General Hospital Star Kelly Monaco 'Temporarily' Replaced After 'Breathing Problem'

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images; Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic Kelly Monaco and Lindsay Hartley

A new face will temporarily be joining General Hospital as the show will be coming back this month.

Kelly Monaco, who has been on the long-running soap opera for over a decade, will not appear in her role as Sam McCall Morgan when General Hospital begins airing new episodes this month. Instead, Lindsay Hartley will briefly be taking over.

On Friday, after Daytime Confidential first reported on the casting switch-up, Hartley confirmed the news on social media.

“Some big shoes to fill...precious too. I hope you enjoy watching Sam as much as I have enjoyed playing her, temporarily ❤️🙏🏻,” wrote the actress, who has appeared on Passions, Days of Our Lives and All My Children.

Hartley, who was previously married to actor Justin Hartley, also shared a photograph of herself wearing a mask while on set last week. “Masked... Covid set life,” she captioned the selfie.

Monaco’s mother went on to assure concerned fans that her daughter would be back playing Sam McCall Morgan soon.

“Kelly is great and should be back on set Monday,” Carmina Monaco wrote on Twitter, explaining that Kelly had been under a two-week quarantine after having a “breathing problem” on her first day back on set.

“She had a hard time with the Covid mask,” she wrote in another message, noting that the quarantine order was “rather unexpected” as the actress had “tested negative twice for Covid” and a third test also did not reveal the presence of any antibodies.

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Like many television shows, General Hospital suspended production earlier this year due to coronavirus concerns.

Continuing to air episodes throughout the hiatus, the soap opera ran out of new episodes in May, according to Newsweek. Since then, ABC has been airing a series of classic episodes.

Fortunately for fans, production resumed last month and new episodes will begin airing on Monday.