Real-life Best Friends: Surprising Relationships Among General Hospital Enemies

In 2014, the late Billy Miller took over the part of Jason Morgan after the character suffered amnesia on “General Hospital” and went by the name Jake Doe. Nurse Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) befriended him, but her jealous ex, Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst), wanted her back. So, he hired a woman named Hayden Barnes (Rebecca Budig) to pretend to be Jake’s wife, who had been searching for him. The truth about Ric and Hayden’s scheme eventually came out, which started a feud between the two women. However, Hayden moved on with Nikolas Cassadine (then Tyler Christopher), who eventually had someone try to kill her, and Liz was aware of his plan. When Hayden learned of this betrayal, the two women became arch-enemies.

Eventually, it was revealed that the characters were actually sisters, and over time, they were able to patch things up. In reality, actors Herbst and Budig had been friends for 15 years prior to working together on the sudser. When it was announced that Budig would be joining “GH,” Herbst told Soap Opera Digest in August 2016 that she was happy her friend was on board, stating, “I would have been annoyed if she was working with other people.” Regarding their characters’ rivalry, Budig told the magazine, “We have these intense scenes, and I think that there is more depth to them because we like each other.”