Why Jonathan Jackson Is Exiting 'General Hospital'

General Hospital fans were upset to hear that Jonathan Jackson was exiting the his soap opera once again.

After portraying Lucky Spencer on and off since 1993, the 43-year-old actor left the show in 2011. He briefly returned in 2015 then returned again in October 2024.

Now, he’s explaining why he’s exiting again after this short stint.

Keep reading to find out more…

TV Insider asked Jonathan whether or not it was his intention to only do a short run this time, to which he responded, “No, it wasn’t. It was more of a real, sincere attempt from myself and from General Hospital to make it work for a longer period of time. The hope was to be able to stay on longer.”

However, Jonathan said it was hard living full time in Tennessee and filming in California.

He continued, “There was always that possibility because it was a bit of an experiment on my part to see if I could make it work with the family dynamic. There were moments where I thought, ‘I think I can find this balance with the family and time back and forth,’ and then you just have to pray about it and try to do what you feel is right. We gave it our best shot, but we weren’t able to keep it going.” He is married to Lisa Vultaggio and they share three kids who are ages 21, 20 and 14.

As for what’s next for him, he shared, “There’s some touring coming up. I’ll be releasing a solo album later this year. I have at least one book that’s coming out later this year as well, a book of poetry and an anthology of poems that I’ve been working on for at least 15 years now. It’s called Anthology of Longing. And then there’s another book that came out in 2014 called The Mystery of Art, but this is almost like a second installment to that concept, an exploration into the art of story and how that relates to history and faith and poetry, and all that kind of stuff. So, that one’s scheduled to come out later this year. And then next year we’re going to be going to the UK and Europe, with Nashville touring, which is going to be really exciting. So, music and books and whatever other projects come along.”

Find out the biggest 2025 General Hospital cast changes here.