Real-Life Love of General Hospital’s Genie Francis Admits ‘She Took a Chance On Me’
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Maybe you didn’t know that Genie Francis was married to Jonathan Frakes, of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. Maybe, like me, you spent the third season of Star Trek: Picard affectionately calling Will Riker “Captain Mr. Genie Francis.” Either way, you’ll love reading about how the veteran actor and director met the remarkable woman we know and love as the heart of General Hospital.
Frakes recently opened up about their 38-year relationship. “I met my wife, the wonderful Genie Francis, on a show called Bare Essence,” he tells People of their initial encounter in 1983. Though she was plenty old enough for Laura to marry Luke Spencer, the actor insists, “She was too young for me!”
A few years later, they were reunited on the set of North and South — no, not the miniseries based on the Elizabeth Gaskell book, but the one adapted from John Jakes’ Civil War saga. It featured a Who’s Who of 1980s TV and film stars, many of whom went on to add daytime soaps to their resumes — like Terri Garber, who was Iris on As the World Turns, and The Bold and the Beautiful and Sunset Beach alum Lesley-Anne Down.
Francis played Brett Main, younger sister to Patrick’s Swayze’s Orry, and Frakes was Stanley Hazard, the pompous older brother of James Read’s George. (Yes, the James Read currently wreaking havoc as Days of Our Lives’ Clyde. Small world, huh?)
“So we were on location in Charleston and Natchez, and we fell in love — and now, somehow, she wasn’t too young for me,” the 71-year-old Frakes jokes of the 10-year age difference between him and Francis. “So we have been together ever since our first date on North and South, when we took a break for Memorial Day and went to New Orleans, 38 years ago.”
The pair married in 1988 and have two children, musician and filmmaker Jameson and writer/actress Eliza — who popped up on General Hospital earlier this year. Frakes, who is just as famous and beloved in sci-fi circles as Francis is in the soap world, still can’t wrap his mind around how fortunate he was to land that crucial first date. “Somehow, she took a chance on me because I was, like, number 37 on the call sheet on North and South and she was up there with Patrick Swayze and Lesley-Anne Down. So why she would go out with me is a mystery!”
If he’s still talking about her like this almost 40 years later, it’s no mystery to us
