General Hospital: Chris McKenna Breaks His Silence on His Exit as Jack Brennan: ‘It’s Disappointing’
Chris McKenna is speaking out for the first time about his General Hospital exit as Jack Brennan, whose dead body was discovered floating in the Metro Court pool on the Tuesday, September 1 episode. In an interview with TV Insider, McKenna admitted that it was “disappointing” to be killed off the show, which he joined in February 2025.
Chris McKenna Opens Up About GH Exit
The actor completed filming in June, and noted that he’d had “a few months to adjust” to Jack Brennan’s demise and his own GH departure. McKenna mused, “I’m really grateful. It’s disappointing how it’s ending right now, but this was a gift.”
McKenna, who starred on One Life to Live as Joey Buchanan (1990-93) and on The Young and the Restless as Det. Mark Harding (2014-15), said that his time on GH was significant to him for many reasons. He became a father (to son Spencer) in 2024, just a few months before General Hospital tapped him to replace the original Jack Brennan, Charles Mesure. “Between my son being born and having this place to go to work for the past couple of years, this has been just a fantastic time,” the actor noted, voicing his appreciation for the opportunity to “be introduced to an entire new legion of soap fans who weren’t familiar with me” and do “some powerful work I’m really proud of.”
That’s not to say that he doesn’t regret what he sees as missed opportunities for his doomed character. McKenna observed that “Jack had an extremely unfortunate run of bad luck circumstances that influenced a lot of story since I took over,” pointing to, among other things, the romantic pairing for Jack and Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) that was hinted at but never materialized, and the backseat role Brennan ultimately played in bringing down corrupt WSB agent Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes) to accommodate John Oliver’s guest gig as Z.
McKenna was also sorry to see the brewing romance of Jack and Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros) get cut short. Describing his chemistry with Watros as “crackling,” he declared, “I will continue to operate under the belief that ‘Bernina’ is the greatest love story GH never told.”
Still, McKenna was thrilled with what he did get to play. “I was given such a cool gray, complex character,” he enthused. “I’m very fortunate that I got as much as I did.”
The news of McKenna’s imminent departure leaked in early August, and the outpouring of support from fans blew him away. “The response was absolutely overwhelming and humbling,” McKenna marveled. “I’ve only been on for 18 months. So that was really amazing and meant so much to me.”
Reflecting on his GH run as a whole, “I’ll always look back on this with pride and with joy,” he said. “I’m going to mourn Jack with everybody else, and this may be the end for Brennan, but Chris is doing fine and you’ll see him very soon.”
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