kate, so he planned to have her committed to a mental institution. However, Connie had been secretly working with Sonny's rival, mobster Johnny Zacchara (Brandon Barash), to break him and Kate up. At one point, Johnny and Connie were having sex, and a shocked Kate emerged, was mortified, and contacted Ewen for help. As they were going over the paperwork to have her committed, Connie took over, used a paperweight to knock him unconscious, and fled the scene. Sonny's enforcer and best friend, Jason Morgan (Steve Burton), pursued Connie, who reverted to Kate and subsequently told Sonny about her DID. She went to the hospital, where the old memories explaining her personality split resurfaced.

Through therapy, Connie Falconeri remembered the awful trauma caused by Joe Scully Jr. Sonny Corinthos and her personality Kate again attempted to wed, but during the ceremony, Connie emerged, informing him that she and Johnny Zacchara were already married. Meanwhile, the now-grown child she had given up, Trey Mitchell (Erik Valdez), arrived in town with Sonny's daughter, Kristina Davis (then Lexi Ainsworth). The two later learned Connie had locked Johnny in her car's trunk, so they pursued her but got into a car accident. Trey ended up brain-dead, and Connie was forced to make the difficult decision to take him off of life support.

Eventually, Connie and Sonny had sex, but afterward, Kate took over and was livid that he'd slept with her alter. Kate then went to the Shadybrook mental institution, where her two personalities were finally merged, and she decided to keep her birth name, Connie. She then learned that her boss at Crimson magazine was actually a mobster named Julian Jerome (William deVry). Julian's sister, Ava Jerome (Maura West), shot and killed Connie before she could warn Sonny about his new enemy. Connie wrote the letters "AJ" with her blood before dying, making Sonny think the killer was AJ Quartermaine (Sean Kanan). In retaliation, Sonny killed AJ. When he learned Ava was the murderer, Sonny went to kill her, but Connie's ghost came to him and convinced him not to do it.

Years later, Megan Ward reprised her role as Connie, haunting one of Ava's nightmares, but hasn't reappeared since.