GH’s Kirsten Storms Explains Why Maxie Looks Different

Kirsten Storms has played Maxie Jones on General Hospital since 2005 and has been a fan favorite ever since. However, due to real-life health issues, Storms’ look has changed in the past couple of years, and she explained what exactly happened.

Storms Dealt With Mental & Physical Health

Maxie Jones, the daughter of legendary super couple Frisco and Felicia Jones (Jack and Kristina Wagner), has been through quite a lot in her life on GH. But she’s finally reconnected with her one true love, Damian Spinelli (Bradford Anderson), and while they’re still on shaky ground, the future looks promising for them.

Storms herself has been through quite a bit in her young life, especially when she had surgery in 2021 to remove a cyst in her brain. Fans quickly noticed a visible change in the character, who is supposed to be a fashionista, but her hair and makeup weren’t up to Maxie’s usual standards for a while. 

On the May 2 episode of The Daily Drama podcast — hosted by her co-stars Anderson and Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) — Storms explained that she didn’t even tell her co-workers about her surgery at the time. “I didn’t know if I was going to live. That’s how I felt,” she said, adding that although she recovered physically in a couple of months, she still had mental issues. “I didn’t bounce back from that mentally and emotionally as quick as I would want to. And I feel like how I felt personally was reflected in Maxie in the show.”

Her change didn’t go unnoticed by the fans, who would message her asking why Maxie wasn’t as fashionable as she usually was. Storms explained that she enjoyed wearing comfy clothes as part of her healing process. “I didn’t have the desire to change that for myself for some reason,” she stated. 

The Maximista Back to Where She Was

Nearly three years later, she’s finally feeling like the old Storms/Maxie and has figured out how to properly meet her own needs. “At work, I’m dressing in more fashionable outfits. I’m more into making sure my makeup goes with it,” she remarked, noting that she relies on herself, not the makeup department, for her look and is sporting a new hairdo, which harkens back to “The old school Maxie stuff.”

Regarding Spinelli and Maxie’s relationship these days, she feels that their story has sort of reset to the way it used to be, “But [we’re] older now.” Ultimately, she hoped that everyone would forget how her look had drastically changed and focus on the redo of Maxie and Spinelli’s relationship.