Genie Francis on GH: 'They cannot conceive a Laura who is a grown woman'

In light of the news that Genie Francis will join THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS at the end of May, EW talked to the ex-Laura Vining Webber Baldwin Spencer to find out why she decided to join CBS and whether it feels like she’s cheating on GENERAL HOSPITAL, her daytime home for decades.

Said Francis: "I’d love to come back to work, but I want to work in a way that uses all of me so I’m not just cheating my audience. I felt for a while with the GH appearances, they were kind of using me as a media trick, bringing me on for three or four weeks, saying I was back on the show, but not really writing for me. And then I would be gone. I just didn’t like that anymore. I guess it was me putting my foot down. I would have loved to come back to [GENERAL HOSPITAL], but I needed them to write a real role for who this woman would be now. They didn’t respond. I didn’t hear anything. And that’s a shame. I was willing to put it out there, see what could be done.

"[GH] cannot conceive a Laura who is 48 years old, a grown woman. So that’s that. I’m a little surprised, too, since this year is the 30th anniversary of Luke and Laura’s marriage. (The wedding aired on Nov. 17, 1981.)"