Ethan Lovett (Nathan Parsons)

Ethan Lovett is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera General Hospital, portrayed by Nathan Parsons since January 30, 2009. The character was established as the son of Holly Sutton (Emma Samms) and Luke Spencer (multi-Daytime Emmy Award-winner Anthony Geary) on May 29, 2009.

Casting
In 2008, General Hospital put out a casting call for an actor to play "Dante Falconeri," the son of characters Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and Olivia Falconeri (Lisa Lo Cicero). Parsons auditioned for the role and was called back twice after the audition, but the show did not cast him as Dante. "They said they weren't going to give me the part I auditioned for, but they wanted me on the show, so they were going to write me in," Parsons said. The writers created the character Ethan Lovett specifically for the actor. "It's cool, because it gives me a completely clean slate for this character," he said. "Since it was written for me, I can play with it and make Ethan whoever I want him to be.

The character's debut story centered around the mystery of who his parents were. Headwriter Robert Guza, Jr. hinted that Ethan would connect Luke Spencer's family to another family with whom they were once affiliated. The writers tied Ethan to established characters Luke Spencer (Geary), Holly Sutton (Samms), and Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), made household names during General Hospital's 1980s peak, with the question of whether or not he is Holly's son with one of the two men.

Reception
The character of "charismatic drifter/grifter" Ethan was initially a recurring role, but Parsons was soon put on contract with the series. In March 2009 Soaps In Depth magazine credited Parsons with "taking the show by storm" and dubbed Ethan "one of daytime's most riveting young characters."

Arrival and family ties (2009)
Ethan is introduced in January 2009 attempting to burglarize the Haunted Star Casino. Owner Luke Spencer catches him, and the two become acquainted; the Australian Ethan explains that he knows thief and con artist Holly Sutton, a former flame of Luke's, and had actually come to town seeking Luke. Ethan reveals that he had never known his biological parents, and that his adoptive parents had died when he was 15; he had subsequently run off, and met Holly in his travels. Ethan secretly carries a photo of Luke and his longtime friend Robert Scorpio, who had been married to Holly. Luke and his wife Tracy Quartermaine suspect that Holly is in fact Ethan's mother, and that Luke may then be his father. A DNA test on May 7, 2009 confirms that Luke and Ethan are not father and son, but Luke suspects that Tracy may have altered the paternity test. Holly returns, confirming that she is Ethan's mother and initially revealing that Robert is his father on May 22, 2009. After Robert's daughter Robin tells Ethan that Robert was in Port Charles and not with Holly when Ethan would have been conceived, Holly confesses to Luke on May 29, 2009 that Ethan is in fact his son. On June 5, 2009, Ethan is revealed to be conspiring and romantically involved with Rebecca Shaw, a newly-arrived lookalike of the deceased Emily Quartermaine.

Kristina Corinthos-Davis and the mob (2009-2010)
In October 2009, Ethan begins a flirtatious relationship with mob boss Sonny Corinthos's seventeen year-old daughter, Kristina Corinthos-Davis. Johnny Zacchara later approaches him in an attempt to ruin Sonny's life for killing his sister Claudia Zacchara. In March 2010, Ethan rebuffs Kristina's sexual advances. After Kristina is beaten by her boyfriend Kiefer Bauer, Kristina shifts the blame to Ethan, making him a target for Sonny. Ethan is then harassed by Kristina's father Sonny Corinthos, mother Alexis Davis and sister Sam McCall, and ostracized by most of the city; Ethan is only stopped from leaving town at this point by Luke's insistence that he wait for Lucky and Dante to investigate Kristina's story. Around this time, Ethan is hired by Johnny as a mob lieutenant for the Zacchara organization, which Luke and Lucky are not proud of. Eventually, however, Kiefer is outed as the one who attacked Kristina, and Ethan is cleared of all charges and given a clean slate.

Maya Ward (2010-2011)
In November 2010, Luke pleads with Tracy to remarry him after she discovers their marriage was a scam. She tells him she will only marry him if they get pre-nup. Instead, Luke asks if they can go to Las Vegas, planning on getting her drunk and marrying her. She agrees but says that Ethan and Maya must come along as chaperones. While in Vegas, Luke dares Tracy to keep up with him on the alcohol, but Ethan and Maya snatch some of the drinks from them, guzzling them in the process. They call Reverend Grace to marry Luke and Tracy, but through a mix-up, Maya and Ethan get married instead. They plan on getting an annulment, but while Luke and Tracy are out looking for a lawyer, the newlyweds consummate their marriage. The lawyer explains that if they were drunk when they got married, they can still go through with the annulment, but they decide not to. The four return to the Quartermaine mansion and Edward offers the couple one million dollars to stay married for one year. Ethan immediately agrees but Maya is hesitant. He eventually persuades her, saying that she will have more than enough money to pay off her student loans and to help her sister Zoe.

Ethan and Maya's marriage begins to turn real as they get to know one another, but when Maya has to go out of town on a business trip, the relationship starts to deteriorate just as quickly as it grew. Ethan decides to go visit Maya in Philadelphia, PA, because she had been out of town on business for weeks. However when he arrives he finds Maya in bed with another man. Maya admits that she had been lying to him for awhile and had no plans to return to Port Charles. They thanked each other for the time that they shared and parted amicably as friends. Ethan later flew down to the Dominican Republic to obtain a divorce.

