General Hospital: Kirsten Storms Breaks Social Media Silence Amid Absence From Soap
Just over a month after addressing her status with General Hospital, Kirsten Storms (Maxie) has shared a post on Instagram to update her fans on the latest developments in her life. She showed off her new brunette hair color in a selfie while talking about exploring a future outside of acting and refocusing her priorities.
What Is Kirsten Storms Doing Now?
A year ago, Storms moved to Tennessee, a decision that she still considers the correct option. “Despite everything that’s going on in my life right now (… and I will be honest, it’s more than upsetting) — I still feel that the move to Tennessee was the best choice for me,” she wrote. “I might not be at the *best part* of this choice yet, but L.A. never felt like my real home.”
Storms moved to Los Angeles with her family when she was only 12, and after landing a recurring role on the WB series 7th Heaven in 1998, starred as the title character in the Disney Channel movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century and its two sequels. In 1999, she was cast as Belle Black on Days of Our Lives and remained with the NBC soap until 2004. In 2005, she joined the cast of GH as Maxie Jones, earning a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Younger Actress in 2009.
“I’m grateful and really f*ing proud of the accomplishments I’ve achieved during my acting career,” she shared, “however my career started before I was out of elementary school. I spent years working nonstop and feeling envious of anyone who lived in “the real world.” **I do not mean for that to be offensive. ** My life in California (and work there) was chosen for me at a young age. Have I been lucky to maintain employment in this industry, since my parents relocated us from Florida — with the sole intention that I become an actor? Hell yes.
“I’m proud of myself for handling the majority of that on my own,” she continued, “but that life became the only thing I knew how to do. Then I had [my daughter] Harper, and how I viewed every single thing in life shifted.”
Storms and her now ex-husband, Brandon Barash (ex-Johnny, GH; ex-Stefan/Jake, DAYS), welcomed Harper back in January 2014. In October, 2025, the actress and mother opened up about her health battle as she underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm.
“I swear I’m not going to continue to bring up my medical situation (I’ll make jokes and it will be awkward),” she said, “but until I began to understand how precious time is and how what we prioritize becomes all we have, there was never a thought that my life would ever change. Definitely not in the way I’ve always wanted it to.”
Referring to the emergency restraining order that Barash obtained against her back in April, Storms wrote, “I will briefly acknowledge that there is an ongoing situation with Brandon that will be getting sorted out (soon hopefully). I would appreciate (and encourage) for people on here not to worry about me, or think there is something larger going on, other than 2 ex-spouses dealing with a ‘disagreement’ that will be resolved.
“I’m not the type of person to come on here and discuss the details of something this personal (or offensive to who I am),” she continued, “however before you guys starting [sic] commenting on this, please remember that we are people who are divorced and have a child. I appreciate the supportive comments, but now that my daughter is of the age where she will Google her name while riding the bus to school, I”m asking that this speculation on this issue please stop.”
Storms concluded her post by mentioning the new look she was sporting in her selfie, indicating that she was digging the darker hair color, though her full statement was cut off on Instagram.
In August 2025, Maxie was sent to a long-term care facility in Boston to facilitate Storms’s leave of absence from GH. The actress returned to the screen on February 12, 2026, but despite being involved in a front-burner storyline involving Maxie’s husband “Nathan” (Ryan Paevey) returning from the dead (he was later revealed to be his twin brother, Cassius Faison), Storms only appeared on the soap for a month before exiting again.
In June 2026, Storms told fans that given everything going on in her personal life, including having her home computer network hacked, “I can’t say I will feel comfortable heading back to Los Angeles and returning to work.”
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Soap Opera Digest does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.