08-08-2025
General Hospital star Rena Sofer, 56, reveals why she is leaving Los Angeles after 35 years
A beloved General Hospital star has said goodbye to Los Angeles for a new life on the East Coast.
The actress, 56, who returned to the popular daytime drama in 2023 as L&B Music co-founder Lois Cerullo, revealed in a social media video that she and her husband were leaving the City of Angels after more than three decades.
'We've been in LA for almost 35 years and now it's time for me and (Sanford Bookstaver) to go,' Rena Sofer wrote on Instagram.
In the video, the pair stood in front of the former home, and said, 'Goodbye Hollywood. Off to New York.'
Sofer then broke into song, crooning a few bars from Billy Joel 's 1976 hit New York State of Mind.
'Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood,' she began. 'Hop a flight to Miami Beach, Or to Hollywood, But I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line....'
A General Hospital star has revealed she and her husband have moved from Los Angeles for 'quieter and calmer times' in New York State
Rena Sofer, 56, stars as L&B Music co-founder Lois Cerullo on the popular daytime drama
Bookstaver, 51, completed the verse, singing, 'I'm in a New York state of mind.'
'No one better than Billy Joel to create the perfect soundtrack to our dreams!,' the Emmy winner wrote next to the video.
'Yes I'm getting emotional. I met and had my children in LA met the man of my dreams and created an incredible life there.
Sofer shares daughter Avalon, 20, a film student at Northwestern University with Bookstaver, and daughter Rosabel Rosalind, about 28, from her marriage to former GH co-star Wally Kurth, 67.
The Soap Opera Digest Award winner and Bookstaver re-married in May 2024, seven years after their divorce on what would have been the 21st anniversary of their first marriage.
'I had amazing success in the Biz and made all my lifelong friends who I will miss desperately,' she said.
'Thank you LA for being you. And now on to quieter and calmer times,' wrote that avid animal rescuer.
Referring to the leaf blower that can be heard loudly in the clip, she closed with, 'Leave it to a leaf blower to finish this post, there is nothing more la!!
' Now we are off in our @rivianofficial with our 5 dogs in the back to our new life!!!'
Sofer has not shared what their 'new life' will consist of. or if she will still be working on General Hospital. A source told E! News on Thursday, 'There has not been a conversation about her leaving the show.'
Sofer is not the only GH star to pull up roots. In July, Kirsten Storms, who plays Maxie Hunter on the soap opera moved to Tennessee.
'I really want to thank GH, the ABC network executives, the writers for agreeing to let me take this time,' she said in an clip on social media. 'I am so grateful that they understand and are supportive.'
