Lulu Spencer, portrayed by Julie Berman and Emme Rylan, is a fictionalized character in the longest-running daytime series on US television called “General Hospital.” Having been the daughter of one of the most iconic couples in the show, her journey had been followed by many fans especially since she had been plagued with danger from the day she was born, because her parents were on the run from the mob. Her life was filled with unbelievable twists and turns that often left the audience in shock, but quite entertained.
A brief background on “General Hospital”
ABC TV came out with “General Hospital” on 1 April 1963, and it became the network’s longest-running daytime drama. It featured the lives of the people in a hospital in the fictional small to mid-sized town of Port Charles in upstate New York. Initially, the story focused on Chief of Internal Medicine Dr. Steve Hardy, Nurse Jessie Brewer, and flight attendant Audrey Hardy. By 1970, the show was on the verge of being axed when ABC higher-ups hired Executive Producer Gloria Monty to turn things around within 13 weeks, which she did. She was the one responsible for the increased pacing of the show, which made the audience happy, and the creation of what the fans called the ‘super couple’ – Luke Spencer and Laura Webber; it became the most popular story in the history of daytime series. During the ensuing years, the ratings fell each time popular characters were written out, but they would eventually go up the moment the audience fell in love with the new faces. It was an ongoing cycle for the soap opera that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013, and aired its 15,000th episode this 2022.
Highlights in the life of Lulu Spencer in “General Hospital”
Lulu first appeared in “General Hospital” on 8 August 1994 and was last seen on the show on 1 December 2020, having gone through so much as a baby, as a teen, and as an adult. Some events were due to being the daughter of Luke and Laura Spencer, and some were the consequences of her wrong decisions in life. Here are some of the highlights of her journey in the daytime series:
Background on her name and ‘super couple’ parents
Lulu’s full name was Lesley Lu Spencer, named after Dr. Lesley Webber, her maternal grandmother. Her mother Laura used “Lu” as an alias, when she and her husband Luke were on the run from the mob. While her parents went through a chaotic journey in their lives, she was conceived during one of the happiest times in their marriage, around the time they settled down in Port Charles, after being on the run for more than a decade. Her parents were originally foes when they were teenagers, and Luke, who worked for a mob boss, was supposed to be in cahoots with her sister Bobbie in exacting revenge on Laura just because she was romantically involved with a man whom her Aunt Bobbie wanted for herself.
When Laura married Scott and worked in a nightclub managed by Luke, it didn’t take long for Luke to fall in love with her. When he received a hit order for a certain politician from his boss, he didn’t want to do it but knew he had no choice. As he was confused, distraught, and drunk one night, Luke raped Laura. She told everyone she was raped but never named the perpetrator. Later on, when things went ugly with her relationship with her husband, she fell in love with Luke. Lulu’s parents were married on 16 November 1981. This was the start of the journey of one of the most iconic couples from “General Hospital.”
Lulu’s life was in danger even as a baby
Danger had always been near their family due to her parent’s close association with the local mob. There was even a time when Lulu and her mother left town just to escape the eyes of a rival gang. Her mother gave birth to her as a direct result of trying to get away from people who tried to kidnap her. Lulu was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, which was a serious medical condition that limited the body’s production of new blood cells. The only way to cure it was to have a bone marrow transplant, and this was the reason her mother finally revealed to Luke that she had another child named Nikolas Cassadine. He was born when Laura was kidnapped by a lunatic named Stavros Cassadine, who was quite obsessed with her. Nikolas agreed to the bone marrow transplant and it saved Lulu, but led to the end of her parent’s marriage.
Lulu is back in Port Charles and ready to get the ground running. But is her job at The Invader waiting for her?
An all-new #GH starts RIGHT NOW on ABC! @EmmeRylan pic.twitter.com/xmC8rpF61c— General Hospital (@GeneralHospital) April 26, 2019
Raised by her grandmother when her parents were unavailable
Lulu was first raised by her mother alone after the divorce. However, Laura had a psychological breakdown that led to a catatonic state in which she remembered the time she supposedly killed her stepfather and his mistress when she was still a teen. Luke was an absentee father, and it was Lulu’s grandmother who took care of her.
