‘General Hospital’ Fan-Turned-Star Kelly Thiebaud Admits Working With Steve Burton Can Be ‘Very Surreal!’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Soap opera beauty gets candid about her ‘midlife crisis’ and bringing ‘The Britch’ home
With Britt “The Britch” Westbourne back and caught in Josslyn and Vaughn’s WSB adventure on General Hospital, Kelly Thiebaud sits down with Woman’s World to dish on her character’s return from the dead—including how Britt’s even alive, the chemistry with Steve Burton’s Jason, and her conviction that bestie Brad must return.
Plus, as the Daytime Emmy-winner celebrates turning 43 in London, Thiebaud gets candid about following her ticking biological clock into some bad decisions and the lessons she’s carrying into the rest of her 40s.
The Britch has haters, but Kelly Thiebaud ‘got so much love from the GH fans’
The Britch may have been one dirty villain, but after a stalled romance with Jason and an epic redemption tale, Faison and Obrecht’s daughter died a hero at the start of 2023—and Britt’s portrayer Kelly Thiebaud, who’s also brought the drama to Days of Our Lives and Station 19, left Los Angeles behind to create a new life in London.
That didn’t stop General Hospital viewers from wanting more!
“I was getting messages on my social media about how much people missed the character,” Thiebaud says. “The last time I was on the show, we were creating this different version of Britt. And it wasn’t just me—it was the writing and a real team effort to give her this redemption, and then the Huntington’s disease. It was so beautiful. I got so much love from the GH fans, and I think we grew closer during that whole experience.
“There’s still some haters out there,” the actress adds with a laugh, but that won’t keep her away from next month’s Fan Celebration at Graceland. “The majority of people have just been so welcoming and happy to have me back, so it’s just been a wonderful, full-circle experience. I feel very lucky.”
After Britt’s redemption tale, Thiebaud was ‘afraid to open that door again’
Thiebaud has come and gone a few times since joining General Hospital in 2012, and while she’s thrilled to be back in the fold again, she hesitated before signing on.
“I knew if I did come back, I didn’t want to play Britt’s evil twin or another character,” she explains. “I wanted it to be Britt and initially, I didn’t think that that was going to be possible—because we did choose to kill her off! I was also kind of afraid to open that door again. Will the magic still be there?”
One piece of that magic was between Britt and Jason—whose budding romance was quashed before it ever really started when Burton left the show in 2021.
“Steve and I had a wonderful conversation and we both felt like there was a lot of unfinished business we wanted to explore,” Thiebaud shares. “We gave viewers something that started to become interesting, exciting, and maybe romantic… and then it got taken away from everyone. We want to give that back to them.”
GH fan Thiebaud admits working with Steve Burton can be ‘very surreal’
Thiebaud also wants to give that back to her character!
“There was so much growth for a romantic relationship there, and Britt’s never had that,” she contends. “I don’t specifically remember the moment, but there was a shift in the writing and in just Steve and I, working off of each other. There seemed to be a lot of chemistry, and I had so much fun with him between takes. With all of those elements coming together, I was really in support of those two characters going the long haul.”
It also didn’t hurt that back at the turn of the century, a young Thiebaud had been hooked on General Hospital!
“When I was watching GH as just a fan in my mid-20s, I loved Jason’s storyline with Sam and other characters, so to get to work with Steve now, it’s just really cool,” she admits. “And sometimes, very surreal!”
Can Britt and Jason recreate the magic on GH?
On the show, when Jason tracked Britt down at Five Poppies, she sent him packing, but this pair clearly still has chemistry… of some kind.
“The first day I saw Steve on set, we gave each other a huge hug and I felt at that moment, ‘This is going to be a really fun ride,’” Thiebaud says. “But who knows if we will go on this ride together?”
After all, a lot can happen in four years—and it has.
“We’re both in very different places,” she agrees. “He went through a lot personally, I’ve gone through a lot personally, and it’s interesting that our characters both came back on the scene with people thinking that they were dead! We’ll see what happens. I have no idea, honestly.”
Thiebaud may be referring to the characters going through a lot, but the same can be said for the actors. While Burton went through a divorce and found love with his new wife, Michelle Lundstrom, Thiebaud followed her own love story to London after leaving the show.
“I lived there for about a year and a half,” she shares. “At first, it was a difficult transition from Los Angeles, but once I started to figure out the city, find my groove, and slowly meet people and find my confidence there, I loved it. When you live in a different country, it helps you grow as a person. You get to know yourself, so I was starting to feel so good… and then unfortunately, I had to leave.”
While she’s returned to Los Angeles and General Hospital, however, she’s not giving up on London. In fact, she spent her 43rd birthday flying there last week.
“I am based in Los Angeles, where we shoot, but we have 17 weeks off a year,” Thiebaud confides. “I’m going to try to spend as much of that time in London as I can. I still have a work visa over there, and I don’t want that to go to waste.”
Kelly Thiebaud’s ‘midlife crisis’ taught her ‘to never put someone else above myself’
While Thiebaud has fallen hard for London, she initially moved there believing she’d found her happily ever after with a man. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out as expected.
“I’ve heard so many people say how wonderful their 40s are, and I’m hoping to get to that point,” she cracks. “When I was turning 40, I went through a bit of a midlife crisis. I was single, I obviously felt the pressure of the baby clock ticking, and I kind of panicked. I ended up making some decisions that really set me back and hurt me.”
Though she calls the last couple of years “a bit traumatic,” Thiebaud can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’m feeling a little bit more like myself, but a different version of myself,” she says. “One of the biggest lessons I’ve finally learned is to never put someone else above myself and always protect myself first. Better late than never, I guess! I hope I can take those lessons and have an amazing rest of my 40s.”
Thiebaud dishes on being ‘ridiculously silly’ on set and on social media
While Thiebaud has hinted at what she’s been going through on social media, this soap diva’s Instagram is mostly packed with her being downright goofy.
“That is me every day, all day,” she admits. “On GH, I am always cracking jokes. I’m so ridiculously silly. The driving force behind all of that goofiness is that I’m a very lighthearted, don’t take things so seriously type of person. And I absolutely love to make people laugh.
“That’s why I’m dying to do a comedy,” continues Thiebaud, who’s gone back to studying with The Groundlings. “And that’s another great thing about Britt. The writers really leaned into me bringing some of that into character, which has been awesome.
“And I don’t think there’s a Britt without Brad,” she adds. “He has to return every once in a while!”
Is it Britt or ‘The Britch’ who’s back on ‘General Hospital’?
With the danger ratcheting up on General Hospital this week, Thiebaud can’t tell us anything about who shot Drew or the news surrounding her former onscreen brother Ryan Paevey’s return to set… but she can tell us that her own character is showing some familiar colors.
“We’re kind of leaning more towards The Britch these days,” she says. “I love the flair of Britt and her spikiness, so it’s fun to play. I just don’t want to live in that world all the time! I’m like, ‘Guys, I worked so hard. We all work so hard on making her likable and redeeming her. Let’s not lose that.’ I want the best of both worlds.”
As for how Britt is even alive, Thiebaud warns Woman’s World that in true soap opera fashion, General Hospital fans may have to wait for the full story to come out… but not all of it.
“Some scenes are coming up with Kathleen Gati (who plays Obrecht) that will reveal a bit, and it’s intense,” Thiebaud teases. “I think people are really gonna like how they’re telling the story of Britt being alive. It’s not some crazy, outlandish story, and I love stories that are relatable and lean more towards real-life scenarios. Well, I don’t know if it’s relatable… but it actually makes sense!”
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