Jason Morgan and Carly Spencer are fictional characters, former lovers, and best friends from General Hospital.
Jason and Carly, as ex-lovers and best friends, have a relationship that knows no boundaries.
Casting
Jason was portrayed by Steve Burton, on and off, from 1991-2012. Burton returned in 2017. Actor Billy Miller portrayed Jason from 2014-17.
Carly was portrayed by Sarah Brown from 1996-2001, Tamara Braun from 2001-04, Jennifer Bransford in 2005. She has been portrayed by Laura Wright since 2005.
They have been involved since 1996 as best friends after a short stint as lovers. Jason and Carly began with a no name relationship that developed into an incredibly strong bond.
Co-Head Writer Chris Van Etten states that Jason and Carly "are one of the great loves of one another's lives, but that doesn't necessarily mean romantic love. That relationship transcends a lot of the traditional concepts of love and romance on a show like this."[1]
To this day, even through death and resurrection, Jason and Carly turn to each other first as their friendship knows no boundaries.
On December 1, it was revealed that Burton is in fact Jason and Miller is portraying his twin.
Storylines
Jason, who restarts his life after waking up from a coma, loses all of his past memories. Although Jason starts to fall for Robin Scorpio, Carly Roberts comes to town to destroy her mother's life. Carly meets Jason at Jake's and the two play pool and start sleeping together. After a few rounds, the two hit it off and find they enjoy each other's company. They agree to a "no strings attached" sex arrangement, and Carly refers to him as her "boy on the side." When Robin finds out, she asks Jason to stop sleeping with Carly and he agrees because of his feelings for Robin. Jason chooses Robin and they begin seeing each other. Carly falls in love with Tony Jones and steals him away from her mother. Carly and Jason become best friends and after a cup of hot cocoa during Christmas, they agree that if they ever need help, they would come to each other.
Carly has a bitter fight with Tony that leads to her sleeping with A.J. Quartermaine. She also sleeps with Tony and when she finds out she is pregnant, Tony wants to take her child. Carly goes to Jason to ask him to pretend to be the father of her baby. Jason agrees but tells her that he will not lie if he is asked the right questions. Carly moves in to the penthouse with Jason. After Michael's birth, Carly leaves Port Charles because of post-partum depression. She returns in time to witness Micheal's baptism. Jason chooses Emily Quartermaine and Mike Corbin to be the godparents. Jason names him Michael Alan Morgan.
A few months after, Tony kidnaps Micheal, but he is eventually found by Jason. Carly shoots Tony and is commited to a mental hospital. Carly is transfered twice because she faked her sickness. After Jason secures her release, Carly and Micheal move in with Jason and Robin at their cottage. Carly became jealous that Jason puts Robin first, so she uses Micheal to bring them closer together. Robin doesn't like Jason and Carly's close relationship, so when Carly and Jason go to Florida to grieve for Carly's adoptive mother, Virginia Benson, Robin confronts A.J. Carly admits to Bobbie that she is really Caroline Leigh Benson, the daughter she gave up for adoption.
Jason and Carly go through rough patches after Robin reveals to A.J. that he- not Jason- is Michael's father. Jason is forced to give all parental rights to A.J., but the court allows visitation rights. Robin and Jason end their relationship and Jason and Micheal continue to bond. Carly, disgusted by Jason's affections for Hannah Scott, marries A.J. Carly and Jason later decide to pursue a relationship. Jason starts to comfort Elizabeth Webber over the presumed death of her boyfriend, Lucky Spencer. Carly sees them dancing at Kelly's and misunderstands their relationship. Hurt, she sleeps with Sonny and Jason walks in on them. He is devastated by their betrayal and leaves town telling Carly they would never be together again.
Jason finds a way to free Carly out of her loveless marriage to A.J. Jason finds out from Sonny that they are having a child together. When Jason returns, he finds out that Carly needs to marry Sonny to prevent him from going to prison. Carly has a miscarriage before the marriage. The two form a friendship again and when Carly falls in love with Sonny, Jason is there to support her. He rescues Sonny from a fire and Carly thanks him. As Carly's life begins getting dangerous due to Sonny's mob ties, Sonny divorces Carly and sends Jason to bring her back when she runs away. Jason refuses and after the two remarry, Sonny thanks him.
