GH’s Rick Hearst Slams Bogus Ric Lansing Death Rumors — Tamara Braun Co-Signs the Roast

L;DR: General Hospital’s Rick Hearst just torched the Ric Lansing exit rumor mill on Instagram with a brutal two-word reply. Then Tamara Braun crashed the comments — and the soap fandom is LOSING IT!

Rick Hearst Crushes the Internet With “Complete Shyte”

The rumor mill came for Ric Lansing. The actor who plays him came back with a sledgehammer. On Sunday evening, May 17, 2026, three-time Daytime Emmy winner Rick Hearst posted a Google search-result screenshot to Instagram that defaced itself in red block letters across the middle — “I HATE THE INTERNET.” Underneath, in the comments, Hearst offered his fans a two-word breakdown of the rumor he was burying: “Complete shyte.” That was it. No press release. No carefully worded statement filtered through ABC publicity. Just one Hollywood veteran with a screenshot, a red marker, and absolutely zero patience left for sites that recycle anonymous “leaks” as breaking news. For a daytime industry that usually answers exit speculation with vague “no comment” boilerplate, Hearst’s brutal directness landed like a sledgehammer through drywall.

The rumor in question? An April 9, 2026 Soap Dirt blog post claimed an anonymous “behind-the-scenes source” had spilled that Ric Lansing would be diagnosed with a fatal blood disease during May sweeps and slowly die through the summer — supposedly leaving Elizabeth Webber heartbroken just months after their long-awaited Valentine’s Day reconciliation. The catch? No Tier-1 or Tier-2 trade — not Soap Opera Digest, not Michael Fairman TV, not Soap Central — ever ran the story. Soap Dirt itself walked it back in a follow-up “rumor round-up” piece weeks later, calling it more of a coin toss than confirmed intel. The leak basically lived on YouTube reaction videos and Facebook clickbait until it metastasized into the Google search result that finally pushed Hearst over the edge. Back on the canvas as Ric Lansing since his August 22, 2024 on-screen return, the veteran isn’t going anywhere — and on Sunday night, he made the final call himself.

Got thoughts about Rick Hearst’s savage clapback or want to weigh in on the rumor mill mess? Drop a note over to Amber at [email protected] — we read every email and we love hearing what’s making you mad, glad, or completely fed up with daytime drama!

Tamara Braun’s Soap-Vet Solidarity Steals the Show

The clapback would have been satisfying enough on its own. But then Tamara Braun showed up. The two-time Daytime Emmy winner — best known to General Hospital fans as Carly Corinthos from May 2, 2001 to April 15, 2005 and later as Kim Nero from November 22, 2017 to November 18, 2019, and currently lighting up The Young and the Restless as scheming Crimson Lights newcomer Sienna Bacall since her October 14, 2025 debut — slid into Hearst’s comments with a 14-word meta moment so perfectly timed it nearly upstaged the original post: “The internet said I died last month. Can’t believe everything you read.” For a star whose on-screen alter ego just claimed to have killed a man in Y&R’s April 29 episode, the line played as straight-up gallows comedy. Soap vets get it. The internet does not. And just in case anybody missed the assignment, B&B alum Lesli Kay — who logged eleven years as Felicia Forrester between 2005 and 2016 — chimed in with her own confirmation that yes, the same thing has happened to her recently.

So where does that leave Ric Lansing? Right where the on-screen story has had him for weeks — mid-redemption arc, dating Liz after a Valentine’s Day kiss that finally erased the cobwebs on their twisted history, and gearing up for a romantic Hudson Valley weekend getaway that he just invited her on during the May 5, 2026 episode. As of the May 15 episode, Sonny Corinthos is back to (briefly) suspecting his maternal half-brother of fresh betrayal — not because Ric is actually up to anything, but because Ethan Lovett caught him meeting Ava Jerome at an art gallery and assumed the worst. (He was buying a romantic gift for Liz. Of course he was.) Hearst is on the canvas. The romance is escalating. Per ABC.com, Ric remains listed in the show’s active cast directory. And the rumor mill, for once, has been publicly humiliated by the only person whose opinion actually counts in this conversation — the guy playing the role. Score one for the soap vets. Zero for the bloggers.

So whose mic-drop wins the weekend — Rick Hearst’s two-word brutal kill, Tamara Braun’s 14-word soap-vet meta moment, or Lesli Kay’s quiet “same thing happened to me” co-sign? Drop your verdict in the comments below and tell us who you think delivered the bigger blow to the rumor mill!

WATCH THIS:

@soapoperamag Dante's Dilemma: Turn In His Own Son or Cover It Up? #DanteFalconeri just connected the dots. Liz confirmed she treated #RoccoFalconeri's slide bite the night Cullum was shot. Dante knows his son pulled the trigger and that Jason took the fall. Badge or dad? #GH #GeneralHospital #GHSpoilers #GeneralHospitalSpoilers ♬ original sound – Soap Opera Magazine