Genie Francis: No one fought harder to re-establish Laura than Frank Valentini

Genie Francis has taken to social media to address the backlash over her exit from General Hospital. The Emmy-winning actress said the show's executive producer, Frank Valentini, doesn't deserve the mean tweets fans have been making.

It's been nearly two months since soap fans were stunned by the news that Genie Francis (Laura Spencer) would be exiting General Hospital. With the exception of a tweet thanking fans for their support, Francis has not commented on her departure from the ABC soap.

On Monday, Francis shared a throwback photo of herself and GH executive producer Frank Valentini from the 2017 Nurses Ball along with the caption "Had a lovely lunch with @valentinifrank."

Fans again hit social media with a whirlwind of tweets ranging from optimism that Francis would be returning to General Hospital to angry tweets that Francis had been treated poorly by the show. Francis broke her silence on the matter with a statement saying that it was "painful" for her to see such animosity lodged against Valentini for her GH exit.

"It's been painful for me to see @valentinifrank receive so much of the blame for the decision to take me off contract," Francis said in a Monday evening tweet. "No one fought harder to re-establish Laura on @GeneralHospital. He has always been my champion & I don't believe he took any pleasure in seeing Laura diminished."

As previously reported, Francis learned in January that she would be dropped to recurring status and that her appearances would reportedly be drastically cut to just a handful of episodes over the next few months. Some fans urged a boycott of ABC's sole remaining soap, while others encouraged one of the other three soaps to sign the actress to a contract. Though not explicitly stated in any public comments, it would seem that Francis wants fans to continue supporting General Hospital.

For his part, Valentini responded to Francis' tweet by saying that it is "[a]lways great to spend time with the beautiful @GenieFrancis!

Francis has played the role of Laura off and on since 1977. The actress had exited the show in 2008 before making a series of returns to GH shortly after Valentini assumed the role of executive producer.

General Hospital does not comment on contracts or casting rumors, so fans will have to stay tuned in to see if Laura returns to Port Charles.

Do you think Genie Francis might be returning to GH in the near future? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.

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