General Hospital’s Kelly Monaco Opens Her Heart About Billy Miller On the Anniversary of His Passing
Credit: ABC
On September 15, a year to the day that Biller Miller died at age 43, his General Hospital leading lady Kelly Monaco shared a very personal post on Instagram. Accompanying a photo of herself and Miller playfully posing with roses, perhaps a gift from fans, she wrote, “Duces ‘I’ve got your back and you always had mine’… I will tell our story soon enough…
“I love and miss you,” she concluded, “and beyond.”
Since the passing of the Emmy winner, who played Jason Morgan and then twin brother Drew Cain opposite Monaco’s Sam McCall for five years in the mid-to-late 2010s, the actress has remained silent. But her support of her castmate was evident when he left the soap. At the time, she tweeted, “I cannot come up with the words to describe how I feel about this decision… a decision that may not be what our audience thinks to be true.
“I’m heartbroken,” she added.
Following Miller’s death by suicide, his mother Patricia issued a statement that read: “I would like to share the following thoughts. I want to personally thank the many fans and personal friends for the overwhelming amount of love, prayers and condolences sent to me and my family on the devastating death of my beautiful son BJ — Billy Miller. He fought a long hard valiant battle with bipolar depression for years. He did everything he could to control the disease.
“He loved his family, his friends and his fans, but in the end,” she went on, “the disease won the fight and he surrendered his life. The other causes of death being told are not true. I wish they were, but they just aren’t. We all loved him so much and are desperately trying to deal with our loss. I will have nothing further to say. Thanks for the love and support.”
When Miller joined General Hospital after a successful run as Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless — Port Charles pal Jason Thompson (ex-Patrick) took over that role — he faced a tall order: Make the audience buy him as Steve Burton’s former character, Jason. Pro that he was, Miller pulled it off and made his and Monaco’s version of “JaSam” as popular as the original. (Upon Miller’s exit, Drew was killed off and then resurrected with Cameron Mathison in the role.)
Only last month was it reported that Monaco was on her way out at General Hospital and that, in fact, Sam was being sent to the Port Charles graveyard.