Sonny and Carly are about to have a child. On the night of Jason and Courtney's wedding, Jason and Carly chat until Carly leaves to find Michael. She is kidnapped by Ric Lansing who keeps Carly locked in a panic room. Jason tries to locate Carly and once they find a lead, Lorenzo Alcazar kidnapps Carly. When Carly is brought home by Jason, his wife Courtney, who is also pregnant, is kidnapped. Courtney loses the baby and Jason is supported by Carly. When Carly's baby was born, Sonny and Carly named the child Morgan Corinthos after Jason and Stone Cates.
Sonny and Carly get divorced because of a secret that Carly kept. Sonny finds out that Sam McCall is pregnant with his baby. Jason agrees to be the father, but Carly hates the idea of Jason and Sam together. Sam's daughter, Lila McCall, is stillborn.
When Michael and Morgan are declared dead and missing, Carly is headed for a breakdown and A.J. is suspected as the killer. When they are returned safely, A.J. is declared dead after he is strangled by Dr. Asher Thomas. A new threat, Manny Ruiz arrives in town and tries to eliminate anyone close to Jason and Sonny.
Jason loses most of his memories and goes through seizures, and Carly can't help because she suffers a brekdown. During the train crash caused by Ruiz, Carly escapes the mental hospital to help Jason. They each try to remember all the good things that they have done for each other and eventually, they escape. When Manny tries to sabotage Jason's surgery, Carly saves his life. Carly pleads Jason to come with her to her New Year's Party and she gets what she wants. Jason and Carly wish each other a happy new year.
As Manny terrorizes Port Charles, Carly's uncle Luke Spencer comes back from a trip with a deadly mutant virus that plagues the town putting the hospital under quarantine. Jason's fiancรฉe, Sam, and Carly's ex-husbands, Lorenzo and Sonny, are all victims to encephalitis. Jason and Carly search for the antidote but Carly is infected. Jason helps her and Carly discovers the cure. They transport it back to town, but are too late to save Courtney.
Courtney leaves custody of her newborn son to Carly and Jax, whom everyone thinks is the father. Carly and Jax begin a new relationship while Jason and Sam's deteriorates and Jason goes to Carly for support. When Jax is revealed not to be the father, Carly and Jax lose custody of the baby to Nikolas, the actual father. Carly, devasted, turns to Jason. Jax and Carly plan on getting married, but only one obstacle stands, Sonny, who wants Carly back.
To save Sonny from going to jail, Jason asks Carly to wed Sonny for the fourth time and he promised her a divorce as soon as the charges are dropped. When Sonny agrees to a divorce, Carly's hotel is held hostage by Jax's brother, James Craig. Jason rescues them all by pretending to be one of the gunmen. Jason is later present at Carly and Jax's wedding. Carly and Jason team up once again to find James, but realize that he is actually Jax's brother under disguise. Jason and Sam break up but Carly is not told why and helps Jason deal with his breakup.
Carly discovers that Jake Spencer is Jason's child and the two argue about whether or not he should take custody of Jake. Jason doesn't want to due to his dangerous lifestyle, but Carly pushes. That same year, Carly suffers a miscarriage and then loses Michael to a gunshot wound, leaving him in a coma. Jason and Carly are devastated.
Carly's marriage begins to deteriorate and Jason breaks up with Elizabeth because he fears that Jake will one day be caught in the crossfire, just like Michael. Carly is once again pregnant, but this time, the pregnancy is high risk and has the possibility of death. Jason urges her to do what she feels is right, but Sonny urges her to terminate. Michael wakes up after a year-long coma furious with his mother. Carly asks Jason to help Michael understand but Jason prefers to give Michael distance.
Michael ended up killing Sonny's wife, Claudia, trying to defend Carly his newborn sister, Josslyn Jacks. Jason chose to cover it up and make it look like Claudia disappeared. Carly readily agreed, despite Jax's protests. Carly named Jason as Josslyn's godfather. Carly ended up getting kidnapped by Franco, an artist who was obsessed with Jason. Jason saved Carly, but Franco escaped. Jason had to stop Michael when he tried to confess to Claudia's murder, taking him to Sonny's island, and then chasing after him with Sam, when he and his sister, Kristina ran away to Mexico.
Carly protested, but eventually trusted Jason to keep Michael safe. When Jason and Sam returned with the missing teens, Carly figured out that Jason and Sam are sleeping together again and she gave Jason advice on how to proceed with Sam so he doesn't lose her again. Sonny went on trial for Claudia's murder, but Michael was revealed as the killer before the verdict could be handed down. The judge was furious with everyone covering up the murder, and sent Michael to prison. Carly and Jason were both devastated. To protect Michael, Jason sent himself to prison. He ended up killing another inmate, Carter, to protect Michael.