Kristina's crush re-emerges (2011)
After Ethan and Maya's divorce, Kristina sets her sights back on Ethan and even accompanies him down to the Dominican Republic to get a divorce. However, Kristina's parents continue to disapprove of Kristina's crush on Ethan. They even misinterpret Kristina and Ethan's trip to the Dominican and rush down there to stop them, believing that they took the trip to get married instead of for Ethan's divorce. Kristina's father, Sonny continually warns Ethan to stay away from Kristina and threatens his life on numerous occasions, but Ethan remains defiant and maintains that he and Kristina can be friends if they want. His actions were noble but did nothing to stop Kristina's crush on him.

Kristina later invites Ethan to the Lakehouse under the guise of planning a trip abroad for a college class. She creates a romantic setting, flirts with him and, ultimately ends the night with kissing him. Still, Ethan resisted her advances, maintaining that their age difference was too much and her crush was just a phase. Not phased by Ethan's protestations, she continues to pursue him, much to the annoyance of Ethan. Kristina manages to manufacture situations to purposefully run into him, however, one night when she was really in danger and being accosted by mobster Anthony Zacchara, she is saved by Ethan, which only makes her crush on him grow. Desperate to find a way to get Kristina to back off, Ethan begins plotting with Michael Corinthos and Abby Haver to find a way to get Kristina interested in people her own age. Their plan involved Ethan feigning interest in Abby in order to get Kristina to back off. Kristina however, was not and continued to make excuses to see Ethan.

Ethan eventually erupts and verbally lays into Kristina about her skewed perceptions of the two of them together and the impossible position she had put him in with her father Sonny and Anthony Zacchara. Kristina, while taken aback, is nonetheless determined to prove that Ethan does in fact, care about her. She would go so far as to approach Johnny Zacchara, Ethan's employer, with the request that he fire Ethan in an attempt to get him out of harm's way. Shortly thereafter, Sonny and Alexis pull some strings to get Kristina into Yale. At Kristina's going away party, Ethan and Kristina share a goodbye and Ethan encourages Kristina to give her new life and the guys at Yale a chance.

Irina Cassadine (2011-2012)
Ethan becomes interested in a portrait at Wyndemere of Lucky and Lulu's mother Laura Spencer that he found in Wyndemere castle. One day while he is at Wyndemere examining the portrait he is knocked unconscious by Helena Cassadine. He awakens to Helena with a knife and they speak briefly, before she leaves her knife with him and makes her departure. She warns Ethan that Wyndemere is haunted and that he should stay away from Spoon Island, which only served to further intrigue him. Ethan leaves with Laura's portrait to get it repaired. Later, before returning the portrait, he takes it by Lucky's, who also warns him to stay away from Wydemere and Spoon Island. But Ethan keeps returning and finding mysterious objects, as well as secret passageways. He even starts to talk with Laura's portrait as if it was real. He soon realizes that he is not alone and discovers a young woman named "Cassandra" who was living in Wyndemere with him. At first Cassandra would not speak to him but overtime Ethan got her to open up. They began talking more and soon became lovers. Ethan later finds out that Cassandra suffered from memory loss and was being treated by Dr. Ewen Keenan. After spending a couple months together Ethan and Cassandra make plans to run away together, however their plans are stopped by Helena Cassadine.

Helena takes Luke and Ethan captive and reveals that "Cassandra" was actually Irina Cassadine, her secret daughter that she had kept captive on her island in Greece. Irina had not suffered from memory loss but instead was ordered by Helena to make Ethan fall in love with her and then kill him. However, Irina's feelings for Ethan were real and she had actually fallen for him. Helena ordered Irina to shoot Ethan for revenge because he is Luke's son and Luke was the one who killed her beloved son, Stavros. Irina instead turned the gun on her mother, Helena. The gun however was empty and the exercise a test of Irina's loyalty. Since she failed, Helena had Irina killed right in front of Ethan. She died in a heartbroken Ethan's arms. Helena then orders Ethan to be killed but she is stopped when Ethan's mother Holly Sutton runs in the room and tells her that killing Ethan would gain her nothing because Ethan was really Robert Scorpio's son. Helena does not believe her at first, but runs a DNA test on Ethan and Luke and leaves them for the time being until the results are final. When Helena is gone, Holly reveals that she had lied to save Ethan and that Luke really is Ethan's father.

Later Luke finds Robert Scorpio devastated over the death of his daughter Robin, about to jump off a bridge. In an effort to save his best friend and give him a purpose to continue living, Luke lies to Robert by telling him that Ethan is Robert's son, not his. Luke also tells him that Helena has taken Ethan captive and he needs to be rescued immediately. Shortly after, at Luke's request, Ethan decides to leave town and "disappear for awhile" to keep the lie believable for Robert's sake. Luke convinces Holly to go along with the plan, by telling her that with Ethan out of town, he would be free from Helena's grasp. Reluctantly all three of them agree that Ethan leaving is the best solution even though Holly still had some hesitations. On March 7th, Ethan says goodbye to his parents and leaves through the library's secret passageway that leads to the underground tunnels of Spoon Island. Then Robert and Holly quickly leave town in pursuit of "their" son, Ethan, and his supposed captor, Helena.