‘General Hospital’s’ Rory Gibson Opens Up About Falling on Hard Times After Being Let Go by ‘The Young and the Restless’

Before Rory Gibson won everyone’s hearts as the new Michael Corinthos on General Hospital in 2025, from 2021-2023, he played the role of Sharon and Nick’s son, Noah Newman on The Young and the Restless, where he essentially went from contract to recurring to never seen again on the CBS soap opera.

Now, on the latest episode of Maurice Benard’s (Sonny Corinthos, GH) mental health You Tube series, State of Mind, the three-time Daytime Emmy-winning star welcomed his new TV son to the hot seat where they discussed a myriad of topics including; Rory’s tough upbringing and the difficult challenges he faced when he became an out of work actor smack dab around the time of the SAG/AFTRA actors strike in 2023.

For the first time publicly, Gibson opened up about the subject, and how he and his longtime girlfriend and fiancée, Alicia Ruela fell on very hard times, and how things ended at Y&R.

Rory shared, “Things got real, real bumpy for a while because we hit the strikes. I’ve never shared this publicly, but me and my fiancée (Alicia Ruela) were essentially homeless.”

Next, Gibson elaborated, “I was doing Y&R and then I went recurring, and I was working here and there for a little while. Then, I booked one really big one – a small role in like the Zack Snyder movie (Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire). I was pumped on it. Then, I kept testing for these big projects. I kept testing. I’m (feeling I’m) on the right road, and the (actors) strikes hit, and everything shuts down. Simultaneously, I’m not getting called in for Y&R anymore. So, all of a sudden everything goes dry. I already wasn’t making a ton of money. It got to a point where she (Alicia) was modeling professionally and that dried up too. Neither of us were making any money and we couldn’t afford a rent, and we had to bounce out. We were couch-surfing for almost a year.”

Gibson then recalled how things began to get back on track, “So that was most of 2023 and then in 2024, I ended up getting back to work as a trainer at Barry’s Bootcamp gym. It like I was resetting in a strange way. I started working there again, started doing my thing, and the industry was still really slow. Slowly, it started to pick up and life got kind of comfortable again. It was this weird acceptance of like, I’m pursuing the thing that I love (acting) and that I want to do, and that I want to make something out of my my life with, and I want to enjoy what I do while simultaneously having to accept the fact that its going to come with a lot of trials and tribulations.”

Reflecting back on hitting almost rock bottom and being scrappy and keeping his dreams alive, Rory added, “In hindsight, you look back on it and say, ‘If I hadn’t essentially been let go from Y&R and say, if I hadn’t had to couch surf for a year, and if I wasn’t broke, and I didn’t have to go through all the other stuff too,” that perhaps what awaited him wouldn’t have come.

Gibson explained, “It was just through the past five or six years of these really big ups, and then here were a lot of really lows. We lost a lot of people, and we lost dogs, and it was a weird time, but then especially getting off of Y&R, and being broke, and trying to figure everything out. Say I was still doing that show (Y&R) and everyone there is lovely. I appreciate them beyond belief. They gave me my first big job, but maybe things would’ve been the same. I wasn’t feeling terribly fulfilled over there. It wasn’t the most ideal situation for me. Whereas now (at General Hospital) it kind of does feel that way. I feel extremely fulfilled.”