Are General Hospital’s Charlotte and Danny Related? Their Family Tree Explained
Danny (Asher Antonyzyn) and Charlotte (Bluesy Burke) have been growing closer recently on General Hospital, but given how small soap opera towns tend to be, some fans have been wondering if Danny and Charlotte are related in some way. And rightly so! Here’s a breakdown of their family trees to explain whether there is a biological tie between the two characters.
The Ties That Bind
Danny’s parents are Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) and the late Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco). So his grandparents on his father’s side are Alan Quartermaine (Stuart Damon) and Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson), though Jason’s biological mother was actually Susan Moore (Gail Ramsey) and Monica adopted him. On his mother Sam’s side, Danny’s grandparents are Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) and the late Julian Jerome (William deVry).
Danny also has Cassadine blood coursing through his veins, because his maternal grandmother, Alexis, is a member of the notorious family. Her mother is the late opera singer Kristin Bergman and her biological father is the late Mikkos Cassadine (John Colicos).
Over on Charlotte’s side, her biological parents are Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) and Lulu Spencer (Alexa Havins). Her maternal grandparents are Laura Spencer (Genie Francis) and the late Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary). Valentin, meanwhile, is the son of the late Helena Cassadine (Constance Towers) and the late Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy).
Victor (Valentin’s dad and Charlotte’s biological grandfather) and Mikkos (Alexis’s dad and Danny’s biological great-grandfather) were brothers, making Valentin and Alexis first cousins. Therefore, Danny and Charlotte are related by blood. The children of first cousins are second cousins, but since Danny is Alexis’s grandson and not her direct offspring, there is a one-generational difference, which means that Danny and Charlotte are second cousins once removed.
Kissing Cousins?!
Second cousins once removed are not considered to be closely related, and share a limited amount of DNA. First cousins share, on average, 14.4 percent of DNA, according to the genealogy site 23andme, while second cousins once removed share only 1.6% of DNA on average.
Given the cozy dynamic developing between the two, it does seem like GH is nurturing a potential romance between Danny and Charlotte, and they would not be the first soap cousins to fall for one another. On Guiding Light, for example, Jonathan Randall (Tom Pelphrey) and Tammy Winslow (Stephanie Gatschet), who were biological first cousins — his mom, Reva Shayne Lewis (Kim Zimmer), and her mom, Cassie Layne (Laura Wright, now GH’s Carly), were half sisters — became a popular (albeit controversial) pairing in the mid-2000s.
In 2003 on GH, siblings Maxie (then-Robyn Richards) and Georgie Jones (Lindze Letherman) both crushed on Lucas Jones (then-C.J. Thomason), their first cousin, while they were in high school — but the sisters and Lucas shared no biological tie, since Lucas was adopted by Tony Jones (Brad Maule), the brother of Maxie and Georgie’s dad, Frisco Jones (Jack Wagner). In 2024, Cody Bell (Josh Kelly) and Sasha Gilmore (John J. York) called off their own burgeoning romance — which had yet to be consummated — after Sasha discovered that her biological dad was Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), the brother of Cody’s bio pop, Mac Scorpio (John J. York).
Let us know what you think about the possibility of Danny and Charlotte exploring a romance despite their distant DNA connection in the comments section below!
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