GH Emma Samms headshot
Credit: Howard Wise/JPI

“I would hate for Holly to be forever stuck in my guest room.”

It’s been over a year since Emma Samms reprised her General Hospital role as Holly, who was last seen being held captive via a surveillance feed. Robert, Olivia and Ethan arrived in Monte Carlo with the hopes that she was alive only to be disappointed once again and they were forced to return to Port Charles with so many questions — and fans want to know… will we ever get any answers or has this storyline been dropped for good?

Samms recently sat down with Soap Opera Digest during a podcast to answer just that. The actress has been suffering from long COVID and first tested positive back in March 2020. In discussing how she’s been feeling these days, she admitted she’s all right, “not too bad,” but unfortunately she’s still very much in the depths of long COVID but the gaps between feeling awful are getting shorter. Samms wanted to be clear about one very important thing and stated, “I just didn’t want people to think I’d recovered and for some reason was avoiding returning to General Hospital to spite them.”

More: Photos of General Hospital characters we want back

Reflecting on all of the times she’s walked through the revolving door of the ABC soap over the years, since her very first scene in 1982, Samms was really excited to come back. Then the dreadful pandemic struck and she got sick. In fact, she shot the returning scenes from her guestroom.

general hospital gh emma samms holly prisoner cell

Over talk of her sickness, Samms admitted, “It’s been really frustrating.” Being someone who has a high pain threshold, she explained, “Having been on General Hospital you don’t get days off for being sick. It was all very good training for me. I’m hugely frustrated.”

Executive producer Frank Valentini and casting director Mark Teschner have been very patient and good to Samms, putting no pressure on her and inquiring how she’s feeling from time to time. “I desperately want to come back and finish that story.” And, like fans, she would hate for Holly to be forever stuck in her guestroom!

We send Samms our very best during her road to recovery and hope to one day soon see Holly back on our screens. While we wait, let’s take a look at her character and all of the crimes and sabotage Holly was involved in over the years in the photo gallery below.