Eva LaRue‘s time on General Hospital has come to an end.
On Monday (June 30), it was announced that the 58-year-old actress is leaving the ABC soap opera after more than a year of playing Natalia Ramirez, the disapproving and homophobic mother of Blaze (Jacqueline Grace Lopez) and Marco (Adrian Anchondo).
Keep reading to find out more…“Eva’s been a dear friend for years and I am so pleased we found an opportunity to work together,” GH executive producer Frank Valentini told Entertainment Weekly. “What originally was meant as a guest star arc turned into a longer and more satisfying arc, in thanks to Eva’s terrific work and chemistry with our cast. I was thrilled Eva was available to us in this extended role. I wish her all the best in her upcoming projects.”
“I was originally only supposed to be on the show for a couple of months and it ended up being a much longer run,” Eva, who first GH in February 2024, told Soap Opera Digest.
As GH fans may recall in recent weeks, Natalia was arrested on DUI charges and was offered a deal to avoid jail time if she gave up evidence on close friend Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). When Sonny told her that he would protect her and would set up a new life for her new Belize, Natalia believed that Sonny would be going with her.
However, she learned that Sonny would not be joining her, Natalia ran off the Metro Court took a dangerous amount of pills mixed with alcohol.
As of right now, viewers will have to wait and find out Natalia’s fate, but it has been confirmed that her final episode will air this week.
Also in her interview, Eva admitted that she had a feeling earlier this year that she wouldn’t last on GH much longer.
“I started to feel it in January. They tried to rehabilitate my character and then all of a sudden, I have these scenes in January where, because Natalia had lied about her ex-husband and broken his trust, Sonny was like, ‘We can’t be friends anymore,’” Eva recalled. “And I thought, ‘Uh-oh, there we go,’ because that [relationship with Sonny] was kind of my character’s only lifeline.”
“People just weren’t buying it, because they just hated my character so much,” she continued. “I was so vilified that no matter what [the writers] did, it just wasn’t a solid enough rehabilitation that they were gonna buy me with Sonny. And so when they finally let that idea go, I realized, ‘Okay, I’m probably not much longer for this world.’”
Eva went on to admit that it was hard playing a character that fans hated, especially after playing the fan-favorite as Maria Santos Grey on All My Children for years.
“It was hard for me, actually — for me as a person,” Eva shared. “When you play a character like Maria Santos, love her or hate her, she was not ever meant to be a vilified character. And so it was hard from being that character, being a fan favorite, to being, like, literally hated.”
“The GH fans couldn’t stand [Natalia]!” she added. “So that was tough, because especially if you are accustomed to being rooted for, to be rooted against is not as comfortable.”
Despite all that, Eva said it was pleasure to appear on GH.
“I had a blast at General Hospital. I loved being there and I had a lot of really great scenes and I loved everybody that I got to work with,” Eva said. “It was just an awesome experience, and I was really glad that I got to stay longer than I was supposed to.”
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC. Check out all of the other recent cast changes here!
