GH Exclusive: Katelyn MacMullen ‘Very Sad’ About Chad Duell’s Exit
Katelyn MacMullen joined General Hospital in 2018 as Willow Tait and almost immediately began working regularly with Chad Duell; his character, Michael Corinthos, met Willow in a bereavement group and in time would become her on-screen husband (more than once). Soap Opera Digest checked in with the actress about how she reacted to her leading man, who last aired on January 21, making the decision to leave the show.
I’ll Be Missing You
Duell shared the news with MacMullen one day at work. “How I found out is that we were on set and we pulled each other to the side and we were like, ‘What’s going on? What are we thinking?’ And that’s when he told me,” she shares. “On the one hand, I was so sad because I was like, ‘Wait, I can’t even imagine this. I’ve seen you every single day, or practically every single day, since I started working here.’ I was like, ‘You’re my pal, so this is so sad.’ And then on the other hand, I was like, ‘Okay, if this is what he wants, then I’m happy for him.’ The actor in me is like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you have to follow your heart!’ So, on the one hand I was happy for him, and on the other hand, I was very sad for me.”
MacMullen reflects, “We’ve been through a lot of story together and we’ve been through a lot together just in general — not with each other, but I mean that we’ve seen each other in our personal lives for six years now and then we’ve obviously worked together for six years, as well, in a [close] capacity. It will certainly, I think, be an adjustment for me for him not to be here because I’m like, ‘I’m so used to seeing this face and hearing this voice. Where did you go?’ ”
The actress says that her bond with Duell began to form from the day they met. “It was even before I started,” she recalls. “Even during my screen test, so before I even got the role, he was giving me little tips under his breath; he was helping me navigate being on camera. So I knew immediately that he was someone I could rely on, which was nice.”
Duell’s well-earned reputation as an on-set jokester has also brightened MacMullen’s work life over the years. “Chad is extremely funny; he’s a goofball,” she says affectionately. “That is so nice because it breaks the dramatic tension that can exist when we’re all in this environment. It’s nice to have someone who can make you laugh. I’ll definitely miss the surprise pranks and the little jokes that he’s so good at saying in between scenes. Sometimes you just need a good laugh, because what we’re doing can be quite serious. So I think I’m going to miss laughing with him the most. We laughed a lot together!”
Since Duell’s exit, “There’s definitely been a feeling of, ‘It just feels different,’ ” she acknowledges. “But honestly, maybe I’m in denial, because I still feel like he works here! I don’t know if it’s fully hit me yet, because it’s only been a few weeks at this point. I’m sure at some point, it is going to hit me. But I also think that because it might be more of a temporary situation,” given that Duell has indicated that he’s open to returning to GH down the line, and Executive Producer Frank Valentini said he had “no plans to recast” the role. “I’m not letting my brain go to the place of, I’ll never see him in these halls again, you know what I mean? Like, I’m just feeling hopeful that we will see him again.”
Still, she notes, “I do notice that it feels different because I’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s weird. Usually, Chad walks up to me at this point, or we have a little conversation here or there, or we’d give each other fake dirty looks in the hallway.’ You know what I mean? There are just these little things that happened with Chad and me throughout the day and I’m like, ‘Oh, weird. That’s not happening!’ ”
Ultimately, MacMullen is just excited to see where Duell’s post-GH life takes him. “Whether he comes back or not, I’m just rooting for him in any capacity,” she enthuses. “I think he is super-talented and he has every opportunity for success ahead of him.”
In terms of where Michael’s absence from the canvas leaves her character — Willow and Michael are still married, but their union came apart at the seams when Willow couldn’t resist her attraction to his uncle, Drew, leading Michael to file for divorce and for full custody of their two children, Wiley and Amelia — MacMullen says, “Michael has pretty much been part of Willow’s journey from day one, or maybe week one. They were friends, and then they were husband and wife…. It leaves a lot of questions for me, like, ‘What would Willow’s life look like without Michael in the picture? How will that leave her feeling? What could that lead to? It’s certainly unknown territory.”
The Way We Were: Willow and Michael (and son Wiley) in much happier times — their 2023 wedding.
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