Cheatin' Hearts: 5 Scandalous Affairs That Rocked General Hospital

In 1979, the year after Monica (Leslie Charleson) said, “I do” to Alan, she fell into bed with her former fiancé, Rick Webber (Chris Robinson) — who she had also slept with while married to his brother, Jeff. Monica recommitted to her marriage when Rick pledged his devotion to his own wife, Lesley, but then Monica discovered that she was pregnant. She was certain the child was Rick’s, and blurted this out — to Lesley! — while delirious as she gave birth to Alan, Jr., a.k.a. A.J. Monica had no memory of her confession, but when Rick came clean with Lesley, she icily informed him that she already knew he’d cheated. Alan harbored his own doubts about Monica’s fidelity, and in 1980, he accessed a sealed court deposition in which Rick and Monica had been forced to cop to their affair. He concealed this from Monica, and once he got what he thought was proof that Rick was A.J.’s bio dad, he plotted to kill his wife and her lover, even rigging the roof of the baby’s nursery to fall on them. Meanwhile, Monica discovered that Alan was the father, but kept mum, as she wanted to start a new life with newly single Rick. She got Alan on tape confessing to his murder attempts and used the recording to blackmail him into agreeing to a divorce. However, Alan got wise to A.J.’s true paternity and outed the news to Rick, including that Monica already knew, and Rick dumped Monica over her deception.

In 1981, Alan fell into an affair with the comely Susan Moore, Heather Webber's cousin, whose takeover of the Campus Disco (the site of Luke's infamous 1979 rape of Laura) he was financing. Soon, Alan and Susan were hot and heavy, and he set her up in the cottage across the lake from the Quartermaine manse. Susan became pregnant, but Alan was unwilling to divorce Monica and relinquish custody of A.J. Alan and Monica got close again after A.J. experienced a health scare, and Susan went to New York to give birth to Jason (and, as a later rewrite would have it, his twin, Drew). Then Alan discovered that prior to the melting of the ice between them, Monica had enlisted the help of a private investigator to get confirmation of his infidelity, intending to use it against him in divorce court. Livid, Alan summoned Susan and the baby back home. Monica's detective produced the proof she had been seeking and she filed for divorce (and sole custody of A.J.). Alan and Susan moved in together and she tried to wheedle him to marry her, anxious to secure a share of the Quartermaine bounty. Alan grew tired of her demands and moved back into the mansion, which Monica tried to unload for revenge. Alan reconciled with Susan, but had issues performing in the bedroom just as his attraction to Monica was resparked (spurred along by his jealous reaction to her fling with a handsome and quite well-off Frenchman named Philipe). "You decided to go downward and downward, and I decided to go onward and upward," Monica quipped to Alan. Edward advised him to seduce his wife, and the Qs did, indeed, renew their sexual relationship, after which Alan dumped Susan. When she was subsequently murdered, Monica adopted Jason.

Carly arrived in town in 1996 in search of her secret birth mother, Bobbie, and ingratiated herself into Bobbie’s life — and that of her hubby, Tony — while sleeping with Jason in her free time. Tony, whose marriage had never fully recovered from the loss of daughter B.J. and Bobbie’s dalliance with Damian Smith, felt himself drawn to the vibrant young woman, and she came to genuinely care for Tony, who only saw the best in her. One night, after he had a vicious fight with Bobbie, Tony and Carly became lovers. As their affair continued, he took her for a romantic rendezvous at his cabin — on his wedding anniversary, no less — and Bobbie got an awful shock when she showed up unexpectedly and found him in bed with Carly. Bobbie told them off, then cried on brother Luke’s shoulder, prompting him to decide not to disclose what he had just learned: Carly was the daughter Bobbie had given up for adoption years ago. In 1997, Carly cheated on a now-divorced Tony with A.J., and when she found out she was pregnant, she didn’t know who the father was. She scrambled to keep him in the dark and they nearly wed, but they had an ugly split at year’s end, just before she gave birth to Michael (who proved to be A.J.’s). In 1998, Carly finally came clean to Bobbie about their biological ties, and Tony went off the deep end and kidnapped Michael. When he avoided jail time, Carly went ballistic and shot him; he survived.

A perfect storm of infidelity hit Port Charles in 2006, with a domino effect that altered the course of many lives. Sam (Kelly Monaco) and Jason weren’t together, for which Sam blamed her newly discovered mother Alexis, who had asked Jason to keep his distance from Sam. One night, Alexis and Sam got into an explosive argument. After accusing her husband, Ric (Rick Hearst), of taking Sam’s side, Alexis stormed out. Ric and Sam began drinking heavily and Alexis couldn’t believe her eyes when she returned home and spied the pair having sex on the couch. Jason also showed up and Alexis distracted him, but when he returned later, he saw Sam in the throes of passion with Ric. Sam and Ric woke up awash in regret. She tore off, vowing to tell Jason, but she chickened out and left before entering his penthouse, avoiding the sight of Jason having sex with Liz, who was reeling from her own traumatic eyeful — catching her husband, Lucky, cheating with Maxie! (The Liz/Jason encounter resulted in a son, Jake.) Sam returned later, after Liz had gone, and came clean with Jason about sleeping with Ric; he told her he already knew and copped to having bedded Liz. Unaware that she’d witnessed the tryst, neither Sam nor Ric told Alexis the truth, but several months later, she revealed that she’d known all along and had it out with them both, telling Ric their marriage was over.

In 2014, A.J. tipped Carly (Laura Wright) off on his deathbed that it was Sonny (Maurice Benard, l.) who’d shot him. The ex-Mrs. Corinthos agreed to keep Sonny’s secret to preserve his bond with Michael, who she knew would not take kindly to the news that his adoptive father had killed his biological one. She took her boyfriend, Franco (Roger Howarth), into her confidence, but his jealousy flared over the renewed bond between Carly and Sonny. And with good reason: Sonny set his sights on winning Carly back, and seduced her in the home she shared with Franco. Despite her denials, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Sonny had been in his bed. Kiki found out about the affair and when Franco pressed her, she confirmed his suspicions. He promptly proposed to Carly, who accepted, and gifted her an “evil eye” necklace that, unbeknownst to her, contained a hidden camera. When she slept with Sonny again, he got irrefutable proof of her infidelity, and, as a bonus, he also recorded Sonny and Carly discussing the truth about A.J.’s demise. At the altar, when it was Franco’s turn to say, “I do,” he instead exposed her infidelity and played the video in front of Michael, who was devastated by his parents’ deception. Sonny was arrested for murder, but after he was pardoned by the governor in 2015, he and Carly tied the knot again.