GH Casting Shocker: Kelly Thiebaud Returns — But As Britt?

Daytime Emmy winner Kelly Thiebaud is poised to return to General Hospital! Deadline announced the news today. The actress will begin airing in July, but the show is not disclosing whether the actress is returning as Britt Westbourne — the character she played off and on for a decade but who died a very on-screen death at the hands of Heather Webber (aka The Hook) — or if she’ll be taking on a new role. “It is good to be home,” Thiebaud told the publication.

You Can Go Home Again

Thiebaud made her Port Charles debut back in 2012 after a brief appearance on Days of Our Lives as Alicia. She left GH in 2015, but returned from 2017-18 and again from 2020-23. In 2022, the actress took home the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress, and she notched another nomination in the same category the following year. In 2020, Thiebaud also had a short run on DAYS as a second Salem character, Zoey Burge.

Britt was introduced as an ob/gyn by day, schemer by night who set her sights on her hospital co-worker Patrick Drake, who at the time was believed to be a widower, as his wife, Robin Scorpio-Drake, was presumed dead. She often clashed with his young daughter, Emma Scorpio-Drake, and in a desperate bid to hold on to Patrick, Britt stole Lulu and Dante’s embryo, implanted it into herself and claimed to be pregnant by the handsome Dr. Drake. She gave birth to a baby boy, who she dubbed Ben, in 2013 — but eventually, the truth unraveled and Dante and Lulu reclaimed their son, who they named Rocco. Britt’s deception also tore apart her romance with Nikolas Cassadine, Lulu’s protective half brother.

During Thiebaud’s first run, the character of Britt was also revealed to be the daughter of Dr. Liesl Obrecht, and later, her father was confirmed to be one of the show’s all-time most infamous baddies, the late Cesar Faison. (Both of Britt’s brothers on the show, Nathan West and Peter August, are now deceased as well.) Britt also developed a close, fan-favorite friendship with Brad Cooper.

During her most recent stint on GH, Britt was, for a time, romantically linked to Jason Morgan (Steve Burton). The couple had begun to gain a following, but split when Jason opted to marry Carly Corinthos (at the time, the pair believed that her husband, Sonny Corinthos, was dead). Britt had discovered that she carried the genetic marker for Huntington’s disease and decided to leave Port Charles. She threw herself a lavish good-bye party on New Year’s Eve in 2022, but was attacked by Heather and died in her devastated mother’s arms shortly after midnight on January 1, 2023.

It was Thiebaud’s decision to leave the show, prompting the decision to kill off Britt. Speaking to Soap Opera Digest about her choice to exit, Thiebaud shared, “As much as I love Britt and I love the fans and I love working on General Hospital, I just felt like I had to leave and go and pursue those other dreams and goals of mine, because being [on GH full time] doesn’t really allow the flexibility to do other projects.”

The actress explained that when she returned in 2020, she did not intend to stay as long as she did. “[To] be quite frank, it was only because of my relationship with Steve and our characters falling in love with each other and having something really magical happen between us that made me want to stay,” she told Digest. “So I agreed to stay longer.” However, Burton departed the show in 2021, and didn’t return until 2024, the year after Britt’s passing.

Thiebaud was on board with the show scripting Britt’s death. “I had serious talks with Frank [Valentini, executive producer] about wanting to leave,” she noted. “He is a wonderful boss, very compassionate and understanding and I am so, so grateful to him and what he did for me, from hiring me to letting me go on to this new chapter in my life. In the soap world, you can still come back after you die and who knows what will happen in 10 years, but for me, really wanting to move on in my creative experiences and in my life, I needed to feel like this was the end, and that’s why we all kind of decided on her dying.”

Valentini told Deadline that he was “thrilled” to have the actress back on the show, and said, “We have some great twists and turns planned for her character.”

As the actress noted, returns from the dead are far from uncommon on soaps. Time will tell whether Britt will get a new lease on life, or if Thiebaud will have the chance to create a new identity for herself in the Port Charles landscape.

Are you excited for her to return — and do you hope Britt is coming back with her? Let us know in the comments below!