Michael was eventually released from prison, but Jason had to remain. Jason found out Carly was looking for payback against Detective Dante Falconeri, Sonny's long lost son, for turning Michael in and sending him to prison. Jason tried to stop Carly, but she refused to listen. Jason was eventually released through a loophole, and Carly was there to welcome him home. When Michael admitted that he was raped in prison by Carter, Jason and Carly were both devastated that they failed to protect him. They got Michael into therapy, and helped him heal from the trauma.
In early 2011, Carly found out that Josslyn had kidney cancer, and needed chemotherapy or a kidney transplant to save her. At the same time, Jake was hit by a car and died when the doctors couldn't save him, and he was put on life support. Carly tried to call Jason while dealing with Josslyn's diagnosis, but Michael told her about Jake's hit and run. Carly went to console Jason, but found out Jake was a potential organ donor. Carly went to a grieving and devastated Jason, and begged him to see if Elizabeth would agree to donate Jake's kidney to help Josslyn. Jason agreed, and tried to convince Elizabeth. She initially refused, but later consented, and Josslyn was saved. Carly encouraged Sam to have a baby with Jason to help him through losing Jake, but Sam said that they would have children when they were ready.
Jason got engaged to Sam soon after, and Carly was annoyed when she found out about the engagement from Elizabeth. She protested, but Jason told her that Sam came first, and she needed to respect that. After Jason and Sam got married, Carly got a cryptic message from Franco. She interrupted Jason's honeymoon with Shawn Butler and Josslyn in tow to warn him. Jason was upset, though he understood Carly needing to warn him. The threat from Franco was deemed harmless, and Carly left, letting Jason enjoy his honeymoon.
Carly started dating mob boss Johnny Zacchara, Sonny and Jason's enemy. When Sonny was accused of causing a car accident that killed a young man and his daughter, Jason and Sonny believed Johnny was framing Sonny. Carly, though, didn't believe it and admitted that she was with Johnny the night of the accident. Jason warned Carly that she was gonna get caught in the middle, as would her kids, but Carly was stubborn, and continued to date Johnny. Soon after, Carly caught Johnny with Sonny's girlfriend, Kate Howard, and accused Johnny of using her to get payback on Sonny. Carly told Jason how he warned her, but she wouldn't listen. Jason wasn't happy, and told Carly he was sorry she got hurt.
Carly came to confront Jason after a newspaper article was published about how Franco showed up on his and Sam's honeymoon, drugged both, and allegedly raped Sam, which led to her getting pregnant. Jason admitted that Franco was his twin brother, and when they found out that he was the father of Sam's baby, it caused a rift between Jason and Sam. Surprisingly, Carly told Jason to fix his marriage with Sam, believing he was capable of loving the baby as his own. Jason listened to Carly, and went to reconcile with Sam. Unfortunately, Sam had given birth, and her son was presumed dead. Sam and Jason were grief-stricken, and grew apart. Carly still told Jason not to give up hope, and encouraged him to save his marriage.
Jason later figured out that Sam's son was alive, and was switched with another child. He and Sam rescued the baby, whom they later named Danny Morgan. Carly was thrilled for Jason, and encouraged him to make amends to Sam so he could be a father to the baby. Jason wanted to let Sam adjust, but Carly was quick to tell Sam to make things right with Jason so Danny would have his father.
Soon after getting his wife and son back, Jason was presumed dead. Carly was grief-stricken, and wondered how she could go on without Jason, noting how he was always there for. In an effort to honor his memory, Carly tried to get along with the women in Jason's life whom she always argued with, mainly Sam and Robin. She also tried to help Sam and Danny. Danny was later revealed to actually be Jason's biological son, and Carly hoped Danny would grow up to be just as handsome as Jason.
In July 2021, Jason and Carly decide to get married in order to stabilize the Corinthos mob family and send a clear message of power to anyone who tries to come up against them. As they start to plan the wedding, their long buried feelings for each other begin to re-emerge. After admitting this to one another, they agree to let things develop to see where giving into their feelings could lead.
On August 19, Jason and Carly agree to get married on September 17, 2021. During their wedding night, just as they are beginning to make love, Sonny returns and they agree to re-bury their feelings for one another. Also, with Sonny alive, their marriage became invalid. When Sonny finds out that Jason and Carly planned to have a real marriage, he was furious, but both Jason and Carly did their best to reassure him that it was over now. Jason is presumed dead once again before they could truly deal with their re-emerged feelings for each other.