2025 Why Erika Returned
People, November 6, 2025
One Life to Live Icon Erika Slezak Left Soap Operas a Decade Ago. Here's Why She's Chosen to Return with General Hospital (Exclusive) Link
by Victoria Ede
Erika Slezak hadn’t appeared on a soap opera in over a decade when General Hospital producer Frank Valentini called and asked her to come in for an arc on the soap.
“I thought, 'Wow, can I still do this?’” Slezak, 79, tells PEOPLE exclusively. The actress won six Daytime Emmys during her tenure as Victoria “Viki” Lord on One Life to Live, a role she played from 1971 until 2012 (and briefly reprised in the 2013 online revival).
Slezak says her son Michael asked her the same thing. “He said, ‘Mom, do you think you can, in three weeks, handle all that dialogue still?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, why would I not be able to? I mean, I used to do it every day.’ ” But she learned her son was right to worry.
“In the beginning, I had a lot of trouble, especially with the long speeches, where I would just in the middle of a speech go, ‘I have no idea what I say next,’ ” she says. She says it took her about a week to get used to it.
Valentini told her the role he had in mind for her: Veronica “Ronnie” Bard, a new character who’s revealed to be the secret sister of Monica Quartermaine. Monica was played by Leslie Charleson, who starred on the show from 1977 until her death at age 79 this January.
Ronnie and Monica were separated as children and raised by different families. When Ronnie reunited with Monica as an adult, her sister rejected her because she didn’t want any ties to her old life. Ronnie worked on her own to build a life, but reconnected with Monica via letters before her death.
“She was not sophisticated in any way,” Slezak said of Ronnie. “No pretentious, no pretensions, no artifice to her. She was just straightforward Ronnie, who had learned a lot on her own and knew about working and hard work.”
After Slezak was more confident of her ability to handle the pages and pages of dialogue that come with starring on a soap, she says, “It turned out to be so much fun. And you miss that when you're not working.”
The actress, who lives with her husband Brian Davies, in Connecticut, explains, “I have a wonderful life. I have a husband who I love. I have a son, who I love. My daughter passed away almost two years ago, which broke my heart. It still lives with me every day. The sadness just hangs over me, but I have a wonderful life, with the exception of that.”
“And to add the fun to that was wonderful,” she says of joining GH.
Slezak says her short-term costars on GH are all “lovely” and she loved being a part of the Quartermaine family for a couple of weeks. “The people I worked with were just fabulous and generous and helpful,” she says.
The show also wrote in a couple callbacks to her old character of Viki, thanks in part to two GH stars who are also OLTL alums: Chris McKenna, who played Joey Buchanan, and Josh Kelly, who played Cutter Wentworth.
“It's absolutely wonderful,” she says of reuniting with the actors. “Chris did a very cute thing because when I walked into the diner and I saw only the back of his head, and I said, ‘Joey,’ and he turned around, looked at me, he said, ‘Mom, I'm working,’ ” she remembers with a laugh. “And then he turned to the camera and he said, ‘Sorry, I just couldn't resist.’”
“And Josh Kelly, who I always loved, and what a handsome guy. Who doesn't want to work with him?” she says. “And he was so good.” During their conversation, Ronnie told his character, “I've always had a weakness for cowboys," a reference to Clint Buchanan, Viki’s husband on OLTL, played by the late Jerry verDorn.
“They made all kinds of little connections, which I loved,” Slezak says. “If anyone from One Life was watching, they would pick it up immediately.”
As for Slezak’s future on GH now that her storyline is ending and Ronnie is leaving Port Charles, she says cryptically, “We’ll see, we’ll see.” And Valentini is keeping the door open. The actress says that when she wrapped her role, the crew presented her with flowers. “And Frank's screaming, ‘You'll be back. You'll be back.’ ”
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.