Kelly Monaco To Exit ‘General Hospital’ This Fall After 21 Years — And Is Reportedly “Blindsided” By Her Character’s Shock Death 

After almost 21 years, General Hospital star Kelly Monaco will reportedly be leaving the ABC soap later this fall.

Monaco has become a mainstay on the series since she first joined the cast in October 2003.

According to Soap Opera Network, she will be leaving the series this fall because the network decided to kill off her character, Sam McCall. The outlet notes Monaco was reportedly “blindsided” by the decision.

Decider reached out to the reps for General Hospital for further comment.

Monaco has starred in over 2,000 episodes of General Hospital since she first joined the cast in 2003. Prior to that, she starred as Livvie Locke in the General Hospital spin-off series Port Charles. She joined the main series after Port Charles was canceled in 2003.

Throughout her run on the daytime drama, she has received two Daytime Emmy nominations for her performance as Sam.

It is unclear when Monaco’s last appearance on General Hospital will air.

The news comes as a shock considering Monaco has been a mainstay on ABC for decades now. She won the Mirror Ball trophy in the inaugural season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars before later placing third in the show’s All Stars season in 2012. Her dance partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, later made a cameo on General Hospital as a boxer.

Her exit from the series is the latest change to come to GH. Actress Emma Samms will reprise her role as Holly Sutton in September.

Star Trek: Discovery actor Sawandi Wilson is also joining the cast as a character named Isaiah, who has a “connection” to Jonathan Jackson’s Lucky. Jackson is another GH star who recently joined the cast; he originated the role of Lucky in 1993 until he left the cast for good in 2011.

General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC at 3/2C.