ABC
Kelly Monaco and Billy Miller pictured in a General Hospital publicity photo in 2019.
On September 15, 2024, the one-year anniversary of the heartbreaking death of three-time Daytime Emmy winner Billy Miller (ex-Richie, All My Children ; ex-Billy, Young and Restless ; ex-Drew, General Hospital ), his friend and former GH leading lady, Kelly Monaco, took to Instagram to pay homage to Miller.
In her post , Monaco shared a personal photo of herself with Miller and wrote, "Duces ‘I’ve got your back and you always had mine’ I will tell our story soon enough…. 😇🙏🏻❤️ I love and miss you… and beyond.”
This is the first time Monaco has posted online since the news broke that GH was parting ways with the popular star over two decades after she joined the show back in 2003, causing a considerable uproar among fans who have rallied behind the actress in hopes of GH reversing its decision.
Miller died by suicide on September 15, 2023, just three days before his 44th birthday. On September 18, his mother, Patricia Miller, issued a statement on her son's tragic passing. She wrote, "I want to personally thank the many fans & personal friends for the overwhelming amount of love, prayers & 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 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.”
Friends Like Us
Monaco and Miller began working together when he joined the GH cast in 2014 in the role of Jason Morgan, which had been previously played by Steve Burton (Burton had left the show in 2012). But their off-screen relationship had begun years before that. At a joint fan event, " Killy Live ," held in New York City in 2019, Miller recalled how they had originally been introduced by mutual friends, then met again in Las Vegas. He joked, "I thought she was absolutely stunning and gorgeous and she doesn’t remember me — so, so much for that fairy tale!” Monaco told the story of encountering him at a horse racetrack, and she headed home in her car, “I remember looking at [him] in my rearview mirror, and he had said he had left Y&R [as Billy] and I said, ‘He’s going to come on to play Jason.’ ” Miller shared that the following day, Monaco called him and said, "You should come to GH and play Jason." He added, "That’s kind of how it all started! She called Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and said, ‘Hire this guy.’ ”
When Burton returned to GH in 2018, his on-screen alter ego was confirmed to be the real Jason Morgan, while Miller's character was revealed to be Jason's surprise twin brother, Drew Cain, who had been brainwashed to adopt Jason's identity. In 2019, Miller confirmed his imminent exit from GH in a message to fans shared on the X (formerly Twitter) account of his manager, Marnie Sparer. It read: "Hello friends, With a slight air of sadness, it is time to ponder what ‘Goodbye’ means. However, instead of dwelling on what is gone and sure to be missed, there is another way. Maybe our goodbye is really a remembrance of love felt, an appreciation for lives shared, and the lifelong reminisces that come from embraces given and received. Maybe our goodbye is an earnest hope for the brightest path forward for us all. Maybe our goodbye is honoring growth and lessons learned. Now, instead of sadness, I am filled with gratitude for all your support, encouragement, and every emotion shared. I cherish the journey we have taken together. Thank you for allowing me into your homes and lives. With every ounce of myself, I thank you for being you. I would be remiss in this crazy, unpredictable world we all love so much if I did not hold out the possibility that maybe our GOODBYE is really….. UNTIL NEXT TIME. All My Love.”
In a Soap Opera Digest interview conducted before Miller's death in 2023, Monaco said, "Working with Billy was so much fun. I knew him prior to him coming on the show and he brought in a completely different energy. He was really silly. He loved gags and it was really light, and then, when it was time to be serious, it was really serious. I’m sure it was pretty intimidating to come into a role like Jason Morgan and I commend Billy as an actor because that takes a lot of confidence. We worked really hard on our stuff and tried to make the transition feel natural for the audience, and I think we achieved that."
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