Seriously, Why Are We Losing Hayden? And Don’t Let Finn Be Next…

General Hospital (GH) just made the most perplexing move by letting the ultra-talented Rebecca Budig go after tying her character to a Port Charles core family–and for the life of us, we can’t figure out why.

Not only is Budig a spectacular actress, she’s also an ABC fan-favorite having played Greenlee Smythe on All My Children for nearly a decade.

Granted when Hayden was first introduced to the soap, she had no ties to anyone and was supposed to be a short-term character to confuse the Who Is Jake Doe storyline? (Although we knew he was Jason…we think…but that’s a whole other story that may or may not have something to do with this story.)

Budig was then offered a contract after Hayden spent several months in a bullet-to-the-head-induced coma. Of course, we learned her name was never Hayden Barnes–it was Rachel Berlin–daughter of a Raymond Berlin who conned Port Charles citizens several years back.

But, then the writers found another tie. She was not Raymond’s daughter at all, and instead Jeff Webber’s illegitimate daughter, making her Elizabeth’s (Rebecca Herbst) half-sister. Hayden grew a softer side, almost died twice, fell for Hamilton Finn, got pregnant, and even brought our beloved Curtis to town.

And now–poof–in a few weeks, she’ll be gone and the last two years will make no sense.

Why bother endearing her to the audience? Why bother making her Nikolas’ legal wife if he ever turns up alive? Why bother making her the sister of a core character? Why bother giving her a sweet love story? Why bother making her pregnant–just to let her go?

In soaps’ recent years, it’s been hard to become attached to a brand-new character, as we miss so many of our old faves who’ve been on the canvas for years who we hardly see. If a soap creates a strong female we can somehow relate to, why not hold on to her?

We asked ourselves the same question with Teresa Castillo’s Sabrina last fall.

In both cases, we guess we’ll never know.

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