Lulu’s rebellious years
Her old grandmother couldn’t handle Lulu when she reached her teenage years. She was then given to her father, who by that time had remarried, living with him in her stepmother’s mansion. Given their history, she was angry at her father, and started a life of lies, petty theft, and even causing the break-up of her stepbrother’s marriage – she slept with her stepbrother, Dillon Quartermaine, and became pregnant, but due to several complications, she aborted the baby. After about five years, her mother woke up briefly from the coma, and Lulu shared what happened to her including the abortion. Lulu said she didn’t want to bring into the world a baby who wasn’t loved or wanted, just like she was, but her mother reassured her that she was loved. Before her mother fell into a coma again, Laura told her that she firmly believed that she wasn’t responsible for the death of her stepfather.
Her involvement with the mob, and clearing her mother’s name
When she returned to Port Charles, she quickly ingratiated herself with the mob community, most especially with mob boss Sonny Corinthos, and Jason Morgan. She helped them with some of their issues, and at the same time investigated the death of Rick Webber. Eventually, it was revealed that it was Scott Baldwin, Laura’s first husband, who killed Rick. She kept the information for fear that her father would take revenge, and in turn destroy his peaceful life.
The men around Lulu’s life
“General Hospital” fans quickly noticed that Lulu was very much like her mother in the aspect of attracting interest from the opposite sex – sometimes her decisions in life mirrored what had happened with Laura.
Dillon Quartermaine, Damian Spinelli, and Milo Giambetti
When Lulu entered the Quartermaine Mansion, she was involved with her stepbrother Dillon, then when it ended badly, she moved on with Damian Spinelli. He was the computer hacker who helped her prove her mother’s innocence by looking for leads for the real killer of Rick Webber. He shared many adventures with Lulu, including being kidnapped by Lorenzo Alcazar, a wanted international arms dealer. He eventually fell for her and pursued her, however, she rejected both him and Milo Giambetti, whom she went out with on one date.
Logan Hayes, the one she stabbed
One of the first serious relationships that Lulu had was with Logan Hayes, who she found out later was the son of Scott Baldwin. Logan came to Port Charles to look for an old military buddy. They started dating and everything seemed great, but he made a monumental mistake – he cheated on her with Maxie Jones, who was the sister of Dillon’s wife. It was an act of revenge on Lulu because she was the cause of the break-up of her sister’s marriage. Logan was devastated when Lulu ended their relationship, and couldn’t move on. He tried several times to persuade her to accept him back. During one of their confrontations, she accidentally stabbed him, which eventually killed him.
Johnny Zacchara, the one who covered for her
Sometime after Lulu’s break-up from Logan, she started dating Johnny Zacchara, whose grandfather was one of the mob bosses, Anthony Zacchara. Lulu’s life was endangered even more due to the complication of her association with Sonny Corinthos’ mob organization, as it was Zacchara’s ultimate rival. The danger level intensified when Johnny took the reins of the organization when his grandfather was paralyzed. Their lives even became entangled when she and Johnny were on the run, after she accidentally killed Logan. When they returned to Port Charles, Johnny voluntarily took the blame for it, but was later acquitted.
Dante Falconeri, the undercover cop she married
When Dante Falconeri first appeared in Port Charles he was called Dominic Pirelli, and was part of the Zacchara organization, but in reality he was an undercover cop. His main purpose was to obtain more information and infiltrate the Corinthos mob to take down the head of the family, Sonny Corinthos. Lulu met him while she was trapped in the water-filled basement of an old home of the Zacchara family. While he saved her from being drowned, he confessed to her who he really was, and they started dating. Fearing for his life, Lulu tried to convince him to stop his investigation because he might end up dead. Dante saved her once again when she was kidnapped and strapped with a bomb, but decided to end their relationship as the situation became more dangerous for her; she just called him a coward. When Sonny realized Dante was an undercover detective he shot him, but then found out that he was his biological son. Lulu declared her love for Dante as he was wheeled to the operating theater for surgery. The couple went through many ups and downs, but eventually love conquered all, and they were married in December 2011.
Lulu’s unbelievable journey to have a baby
Sometime after she married, she and Dante were happy to find out that she was pregnant, but she had an early miscarriage. The couple did their best to conceive again.
Surrogacy with Maxie
Someone mixed a poisonous chemical in their town’s water supply, and many people were infected by it, including Lulu and Dante. A counteragent was injected into them, and while it saved them, they learned from the doctor that she was now unable to carry a child. Lulu convinced Maxie Jones – who became her friend after fighting with her for quite some time – to be the surrogate mother. When Maxie became pregnant, the family celebrated the first sonogram photos of the baby, but during the celebration, they received a stuffed toy. Something went off inside the toy rendering Lulu unconscious, and then she went missing.
