General Hospital’s Sonny, Scotty and John Might *All* Be In for a Shocking Blast From the Past

Ask any daytime drama fan, and they’ll tell ya: You’re about as likely to see a dead character stay dead on a soap as you are to see an unattractive actor. In other words, it simply doesn’t happen.

So it is virtually meaningless that Scotty’s daughter Karen Wexler perished in a car accident on General Hospital spinoff Port Charles back in 2003. If the powers that be wanted her to follow Jason out of the grave, she could do so in a heartbeat. What’s more, they could bring back Cari Shayne, the actress who originated the role

“I heard they’re talking about Karen a lot,” she tells SoapHub, adding, “We all know what [being in a car crash] means.

“I think I would be open to” returning, were the show to choose to give the ill-fated character a new lease on life. “It might make sense.”

Jennifer Hammon and Marie Wilson followed Shayne as Karen.

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When Shayne left the role after only two years, even she didn’t realize how the job had impacted her mental health. While playing Jagger’s John’s sweetheart whom Sonny convinced to strip at his nightclub, “I was going through a breakdown, and I didn’t know it,” she said during a 2023 episode of State of Mind. “The character had gotten to me so much. It really affected me.

“I was so much a Method actor, too,” she went on. “[The storyline] was all so heavy and dark and awful, and to get to that place, I had to live there all the time… I think that’s why I left, because I couldn’t live that way.”

Post-General Hospital, Shayne took a break from showbiz and became a labor and delivery nurse. The career change also had a nice side benefit, she says: “It allowed me to be at home while I was raising my kids.”