Ronnie Bard’s Port Charles Exit Has Erika Slezak Looking Back on Her GH Stint and What Comes Next
Erika Slezak views Ronnie’s exit not as an ending but as a chapter break — the kind that invites the show to reopen it anytime.
For a character who breezed into town with a duffel bag and a wary smile, Ronnie managed to shake loose an entire Quartermaine earthquake on General Hospital. Monica’s real will was finally unearthed, Tracy reclaimed the mansion, and the family cleared out after Tracy sent Ronnie packing. And just like that, the woman who never asked for anything except to say goodbye to her long-lost sister is heading back to North Carolina. But before she slipped out of Port Charles, Erika Slezak took a breath and reflected on the run — and on what she discovered about herself while playing someone so wildly different from Viki Lord.
Finding a New Rhythm
Slezak spoke with Soap Opera Digest after returning home to Connecticut, still carrying the afterglow of three packed weeks on the GH set. What surprised her most was how quickly fans embraced a character with no built-in legacy and no safety net. As she put it, “I think it was lovely… People have been so charming and so lovely and so nice — and apparently they really enjoyed it, which I’m delighted about, really.”
A Whirlwind of Familiar Faces
Beyond Tracy, Slezak found herself bumping up against nearly every legacy name on the map. Anna’s office, the Metro Court, the Quartermaine living room — she walked through all of it. Working with Maurice Benard (Sonny), she said, felt unexpectedly gentle. Ronnie didn’t know Sonny’s past, didn’t fear him, and Slezak loved seeing the shift that created. Genie Francis brought back memories of backstage meetings from years earlier, and Michael E. Knight reminded her why daytime veterans are so good at slipping into villainy without ever showing the seams.
Her final days — the real will reveal, the emotional unwinding — confirmed something she’d worried she might have lost: muscle memory. Within a few scripts, her brain woke up, and she could feel the old gears turning again.
Would she come back? Slezak didn’t pretend to hesitate. “Yes, I would,” she said. And then, with the warmth of someone who meant it: “It was delightful, it was terrific, it was a pleasure.” And maybe that’s the best way to leave Port Charles — with the door wide open and the lights still on. (Find out how Slezak praised her fans.)
