Former Grey’s Anatomy Sweethearts Are Getting a Surprising Reunion

Credit: Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic; Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images

Things are about to get complicated when two past loves come face to face.

Grey’s Anatomy fans will be in for a fun reunion when Sarah Drew and Justin Bruening (All My Children, Jamie Martin) team up in the new Lifetime movie Reindeer Games Homecoming, which is set to air during the network’s 2022 It’s a Wonderful Lifetime holiday slate. Not only will Drew star but she’ll pull triple duty as an executive producer and writer.

For those who need a refresher, or don’t watch the ABC hit series, Drew played surgeon April Kepner (Season 6 – 14) while Bruening recurred as EMT Matthew Taylor (Season 9 – 14). Though they were set to marry, April’s true love Jackson Avery interrupted their wedding. When Drew was dropped as a series regular, the show married off April, by then divorced from Jackson, to her ex-fiancé. Eventually, they split up yet again (off screen), paving the way for April to move to Chicago with Jackson and their daughter, Harriet.

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So, what will be in store for the former co-stars this time around playing the roles of MacKenzie Graves and Chase Weston? MacKenzie, a brilliant, competitive, crossword puzzle-loving biology teacher, recently loses her father, the beloved fire chief and the heart of the town’s holiday fundraising tradition The Reindeer Games. As a way to keep the tradition alive, she competes with his former team, a group of colorful retired firefighters, to win the Games.

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However, this coming holiday, MacKenzie’s world is rocked by the return of her high school crush, and fading Hollywood star, and things get even more complicated when Chase is roped into participating in the Games. MacKenzie would love nothing more than to show him up and win the Kris Kringle Cup at all costs but as the competition heats up, so does the spark between them and Chase is determined to win the games — and MacKenzie’s heart.

Stay tuned for the holiday air date and more previews to come!

Before you go, browse through our gallery below featuring then and now photos of the All My Children cast, including a throwback of Bruening.

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Former Grey’s Anatomy Sweethearts Are Getting a Surprising Reunion

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<p>Leave it to Tad the Cad Martin’s Emmy-winning portrayer to mature into not only the slyest of silver foxes but the perfect actor to play <em>General Hospital</em> ambulance-chaser Martin Grey.</p>

<p>With her 2021 Emmy win for her work as Jennifer Horton on <em>Days of Our Lives</em>, the erstwhile Dixie Cooney became the first actress to strike gold for three different soaps on three different networks in three different decades.</p>

<p>So popular was the Emmy winner’s pairing with Debbi Morgan as Angie Baxter that he was given a new character to play opposite hers on <em>The City</em>, his Jesse Hubbard was eventually resurrected, and the actors were reunited <em>again</em> by primetime’s <em>Our Kind of People</em>.</p>

<p>After decades of being teamed and reteamed with her <em>All My Children</em> leading man, the Emmy winner resumed her primetime career, scoring roles on, among other series, <em>Bigger</em>, <em>Power</em> and <em>Power Book II: Ghost.</em></p>

<p>To this day, we cast a skeptical side-eye at jet skis. But at least we can take some comfort in knowing that time hasn’t laid a hand on Jenny and Greg Nelson’s portrayers (the former of whom is now Jackie Templeton on <em>General Hospital</em>).</p>

<p>Correct us if we’re wrong, but in the decades since he debuted as Ryan Lavery, the only thing that’s changed about the actor (now Drew Cain on <em>General Hospital</em>) is that… he grew a little sexy stubble?</p>

<p>Even when she was a teenage brunette making a splash as Erica Kane’s “forgotten” daughter, Kendall Hart, there was no disguising the blonde ambition that would help Buffy’s future portrayer slay Hollywood.</p>

<p>Whatever happened to the boy next door who scrubbed in as Cliff “I’m Not a Doctor, But I Play One on TV” Warner? He evolved into one of daytime’s most respected leading men — and, as if you didn’t know, the one who plays Jack Abbott on <em>The Young and the Restless.</em></p>

<p>The gem who played Southern-fried Opal Cortlandt continues to work in TV and movies like the 2021 thriller <em>The Manor</em> (from which the more recent image is taken).</p>

<p>Long after leaving behind the role of baby-faced Jamie Martin, the hunk — married in real life to Alexa Havins, formerly Babe Carey — became a scruffy fixture in primetime.</p>

<p>It’s no wonder the actress remains a soap MVP (as<em> Young & Restless</em>’ Chloe Fisher). Even back when <em>All My Children</em> killed her off as Maggie Stone, her natural charisma was so undeniable that it prompted fans to demand that she be rehired as surprise twin Maggie.</p>

<p>Honestly, we could look at these two photos of Maria Santos’ former portrayer all day and still not be sure which one was “then” and which was “now.” (“Then” is on the left, though, if it was gonna cause you to lose sleep.)</p>

<p>Ah, some things never change. Whether the soap-hopper was playing Greenlee Smythe or <em>General Hospital</em> pot-stirrer Hayden Barnes, the mischievous gleam in her eye was impossible to miss.</p>

<p>After appearing in Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” video, the movie-star-in-the-making got his big break when he was tapped by <em>All My Children</em> to play dreamy, scheme-y Leo du Pres.</p>

<p>Since meeting when they were cast as future supercouple Hayley and Matéo Santos, the marrieds have gone on to become a Hollywood power couple — and, as a matter of fact, the twosome behind ABC’s primetime <em>All My Children</em> revival, <em>Pine Valley.</em></p>

<p>Aside from the facial hair — grown to play gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok — we’d swear that Jackson Montgomery’s real-life alter ego hasn’t aged a second, never mind a day, since the soap’s sayonara.</p>

<p>We can assure you that this is not an April Fool’s Day joke. Nor is it April Fool’s Day. These really <em>are</em> photos of the soap icon taken decades apart. Erica Kane’s portrayer simply remains as “sensuelle” as ever. (Props to the longtime fans who will get the reference.)</p>

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