Exclusive Interview
‘GH’s Lynn Herring Reminisces on Life With Husband Wayne Northrop: ‘Daytime Gave Us That’
General Hospital‘s Lucy Coe may not be the luckiest in love, but in real life, her portrayer, Lynn Herring, enjoyed 43 years of happy marriage to Wayne Northrop (ex-Roman Brady/Alex North, Days of our Lives; ex-Rex Stanton, Port Charles; ex-Michael Culhane, Dynasty) before he died on November 29, 2024.
The couple, who met in acting class, tied the knot on May 9, 1981. They welcomed son Hank, who will appear on Days of our Lives this fall in a new role, in January 1991, and another son, Grady, in July 1993. “The memories are so amazing,” Herring tells Swooon. “Wayne and the boys and I had such an awesome life that we crammed more in, I think, than most people do in his 77 years.”
Keeping busy in Port Charles has helped Herring through some of her more difficult hours since Northrop’s death, and another bright spot for the actress has been seeing Hank thrive at DAYS. “He actually worked one day when I was doing The Nurses’ Ball, and it was like a little gift from Wayne,” Herring shares. “Hank called me from the set when they were on a break, and I thought. ‘How magical that you get to have your child fulfilling a dream that he’s had all his life, and then I get to be doing what I love on the same day.’ That was the best. It was just such a special day.”
Lisa Rose / JPI
Because Northrop and Herring’s ties to Salem run deep—he played Roman Brady from 1981-1984 and 1991-1994, then Alex North from 2005-2006, and she portrayed Lisanne Gardner in 1992—having Hank on set is a full-circle moment for the family. “It means so much,” notes Herring. “Scott McKinsey is a director that was from our show [GH], and he also directed Hank. And Scott told Hank, ‘Daytime’s given so much to so many,’ and Hank said right back, ‘My parents were given so much through it. And it’s just continuing.'”
“That’s been the best about Hank doing DAYS,” she continues. “All of them knew Wayne’s sense of humor there. That’s the first thing they said, that he brought a joy and lightness every day. And I know people probably saw that twinkle when he was on the screen doing Roman or Michael on Dynasty or different things, but his deep love of making people laugh and making people comfortable, it translated through Hank’s experience at DAYS, and I think for me, the lightness he brought to life got us through a lot of really interesting times. He was just a good friend to so many people.”
Hank echoes his mother’s assessment of his father. “Even when he was going through this terrible disease of Alzheimer’s, the one thing he never lost was his sense of humor,” Hank relays. “That was always there. He’d be shooting finger guns at people and just joking around the whole time up until his very last days. He always had a smile and always was teasing people with his sense of humor.”
As she looks back on her love story with Northrop, Herring marvels at how it has touched the fans who have supported their union from the start. “When I say we were married over 40 years, it sounds so ridiculous, so amazing, but the audience has been on that journey, too,” she points out. “The journey has been all of us together kind of going through this world of daytime, and I’m just in awe of it. I feel so grateful and just lucky.”
And she’s blessed with memories of Northrop everywhere she looks on the working ranch they called home. “If you could see spring at the ranch, it was Wayne’s favorite time,” she notes. “It’s just so emotional because this is what we built together, and daytime gave us that.”