Lulu was kidnapped and kept on Cassadine Island
Everyone looked for her, and Dante with Lulu’s parents found her unconscious inside a cryogenic chamber on Cassadine Island. Apparently, Stavros Cassadine who was once obsessed with Laura, saw Lulu in Turkey and immediately thought that it was the young Laura, even calling her the “Ice Princess” – the chamber was supposed to make her young permanently. When they took her out of the chamber, they found that she suffered from amnesia. She was even brainwashed, now believing that her husband was Stavros. Lulu agreed to return to Port Charles only because she couldn’t find her husband. She forgot all about the surrogacy, and that Maxie was pregnant with her baby.
Her memory returned in time for her baby’s arrival
Dante helped her regain her memory by letting her talk about her life with Stavros on the island. Apparently, she was forced by Stavros to be married, even though it was illegal. When it was time for the consummation of the marriage, she refused, so she was placed inside the cryogenic chamber. After her memory returned, she immediately asked about Maxie’s condition, and was happy that the baby and the surrogate mother were both fine. However, she sensed that Maxie was becoming too attached to the baby; for a time, her friend didn’t want to give up the baby, believing it was hers, but later on was convinced that it was Lulu and Dante’s child.
Dante and Lulu weren’t the biological parents of the baby
The new parents planned the christening of their baby, whom they named Connie in tribute to Lulu’s former employer and Dante’s aunt who had recently died. However, it was revealed that Connie was not their biological child – Maxie and Damian Spinelli were Connie’s real parents. Maxie then told them that she miscarried their baby, and right after it happened, she became pregnant again with Damian’s child. There was a custody battle for Connie, and the courts declared to give the child to her biological parents. The ruling devastated Lulu and Dante; Damian changed the baby’s name from Connie to Georgie and left Port Charles.
A stolen embryo gave Dante and Lulu their first child
The result of the custody battle strained the couple’s relationship, because Lulu blamed Dante for their loss. Lulu planned to destroy Maxie’s reputation so she could be declared an unfit parent, but Dante didn’t want to lie under oath, realizing that it wasn’t fair to the baby. Their marriage suffered, especially when they learned that they couldn’t have a baby, since she couldn’t produce eggs anymore. However, they found out that she and Dante had another baby. Lulu’s brother, Nikolas, had a new girlfriend named Britt Westbourne. When the two met, she was already pregnant, but the father of the baby, Patrick Drake, didn’t want anything to do with her. Despite the situation she was in, Nikolas fell in love with her. The baby whom they named Ben was revealed to be the product of Britt’s machination when she tried to entrap Patrick into marriage. It turned out that Britt stole one of Lulu and Dante’s embryos to become pregnant.
Dante and Lulu go on a hunt for their baby, today on #GH.
Retweet if you want Dr. O to give them their baby back! pic.twitter.com/VospVRM4gI
— General Hospital (@GeneralHospital) April 2, 2014
Lulu’s final years in “General Hospital”
A lot of things happened after Lulu had her first child, and there was even a time when she and Dante grew distant from each other, at one point even having their divorce papers on hand, but they never went through with it, as they were reminded of their past. Eventually they re-committed to their relationship, and remarried in 2016 during Thanksgiving. She later found out that she had another daughter named Charlotte with Valentin Cassadine, which was orchestrated by Helena Cassadine, the mother of Stavros. Initially, mother and daughter had a hard time accepting the situation, but later on bonded together.
Dante went undercover once again as he was in danger, but by the time he was rescued by Sonny in Turkey, he wasn’t the same anymore. He left Lulu again for fear that he might hurt them due to the effects of his undercover mission, and was gone for quite some time, while Lulu moved on with her life. She started dating again, with a new guy, Dustin. When Dustin was about to ask her to marry him, a bomb exploded and killed him, but Lulu was surprisingly okay. On the day she decided to get back with Dante, she collapsed and the doctors said that she suffered a brain injury during the bomb explosion. Lulu needed surgery and then went into a coma. Her family decided that the best way for her condition was to send her to a long-term care hospice.
So, what next in the ongoing saga of Lulu and “General Hospital”? No doubt you will tune-in to discover what new machinations occur in the longest-running show on US TV!
