Why Lucky left Port Charles on General Hospital

General Hospital’s Lucky Spencer (Jonathan Jackson) had a tumultuous life, fraught with danger, drug addiction, and death. He had two failed marriages with Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst), but they did manage to have a son named Aiden Webber (Colin Cassidy). His parents were the legendary Luke and Laura Spencer (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis), and his long-lost brother is Nikolas Cassadine (Adam Huss). With all that family, one would think that would be reason enough to stay in Port Charles. But Lucky left in 2011 and only briefly returned in 2015 to partake in Geary’s (and Luke’s) exit from the show. Let’s take a look at what prompted Lucky to leave in the first place.

His drug abuse hurt his relationship with Elizabeth

After a serious back injury, he became hooked on the painkillers he was prescribed, causing him to see things and become paranoid that Elizabeth was fooling around with Dr. Patrick Drake (Jason Thompson). Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms) stole a pad of prescription paper from the hospital and started getting drugs for Lucky. He clashed with the villain Manny Ruiz (Robert LaSardo) and thought he had killed Manny, but when he found out Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) had been the one to do it, his drug use worsened.

He even slept with Maxie but was overcome with guilt, so he tried cleaning his act up and fixing his marriage to Elizabeth. But he was unaware that she’d seen him with Maxie, so she, in turn, slept with Jason. Things got out of control when his drug use worsened even more, and when he caught Elizabeth taking her things to move out, he threw her to the ground in a fit of anger.

Meanwhile, Maxie schemed to have Lucky all to herself, even faking a drug overdose. When he broke things off with her, she snitched to her father, police commissioner Mac Scorpio (John J. York), and Lucky lost his job as a police officer. He tried preventing his firing by framing Jason for getting him the drugs and ended up having a confrontation with Elizabeth, who informed him that she was pregnant.

The Lucky/Elizabeth Merry-Go-Round

Lucky and Elizabeth continued to have a back-and-forth relationship, and he thought baby Jake was his. He even managed to get his job back, but too many things happened with his addiction issues and with Maxie—who faked that she was pregnant with Lucky’s child. Elizabeth was done with Lucky, who continued to clash with Jason.

Upon finding out that Jake was actually Jason’s son, Lucky was heartbroken. He and Elizabeth had finally split up but agreed to pretend he was the baby’s father because Jason’s job as a mob enforcer posed a danger to their family.

Elizabeth had an affair with Nikolas Cassadine (then Tyler Christopher) and got pregnant, but Lucky was unaware that he was actually Aiden’s father. Lucky later married a woman named Siobhan McKenna (Erin Chambers), but after she was murdered by mobster Anthony Zacchara (Bruce Weitz) and Jake was subsequently believed killed by a hit-and-run driver, Lucky had had enough. Siobhan had left him a letter instructing him to go to Ireland, which is where he went to find his purpose in life.