General Hospital Enemies Who Are BFFs In Real Life

On soap operas, rivalries between some characters are common, and many can be enemies, such as mob honcho Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and the evil Cyrus Renault (Jeff Kober) on "General Hospital." With actors of varying personality types working closely for hours at a clip, it can be a petri dish of mixed emotions. They obviously play characters who can be friends, enemies, or somewhere in the middle with rivalries and feuds, and that can sometimes spill over into their real lives. In one famous case, Ingo Rademacher and Nancy Lee Grahn played friends Jasper "Jax" Jacks and Alexis Davis, but the actors seriously didn't get along in real life due to political disagreements.

But more often than not, because they work together so closely for extended periods, actors on a show can become friends and sometimes even feel like a family. Eden McCoy (Josslyn Jacks) and Tabyana Ali (Trina Robinson) are not only best friends on the show but also in real life, often singing each other's praises on social media. "Happy birthday to my Tabby. The most beautiful girl inside and out, I'm so proud of all that you do & proud to be your friend," wrote McCoy in a January 28, 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Her words were accompanied by photos of the two hanging out. In other cases, characters who are mortal enemies can have portrayers who are BFFs in real life.

In 2014, the late Billy Miller took over the part of Jason Morgan after the character suffered amnesia on "General Hospital" and went by the name Jake Doe. Nurse Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) befriended him, but her jealous ex, Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst), wanted her back. So, he hired a woman named Hayden Barnes (Rebecca Budig) to pretend to be Jake's wife, who had been searching for him. The truth about Ric and Hayden's scheme eventually came out, which started a feud between the two women. However, Hayden moved on with Nikolas Cassadine (then Tyler Christopher), who eventually had someone try to kill her, and Liz was aware of his plan. When Hayden learned of this betrayal, the two women became arch-enemies.

Eventually, it was revealed that the characters were actually sisters, and over time, they were able to patch things up. In reality, actors Herbst and Budig had been friends for 15 years prior to working together on the sudser. When it was announced that Budig would be joining "GH," Herbst told Soap Opera Digest in August 2016 that she was happy her friend was on board, stating, "I would have been annoyed if she was working with other people." Regarding their characters' rivalry, Budig told the magazine, "We have these intense scenes, and I think that there is more depth to them because we like each other."

The rivalry between Lulu Spencer (then Julie Marie Berman) and Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms) started when the scheming Maxie was seeing Cooper Barrett (Jason Gerhardt), and she thought Lulu was coming on to him. They even got into a physical fight, which Coop and Logan Hayes (Josh Duhon) managed to break up. Eventually, after Maxie and Coop split up, she changed her scheming ways and became fast friends with Lulu. However, when Lulu (now Emme Rylan) wrote a newspaper article to flush out international supercriminal Cesar Faison (Anders Hove), the villain ended up killing Maxie's then-husband, Detective Nathan West (Ryan Paevey). Maxie laid the blame at Lulu's feet for her devastating loss. They ultimately patched things up, but tragically, Lulu has been in a coma since an explosion at the Floating Rib in 2020.

In real life, when Rylan was the recast for Lulu, Storms told Soap Opera Digest in June 2020 that she "Ended up being the best friend I've ever had in my life! She knows everything there is to know about me." The two are all over social media, sharing posts and pictures and even knitting together, posting instructional videos on Instagram as they work on projects. Their real-life friendship is the true definition of BFF, and you can always find them clowning around the Internet.

On "General Hospital," Nina Reeves and Ava Jerome (Maura West) were bitter enemies for some time. Nina was originally played by Michelle Stafford, and after waking up from a 20-year coma believed Ava had wronged her  by having an affair with her husband, Dr. Silas Clay (Michael Easton). Pregnant before becoming comatose, Nina woke up to the devastating news that her baby died. She found out Ava was pregnant and not only induced her labor but also stole the baby. Eventually, Nina was stopped, and the baby was returned to Ava. Later, Nina and Ava made an unlikely truce in order to thwart the schemes of Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) and Nikolas Cassadine (then Tyler Christopher). After that, Nina and Ava went from mortal enemies to BFFs.

In June 2023, Soap Hub reported on a fan event in which West stated that Watros brought a different dynamic to the part than Stafford, which helped make their on-screen friendship work. They both went to Boston University, although West noted they weren't in the same class, explaining, "I was a couple of years under her. She was an upperclassman, getting her bachelor's, getting her acting degree, and I was this kid." She has idolized Watros ever since and loves working with her, remarking, "Just to have the chance to work with her makes me happy. So, if it means I have to suck it up and believe this somewhat implausible friendship, I will do it."

Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) has also had a famous feud with Ava Jerome. From having a hate-filled one-night stand in the Quartermaine crypt with Carly's husband, Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard), to simultaneously having an affair with their son, Morgan Corinthos (Bryan Craig), and inadvertently causing his death, Ava's given Carly a lot of reasons to hate her. But Ava bore Sonny's child, Avery Jerome, which somewhat helped cool things between them as they both adored the little girl. Since then, while they have their differences, the two have learned to tolerate each other and behave amicably.

In 2022, Soap Hub reported on a "General Hospital" fan Zoom event in which Maura West sang Laura Wright's praises and gushed over their friendship. She made a motion, imitating a sigh of relief, after explaining she does that when she sees they'll be in a scene together. She further stated that she knows Wright won't try to upstage her in a scene, adding that Wright is "going to tell the story, she's going to do her job, do it quickly, we're going to have a few laughs, and we're going to get out of there." It's evident that they get along well in real life, as their characters flow through the dialogue with ease. West remarked that Wright is "a really good scene partner for all of those reasons and more. We're good friends. She's just a great scene partner."

Ava Jerome isn't the only one who's had beef with Nina Reeves on "General Hospital." Carly Spencer also has a feud with Nina, which still goes on today. Technically, Carly started things when she kept secret that the late, evil Nelle Benson (Chloe Lanier) was Nina's daughter, whom she thought she lost at birth while comatose. Not only that, Carly also didn't mention that she learned Willow Tait (Katelyn MacMullen) was Nelle's twin. Nina had irrationally lashed out at Carly's acerbic barbs and finally lost it when she tried to inform her enemy that Carly's husband, Sonny Corinthos, was actually alive with amnesia after he was presumed dead. Instead, she kept it secret, and when he returned home with his memories, he dumped Carly and married Nina.

On top of all of that, Nina ratted out Carly and Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) for insider trading, which landed Drew in jail for a time. But in real life, Wright and Watros are incredibly happy friends who even competitively play pickleball against each other. In an Instagram post on November 19, 2021, Watros posted a photo of her and Wright smiling, with the caption, "And the award for best feud goes to...I love Laura." On December 27, 2022, Wright posted a "GH" promotional photo of her and Watros, writing, "Always fun — so much love and for sure an adventure sharing the stage with @watros.watros."