GH’s Rory Gibson Shares His Triumph Over Hard Times

Soap fans know that recasts are always tricky, but even more so for a beloved character. When Rory Gibson took over the role of GH’s Michael Corinthos in May 2025, he had his work cut out for him, or so it seemed. Chad Duell had just left the role a few months earlier, and he had played Michael for over a decade. The deck seemed stacked against Rory, but from his very first appearance at the nurse’s ball, everything just clicked.

Fans embraced him in his very first week on “General Hospital,” and he seems to fit right in amongst the cast. If you are new to the soap, then you’d likely think that Rory has been a part of the ensemble for years.

Rory recently sat for “State of Mind,” his co-star, Maurice Benard’s, mental health series, and gave a pretty raw interview. As it turns out, the actor has overcome mountains of adversity to get to where he is right now.

Rory Gibson’s First Soap Role on Y&R

ABC

Before GH, Rory played the role of Sharon and Nick’s son, Noah Newman, on “The Young and the Restless,” from 2021 to 2023. What started as a contract role turned into a recurring character that just disappeared. The actor discussed with Maurice how, after being let go from Y&R, he and his model fiancée, Alicia Ruela, struggled financially.

“Things got real, real bumpy for a while because we hit the (writers) strikes. I’ve never shared this publicly, but me and my fiancée were essentially homeless.”

He continued, “I was doing Y&R and then I went recurring, and I was working here and there for a little while. Then, I booked one really big one – a small role in like the Zack Snyder movie, I was pumped on it. Then, I kept testing for these big projects. I kept testing. I’m (feeling I’m) on the right road, and the strikes hit, and everything shuts down. Simultaneously, I’m not getting called in for Y&R anymore. So, all of a sudden everything goes dry. I already wasn’t making a ton of money. It got to a point where she (Alicia) was modeling professionally and that dried up too. Neither of us were making any money and we couldn’t afford a rent, and we had to bounce out. We were couch-surfing for almost a year.”

Rory then explained how things slowly began to improve. “That was most of 2023 and then in 2024, I ended up getting back to work as a trainer at Barry’s Bootcamp gym. It like I was resetting in a strange way. I started working there again, started doing my thing, and the industry was still really slow. Slowly, it started to pick up and life got kind of comfortable again.”

Rory Is Grateful for Those Hard Times Now

While going through the scary times and then slowly starting to stabilize his life, Rory found himself grateful.

He explained, “It was this weird acceptance of like, I’m pursuing the thing that I love (acting) and that I want to do, and that I want to make something out of my my life with, and I want to enjoy what I do while simultaneously having to accept the fact that its going to come with a lot of trials and tribulations.”

“In hindsight, you look back on it and say, ‘If I hadn’t essentially been let go from Y&R and say, if I hadn’t had to couch surf for a year, and if I wasn’t broke, and I didn’t have to go through all the other stuff too,” then maybe GH wouldn’t have ended up being his current silver lining.

He also realizes that being let go from Y&R was a blessing because it wasn’t the best role for his career. As for GH and the role of Michael Corinthos, Rory says, “I feel extremely fulfilled.”

Check out the full episode of “State of Mind” below!