General Hospital - NEWS ROOM

Laura Spencer, a lovely size 4 bride. It's no secret that our beloved Laura Spencer has remained beautiful since we first started watching her in 1976. (Okay, some of us weren't born yet - but this General Hospital fan has been watching since at least 1976!) As it turns out, her real life portrayer, the lovely Genie Francis, has just gone public with some stories about her life that are shocking to fans who have followed her career all these years. Specifically, she admits that her appearance has been a lifelong obsession as well as a battle. She says that when a teenage Laura Spencer was put on a diet on the soap, she took it as a signal that the producers wanted her to go below her 120 pounds (she wore a size 4!) She went on a dangerous liquid diet in her personal life that let to other diets and ultimately a cocaine and alcohol addition in the 80's. In fact, it was her problems with substance abuse that led her to leave GH in 1982.

She was able to get help from support groups and remained sober for over twenty years until she had a "slip" in 2002 while living in London with her husband Jonathan Frakes and their two children. She said that, as an emotional eater, she should've known better than to assume that she could have a glass of wine with dinner and let it stay at that. Fortunately, Genie went into rehab and got back on track. However staying sober meant, for her, transferring her indulgences to food until she ended up a size 16.

When she learned that Laura Spencer was coming back onscreen in the fall of 2006, Genie worked with a trainer and went on a 1,200 calorie per day diet in anticipation of being in the limelight again. Now, she reports that "the sadness" of not having her guest contract renewed has lead to her quitting all of her hard work.

Prepare for Genie to overcome - again! This month Genie has announced that she is to be the new spokesperson for Medifast and commits to losing 35 pounds. Her husband tells her that she's gorgeous at any weight, but he's standing by her side (and hiding sugar!) as she takes on her new endeavor. Medifast is a portion-controlled, low-calorie meal replacement program. Genie will take in only 1,000 calories a day, but will eat every couple of hours to keep her strength up.

For her short-time stint as Laura Spencer last fall, Genie has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy as Supporting Actress and she is looking forward to the activities on June 15. In the past when she was nominated, she was unable to attend, but this year she's not only going, she's wearing something other than the traditional "slimming" black. She's wearing "Berry red".

Soaps.com fans are cheering you on Genie! On Friday at the Daytime Emmy's as well as with your personal weight loss goals. We love you no matter what size you come in and we want our Laura back!