Did Kirsten Storms Just Tease a General Hospital Return as Maxie?

Kirsten Storms last appeared on General Hospital in March and her character, Maxie, was written out with an off-screen departure to Australia in July — but the actress seemed to open the door to a possible return to Port Charles with a new social media post.

Kirsten Storms Is Back in California — and Back to Blonde

On August 14, Storms posted a selfie to her Instagram Story that she captioned, “Back in Cali. Back to blonde.” In the photo, her hair is the same shade of blonde she typically wore while playing Maxie. In her last social media post on August 8, her hair was covered by a baseball cap, but the previous day, she shared a selfie in which her hair was dyed brown.

In July 2025, the actress announced that she had made the decision to move to Tennessee, where her ex-husband, Brandon Barash (ex-Johnny, GH; ex-Stefan/Jake, Days of Our Lives) had also recently relocated. In conjunction with her move, she took a six-month hiatus from the role of Maxie, which she began playing in 2005. To accommodate her absence, GH scripted a lengthy coma for the character, who was poisoned by Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota).

Storms said at the time, “I can’t wait to return to GH, once Harper [her daughter with Barash] and I are settled in our new town.”

Then, in October 2025, Storms elaborated about what had prompted her move in a lengthy Instagram post detailing her recent health issues. She revealed that at the start of 2025, a brain scan had uncovered an aneurysm on the right side of her brain and would be undergoing a medical procedure as a result. Storms had previously undergone a craniotomy to drain and remove noncancerous cysts on her brain in 2021.

Storms wrote, “For my own personal reasons, no longer living in Los Angeles was very important to me. The biggest reason for the move was Harper, but a lot of it was for my physical and mental health. And my overall happiness.”

In December 2025, Storms shared another update, noting that she was delaying the aneurysm procedure after consulting with a new neurosurgeon. She added, “and maaaaybe you will be seeing me back in Port Charles soon.”

Storms reported back to work at GH in January 2026 and her first General Hospital episode back as Maxie aired on February 12.

Shortly thereafter, Storms began posting about her home computer network and personal devices being hacked. Meanwhile, her on-screen appearances as Maxie ground to a halt on March 13. The show eventually addressed Maxie’s whereabouts on air by saying that she was on an extended trip with her live-in love, Spinelli (Bradford Anderson), and her daughters, Georgie (Lily Fisher) and Bailey Lu (Miley and Riley Plonski).

In April 2026, TMZ reported that Storms’s former husband, Barash, had been granted a restraining order against her, citing his “great concern [for her] ability to adequately care for the minor child” they shared. Barash also requested that she undergo a mental health evaluation.

Two months later, Storms made her first public comments about the situation, writing on Instagram, “I’m sure some of you guys have read the stories online regarding a situation involving something my ex-husband is currently trying to claim.” She ended her post by saying, “As for what is in my future, where GH is concerned…. Given what’s been going on, I can’t say I will feel comfortable heading back to Los Angeles and returning to work.”

On July 23, the show seemed to bring Maxie’s storyline to a neat conclusion by sending the character, along with Spinelli, Georgie, Bailey Lu and Maxie’s son, James (Gary James Fuller) to Australia, where Spinelli had accepted a new job opportunity. The move left the door open for the blended Jones/Spinelli family to eventually return to Port Charles.

For now, there’s no indication that Storms’ return to California has anything to do with General Hospital. But considering everything that has happened with the actress and Maxie over the past year, her return to California and dying her hair back to blonde is certainly enough to get fans wondering if her Port Charles story might not be over just yet.