Carly Corinthos


Carly Spencer is a fictional character from General Hospital, a soap opera on the ABC network, portrayed by Laura Wright from 2005. A collaborative effort between the writers, Carly – originally played by Sarah Joy Brown from 1996 to 2001 — was introduced under executive producer Wendy Riche. A "love to hate" character who brings excitement to storylines because of her devious ways, Carly is the illegitimate daughter of former bad girl turned heroine, Bobbie Spencer.
Carly seduces her mother's husband for revenge. Throughout the 2000s, Carly, then Tamara Braun from 2001 to 2005, goes on to become one of the show's most prominent, vital and popular characters largely due to her supercouple pairing with mobster Sonny Corinthos and her friendship with Jason Morgan. Carly's revenge on Bobbie and her near-lethal vendetta against A. J. Quartermaine — the biological father of her son Michael – remain two of the most revered and controversial plots in the show's history.
While Brown's portrayal of Carly is viewed as a "duplicitous vixen," Braun's Carly is viewed as more of a romantic heroine. With Laura Wright in the role, Carly goes from being a pampered wife to being powerful business woman while embodying the qualities of her predecessors. Sarah Brown earned three Daytime Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Carly—two in the Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series category and one in Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category. Braun earned an Emmy nomination Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2004. The role of Carly would bring Laura Wright her first Emmy nomination overall – in the Outstanding Lead Actress and her first win, 20 years after breaking into daytime television on ABC's Loving.

Storylines

Backstory

Carly was born in Florida to 16-year-old prostitute Bobbie Spencer and given up for adoption at birth. She was adopted by Frank and Virginia Benson and named Caroline Leigh Benson. Frank left when Caroline was young and she was raised by Virginia, who was an emotionally abusive alcoholic. She was best friends with Carly Roberts and had an affair with Carly's father. After Carly was severely injured in a car accident, Caroline stole her identity and moved to Port Charles. Carly blames Bobbie for ruining her life by giving her up to an awful woman like Virginia. She is determined to destroy Bobbie's life by any means necessary.

1990s

Villainess Carly arrives in town and ingratiates herself into Bobbie's life when she enrolls in the nursing program at General Hospital. Meanwhile, Carly also begins sleeping with amnesiac Jason Morgan. At first, they agree to only sex with no names and no feelings, but Jason and Carly soon develop a close friendship.
Carly gets her revenge when seduces Bobbie's husband Doctor Tony Jones. Bobbie's brother Luke Spencer uncovers Carly's true identity and warns to stop hurting her mother. Bobbie however discovers the affair on her wedding anniversary to Tony, making the two bitter enemies.
Carly genuinely falls in love with Tony and she moves in with him. After a fight with Tony, Carly has a drunken one-night stand with Jason's troubled brother A. J. Quartermaine and ends up pregnant. Carly tells Tony he is the father, but when she overhears him saying he is only staying with her because of the baby, Carly convinces Jason to claim the child as his own. Carly gives birth to her son in December 1997 whom Jason names Michael after his best friend, mobster Sonny Corinthos. Jason has Michael christened, with Emily and Mike are the godparents.
The Quartermaines show up and after much heated discussion Robin convinces Jason to let them stay. Carly shows up near the end but chooses to sit in the back. Carly has a hard time bonding with Michael, but Jason takes care of him and has invited Bobbie into their lives to be the baby's nurse. During a terrible winter storm, Bobbie and Carly find themselves alone in the penthouse and Bobbie tells Carly how much she loved her baby.
It snaps Carly out of her depression and she is ready to hold Michael. The two women rush to the restaurant where Jason and Michael are with Emily and Mike. When Carly takes Michael in her arms, she is overwhelmed and tells Bobbie she is her daughter Caroline. Bobbie doesn't believe her until Virginia Benson arrives and then Carly's story is confirmed. Carly continues to argue with her adoptive mother over the choices she has made. Virginia gets very upset and tries to leave but collapses on the floor and is rushed to General Hospital, where she later dies. Her doctor warned her about making the trip due to her prior ailment. Carly is devastated and feels like she has lost the only woman that truly loved her.
Tony later kidnaps Michael to protect him from Jason and Sonny's dangerous lifestyle. When Tony manages to avoid prosecution, Carly shoots him and fakes insanity to avoid prison time and ends up being committed. Jason helps get her released and Jason's girlfriend Robin Scorpio, fed up with Carly being so dependent on Jason, exposes Michael's true paternity.
Jason fears his hatred of A.J. will hurt Michael and signs away all rights; however, he remains an integral part of Michael's life. Jason comforts Elizabeth Webber over the supposed death of her boyfriend, Lucky Spencer. Carly misunderstands their relationship, and sleeps with Sonny. Jason is unable to deal with the betrayal of Sonny and Carly, and leaves town.

