Storms has been a part of ‘General Hospital’ for over 20 years, starring as Maxie Jones
Credit: Disney/Ricky Middlesworth
NEED TO KNOW
- General Hospital writes off Kirsten Storms’ Maxie Jones in latest episode
- Storms has been a part of General Hospital for over 20 years
- The actress has previously spoken out about her acting hiatus following her move to Nashville
General Hospital is moving Kirsten Storms‘ Maxie Jones away from Port Charles.
During the July 23 episode of the soap opera, it was revealed that Maxie, along with Spinelli (Bradford Anderson) and their kids, will be relocating to Australia. Maxie’s move to the land down under comes months after she awoke from a coma.
Storms is not currently an active General Hospital cast member.
A year ago, the 42-year-old announced a temporary absence from the show to relocate to Nashville with her daughter Harper Rose, whom she shares with her ex-husband Brandon Barash. Though she returned to General Hospital in February, she had not been featured in the contract section during the show’s end credits since March, according to Soap Opera Network.
Credit: Disney/Cory Osborne
Storms has previously been open about life away from the camera, as she’s been navigating a child custody case with Barash since April.
In April, Barash filed a request for an emergency restraining order against Storms. According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, a judge approved Barash’s request and agreed that the actress is in a “mental health crisis.”
Barash, 46, initially submitted his filing to the court in December 2025, months after he claimed Storms contacted him in May 2025 and was “experiencing delusions and hallucinations,” per his petition. He also claimed that Storms said she “didn’t think she should have the child for her parenting time,” per the documents reviewed by PEOPLE.
Storms and Barash tied the knot in 2013 and announced their divorce in 2016.
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In an April Instagram post, Storms claimed that someone was trying to break into her apartment and that someone was trying to hack her cellphone.
On June 7, the actress posted on Instagram and wrote that “the break-in happened and was reported to the building and Franklin PD before [Barash] filed anything in court.” She also wrote that she needed to address the issue because it put her “safety in a dangerous position for anyone to try and shift focus away from the fact that there was a person regularly entering my residence while I was out of town for medical appts in St Louis.”
Credit: Disney/Christine Bartolucci
Storms also wrote that she chose to “take time off from work” for her “own personal reasons,” calling it a “leap of faith” moment for herself.
“I haven’t been online much because of how the circumstances have been twisted into something that it shouldn’t be. This has been a very serious thing for me to go through,” she wrote. “Thank you for the encouraging DM’s and good vibes being sent my way. I have no doubt this will be handled in the correct way and I will feel comfortable remaining in Tennessee.”
“As for what is in my future, where GH is concerned… Given what’s been going on, I can’t say I will feel comfortable heading back to Los Angeles and returning to work,” Storms continued. “This has been an eye opening experience about the downside of my profession. My daughter is my entire life, she is (and always will be) my first priority.”
On July 19, Storms addressed her custody battle with Barash and her move to Tennessee.
“I will briefly acknowledge that there is an ongoing situation with Brandon that will be getting sorted out (soon hopefully),” she wrote. “I would appreciate (and encourage) for people on here not to worry about me, or think there is something larger going on, other than 2 ex-spouses dealing with a ‘disagreement,’ that WILL be resolved.”
Storms continued, “Please remember that we are people who are divorced and have a child. I appreciate the supportive comments, but now that my daughter is of the age where she will Google her name while riding the bus to school, I’m asking that the speculation on this issue please stop.”
Elsewhere in her post, Storms wrote that her move to Tennessee was “the best choice for me” and that Los Angeles “never felt like my real home.” She noted that she was uncertain if she’d “feel comfortable heading back to Los Angeles and returning to work.”
Storms later explained that while she’s “grateful and really f—ing proud” of her career, acting “became the ONLY thing I knew how to do. Or thought I was capable of.”
“Then I had Harper, and how I viewed every single thing in life shifted,” she said. “I swear I’m not going to continue to bring up my medical situation (I’ll make jokes and it will be awkward), but until I began to understand how precious time is and how what we prioritize becomes ALL we have, there was never a thought that my life would ever change. Definitely not in the way I’ve always wanted it to.”
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