The real-life secret connection between General Hospital's Rick Hearst and Cynthia Watros

General Hospital's Ric Lansing has only been back in Port Charles for a few brief weeks, but he is already entrenched in stories involving his three ex-wives. Ric has turned Alexis in to the police, taken Elizabeth on a consequential ice cream date, and agreed to do a favor for Nina. However, some fans may forget that Ric and Nina were once married.

Ric and Nina's brief General Hospital union

In 2015, just after Elizabeth broke things off with Ric the last time, Ric and Nina (then played by Michelle Stafford) suddenly announced that they were married. It turned out that Ric was in cahoots with Nina's mother, Madeline Reeves, to bilk Nina out of her hefty inheritance. Nina had the marriage annulled as soon as she learned the truth.

Ric hasn't been seen much since his ill-fated marriage to Nina, but now the character is back in Port Charles, causing chaos and trouble wherever he goes. Ric has also reconnected with Nina, as she's roped him into representing Ava as Ava fights manslaughter charges.

Ric and Nina's reunion has Rick Hearst and Cynthia Watros working together once again. Both performers made their soap marks on Guiding Light in the 1990s, with Hearst playing Alan-Michael Spaulding and Watros playing Annie Dutton. However, Hearst has now revealed that he and Watros nearly played love interests.

Alan-Michael and a different Lucy?

While Alan-Michael and Annie were never together, Annie wasn't the first Guiding Light role that Watros tried for. In 1993, she auditioned for the role of Lucy Cooper, who Alan-Michael eventually married. Sonia Satra was ultimately cast as Lucy, but Hearst remembers Watros' audition well.

"When Cynthia came in for that audition, I just marveled at her because there was such an incredible depth to her performance," Hearst told Soap Opera Digest. "You know, she’s a very trained actor, and it was like she took it on as a Shakespearean role and was so involved. I loved what she did, but it was not the direction that they wanted to go in with Lucy. They went with Sonia, but I remembered her, and then when I finally saw her get the role of Annie on Guiding Light, I was like, 'Oh, thank God they got her because she is going to be a freaking powerhouse!'"

Alan-Michael and Annie didn't really cross paths in the '90s in Springfield, so Hearst finally gets to work with Watros closely in Port Charles.

"This is genuinely the first time I’ve had that opportunity to work with Cynthia and she is phenomenal, just phenomenal," he said. "There’s such an ease to her work. She is such an incredible listener and goes with the moment of a scene while, at the same time, having a completely full point of view from her character’s standpoint."

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With Ric ready to defend Nina's on-again/off-again BFF, it looks like Hearst and Watros will be sharing entertaining scenes for the foreseeable future.

Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu.

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