2000s

In early 2000, after Carly reveals she is pregnant by Sonny as a result of the one night stand, Sonny coerces A. J. into divorcing Carly and signing away his parental rights to Michael. In May 2000, Carly suffers a miscarriage when she falls down the stairs during a confrontation with A. J. Carly and Sonny bond over their loss and they marry in September 2000. Carly and Sonny realize they are truly in love and renew their wedding vows on February 23, 2001. Carly later tries to force Sonny out of the mob and he divorces her for it. Carly befriends Sonny's sister Courtney Matthews and supports her relationship with Jason. Still in love with Sonny, Carly is hopeful they can reconcile until she finds him in bed with his attorney Alexis Davis and a distraught Carly is presumed dead after a car accident. Upon Carly's return, she and Sonny remarry only for Sonny's vengeful brother Ric Lansing to drug Carly and make it look like they slept together. In October 2003, Ric kidnaps a pregnant Carly only for her to escape and be taken hostage by Lorenzo Alcazar. As Alcazar helps Carly deliver her son Morgan, Sonny, believing she is in danger, shoots at Alcazar only for the bullet to hit Carly and render her comatose. Carly awakens and in the spring of 2004 meets her biological father John Durant who is looking to send both Sonny and Alcazar to prison. When the two are trapped in an elevator together, Alexis tells Carly that Sonny is her daughter Kristina's father. Carly keeps quiet fearing she might lose Sonny only to confess it later when the Kristina is deathly ill. Feeling betrayed, Sonny divorces Carly again but she agrees to be Kristina's godmother despite their differences.
After the divorce, Carly starts seeing Alcazar but her happiness is short lived due to A. J. kidnapping Michael, Kristina and Morgan. Michael is then presumed dead leaving Carly devastated. To complicate matters further, Carly discovers that Sonny's girlfriend Reese Marshall is actually her presumed dead best friend—Carly Roberts. While Michael is revealed to be alive, the stress leads to Carly suffering a nervous breakdown, marrying Alcazar and ending up in a mental hospital. Upon her release and after she divorces Alcazar, Carly mourns the loss of her best friend Courtney who dies during child birth and becomes a partner in the Metro Court Hotel with Courtney's ex-husband Jasper Jacks. Carly offers to help Jax raise Courtney's son John only for Robin to expose that Nikolas Cassadine is actually the boy's real father. Carly and Jax bond over the loss and become engaged. However, their wedding plans are halted when Carly must marry Sonny again to keep from testifying against him. In February 2007, Jax's estranged brother Jerry Jacks holds several guests including Sonny and Carly hostage in the hotel lobby before blowing it up. Carly and Sonny make love after the ordeal only for Carly to divorce him and marry Jax on April 27, 2007. In 2008, Carly gets pregnant only to miscarry after she and Michael get caught in an explosion. When Michael is falls into a coma after taking a bullet meant for Sonny, Carly seduces Sonny into signing over his parental rights to their sons. A furious Jax sleeps with Sonny's ex-girlfriend Kate Howard and Carly finds them together. As Michael awakens from his coma suffering from severe anger issues in 2009, Carly discovers she is pregnant. Because the pregnancy is so high risk, Michael goes to live with the Quartermaine family. In October 2009, Sonny's wife Claudia Zacchara takes Carly hostage when it was revealed that she was behind Michael's shooting. Claudia plans to steal Carly's daughter Josslyn only for Michael to kill her.

