Eva LaRue Confirms General Hospital Exit More Than a Year After Her Debut: ‘I Had a Blast’

Eva LaRue’s time in Port Charles has come to a close.

The 58-year-old actress, who made her debut on General Hospital in February 2024, has wrapped her run as Natalia Ramirez on the long-running daytime soap opera.

“I was originally only supposed to be on the show for a couple of months,” LaRue told Soap Opera Digest in an interview published Monday, June 30. “And it ended up being a much longer run, which was great — and really fun because there are so many All My Children actors there and so it felt like home.”

PEOPLE has confirmed that LaRue’s last episode will air this week.

LaRue, who rose to fame playing Maria Santos on All My Children, reflected on playing a “mom villain” like Natalia and how the show “tried to rehabilitate” the character.

Natalia was introduced to viewers as Blaze’s (Jacqueline Grace Lopez) mom, who disapproved of her relationship with Kristina Corinthos-Davis (Kate Mansi). The show tried to put her romantically link her to Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) to rebrand the character.

“People just weren’t buying it, because they just hated my character so much,” LaRue said.

“I was so vilified that no matter what [the writers] did, it just wasn’t a solid enough rehabilitation that they were gonna buy me with Sonny,” she continued. “And so when they finally let that idea go, I realized, ‘Okay, I’m probably not much longer for this world.'”

LaRue said she was “happy to stick around” for a while, but it was “a struggle to bring me back from the edge.” This, she noted, was different to her experience playing Maria on All My Children.

“It was hard for me, actually — for me as a person,” she revealed.

“Because in daytime, when you play a character like Maria Santos, love her or hate her, she was not ever meant to be a vilified character. And so it was hard from being that character, being a fan favorite, to being, like, literally hated,” she explained. “So that was tough, because especially if you are accustomed to being rooted for, to be rooted against is not as comfortable.”

Despite not being beloved by viewers, LaRue praised General Hospital fans for being “just so loyal to their show” and said that the “majority” of fans “see the whole picture, and they don’t have to love you to love what’s going on, because they know it all serves the story.”

LaRue called getting to work with executive producer Frank Valentini “really fun” and praised him for being “lovely.”

“I had a blast at General Hospital,” she said. “I loved being there and I had a lot of really great scenes and I loved everybody that I got to work with.”

LaRue added, “It was just an awesome experience, and I was really glad that I got to stay longer than I was supposed to.”

For his part, Valentini said in a statement, “Eva’s been a dear friend for years and I am so pleased we found an opportunity to work together!”

“What originally was meant as a guest star arc turned into a longer and more satisfying arc, in thanks to Eva’s terrific work and chemistry with our cast,” he continued. “I was thrilled Eva was available to us in this extended role. I wish her all the best in her upcoming projects.”

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General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC (check local listings).