Jonathan Jackson's General Hospital Exit, Explained: 'The Hope Was To Stay On Longer'

The end of Jonathan Jackson's latest General Hospital run came as a bit of a surprise to fans of the long-running ABC sudser, in part because the five-time Daytime Emmy winner has only been back for nine months.

The brevity of his encore surprised Jackson, as well.

Jackson shared with TV Insider, "No, it wasn't" his intention to leave just nine months in; rather, he and GH had made "a real, sincere attempt... to make it work for a longer period of time. The hope was to be able to stay on longer."

In the end, what Jackson called an "experiment" — to travel between his home in Tennessee and workplace in Los Angeles — proved not to be tenable.

"There were moments where I thought, 'I can find this balance with the family" — wife Lisa Vultaggio (ex-Hannah, GH) and their three kids, age 21, 20 and 14 — "and time back and forth,' and then you just have to pray about it and try to do what you feel is right," he said. "We gave it our best shot, but we weren't able to keep it going."

"I have to say that none of this would have happened at all if [GH executive producer] Frank [Valentini] wasn't so open and helpful to even get it this far," Jackson noted. "So that's definitely something I've been extremely blessed by.

Valentini himself said in a statement last week, "We were so glad Jonathan was able to reprise the role of Lucky, even if it was for a limited time. We wish him nothing but the best and the door is always open for Jonathan to return." 

Jackson last airs on GH sometime this week. Setting the stage for Lucky's latest sendoff was longtime love Elizabeth's (Rebecca Herbst) turn-down of his marriage proposal in the June 5 episode, knowing that he wouldn't be content to stay put in Port Charles.