The Spencer family is back! General Hospital star Genie Francis — known by daytime soap opera fans the world over as the legendary Laura Spencer — will make her return to television next week, Entertainment Weekly reports. The Daytime Emmy winner will be reunited with her onscreen son Lucky, played by Jonathan Jackson , for the first time in nearly a decade. After first appearing as Laura in 1977, Francis, 62, went on to appear in more than 1,700 episodes across 47 years.
Her latest onscreen reunion is far from the first time she has exited the show only to return. In 2013, Francis came back to the show after acting for more than a year on the rival soap opera The Young and the Restless. She returned again in 2018, after Francis’ contract on General Hospital was not renewed.
“She did not want to leave the show as a series regular,” her agent, Arthur Tortzky, told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “It was not her choice to leave.” Francis’ character Laura is best known for her on-again, off-again relationship with Luke Spencer (played by Anthony Geary ).
The duo ultimately split but share two onscreen children together: son Lucky (played by Jackson) and daughter Lulu (played by Emme Rylan ). (Lulu was also, and arguably most notably, played by Julie Marie Berman from 2005 to 2013.) In June, it was announced that Jackson — who has played Laura and Luke’s son since 1993 when the actor was just 11 years old — would also return to the franchise.
While Jackson.