2010s

Carly, Jason and Sonny cover up the murder to protect Michael only for Sonny's cop son Dante Falconeri to expose the truth leading to Michael being sent to prison. A vengeful Carly pays Brook Lynn Ashton to seduce Dante destroy his relationship with her cousin Lulu Spencer but her plan fails. Distraught over Michael, Carly and Sonny sleep together again and her marriage to Jax subsequently implodes. Carly's vendetta against Dante strengthens when Michael reveals he was raped in prison and she comes to accept Michael's relationship with ex-stripper Abby who helps him come clean. When Jason's rival Franco and threatens Carly's family, Shawn Butler becomes Carly's new bodyguard. When Jax bribes a court official to get sole custody of Josslyn, Carly turns to Sonny who plants drugs on Jax allowing Carly to get full custody. Jax tries to skip town with Josslyn but Shawn stops him and Josslyn returns home safely. Shawn comforts a devastated Carly after Jax is presumed dead when Sonny sabotages his plane and she sends Morgan to military school to keep him away from Sonny. Carly later learns Jax is alive but keeps the secret to protect him from Sonny only for an angry and bitter Michael to reveal her lies on New Year's Eve. Grateful to him for keeping Michael out of the mob, Carly starts seeing Johnny Zacchara. The romance is short lived due to his affair and eventually marriage to the mentally ill Kate . Carly finds comfort with publishing mogul Todd Manning only to discover he knew about Johnny's marriage all along. Carly and Sonny are devastated by Jason's sudden death and even more shocked to discover A. J. is alive. Todd and Carly reconcile and start dating only for her to dump him after she discovers his part in switching Jason's healthy son with stillborn child. In 2013, Jax returns revealing that he and Carly's divorce was never finalized. After the divorce, Franco resurfaces, Carly wants him gone and plots his murder with Franco. The plans go awry with Olivia Falconeri gets shot instead. When everyone is led to believe Franco is Jason's long lost twin Carly falls for him and defends his past actions. Carly is shocked when Morgan elopes with his girlfriend Kiki Jerome. At Morgan and Kiki's wedding reception, Sonny grieving the loss of the recently murdered Connie reveals that Morgan tricked Kiki into marriage by lying about her paternity fearing he'd lose her to Michael. Carly and Olivia support Sonny and convince him to start taking his bipolar medication again. Carly is furious when Morgan a bitter Morgan starts sleeping with his mother-in-law Ava Jerome and working for the rival crime family. In January 2014, Carly is kidnapped by Franco's biological mother Heather Webber who fakes Carly's death and frames Franco for her murder. Fortunately, Franco rescues Carly and they continue their relationship as Carly comforts Michael when A. J. is murdered. Carly and Franco later discover a recording which reveals that Sonny killed A. J. and Ava killed Connie. Carly gives the recording to Sonny who plots to kill Ava only for her to reveal that she is pregnant with either Sonny or Morgan's child. Keeping the secret from Michael draws Sonny and Carly closer and they start an affair despite her recent engagement to Franco. At the wedding, a bitter Franco exposes Sonny's part in A. J.'s murder destroying the entire family and landing Sonny in prison.
Carly stands by Sonny during his prison stint and they reunite upon his release from prison and Carly plans to help him raise his and Ava's daughter Avery only for a bitter Michael to take custody of her. Meanwhile, Carly befriends the mysterious Jake Doe much to Sonny's dismay. Just as Michael begins to thaw toward his parents and relinquishes custody of Avery, Carly and Sonny become engaged. Meanwhile, Sonny and Carly realize Morgan is in trouble and fear he might be bipolar like Sonny. On their wedding day, Sonny gets shot hours before the wedding and ends up paralyzed. Ava takes custody of Avery and Carly wants to marry Sonny immediately hoping it will help in the custody case. Sonny nearly dies during their first attempt at wedding and they finally remarry on October 14, 2015, at General Hospital surrounded by their entire family. In November 2015 everyone realizes Jake Doe is actually Jason Morgan thanks to Carly, Sam and Spinelli and it is revealed at Elizabeth and Jason's wedding. Carly makes it to the courtroom for Avery's custody case and later explains to Sonny, Morgan, Michael, Ric and Kiki what happened unaware Kiki ran her off the road when she was drunk driving the prior night. Carly and Sonny are devastated when Ava gains custody of Avery but Sonny is allowed supervised visitation, Sonny kind of blames Carly at first. Carly tells Michael about Jason. Carly and Sonny talk about the courtroom hearing and she finally tells Sonny that Jason is alive, Jason comes in and they all discuss things. Carly tries to get Liz to back off Jason so he can see if he wants to be with her or Sam but to let him make his own decision, sparking an argument between the two. Jason confronts Carly on this and tells her to stay out of his and Liz's relationship. Carly is relieved when the truth comes out in December 2015 that Liz knew who Jason was since the Nurse's Ball because it meant Jason wasn't wrapped around her finger any more. On December 24, 2015, The Corinthos-Davis-Falconeri clan all gathered for the holidays and took a family picture. In January 2016 Carly and Sonny attended Robin and Patrick's second wedding as Robin and Carly actually finally put their differences aside and hugged, as Robin did give her credit for always being good for Jason and Sonny and Carly thanked her for saving Jason's life. Sonny's new doctor Mayes was quite rude to Carly and Sonny voiced himself on that but Carly wanted this to work out and told him it was fine and she had to head to the Metro Court. Carly often voices with Michael how angry she is that Sabrina lied about having his baby and to Morgan to make sure he took his bipolar medications.
In late 2016, Carly is devastated after the death of Morgan. More tragedy follows when her adopted sister Nelle Benson appears and starts taking revenge on Carly, including marrying and having a child with Michael. In 2019, Carly gives birth to a daughter, Donna Corinthos.