Tweet This Page

Carly Roberts Corinthos Jacks AKA Caroline Benson

Played by Sarah Brown/Tamara Braun/Jennifer Bransford/Laura Wright

Carly came to town in 1996 (then played by Sarah Brown) to track down her birth mother, Bobbie. Carly was pretty screwed-up. She had a loving mother in Florida where she grew up, but growing up without a father and finding out she was adopted left her with scars and an empty emotional void. It didn't help that her best friend, Carly, died in a car accident and she blamed herself for that. Born Caroline Benson, Carly decided to take her friend's name, Carly Roberts, and head to Port Charles.

We didn't know all of this about Carly when she first arrived, however. We knew she was up to something, but we didn't know what. She got a job at General Hospital and seemed to be studying to be a nurse, which put her close to her mother, Bobbie. The two did not get along well and Carly seemed to be a lazy whiner.

We soon came to find out that Carly was pretty good at two things: lying and messing up her own life. First Carly decided to seduce her step-father, Tony Jones (Bobbie's husband). Tony and Bobbie were having marital problems, and they still did not know that Carly was Bobbie's daughter. Tony was having a mid-life crisis, and he fell for Carly. The two were engaged to marry and moved in together. Tony even wrote a song for her and played it on his guitar. But Carly had other plans...

After spilling the beans to Bobbie about being her daughter and then rubbing her nose in the fact that she had stolen her husband, Carly kept treating Bobbie like dirt and refusing to have anything to do with her. She and her new uncle Luke did not get along well, either.

One night while drunk, and angry at Tony, Carly went to the pool hall Jake's and slept with a total stranger, A.J. Quartermaine. A.J. didn't even remember their night together because he was so drunk himself. Later, she also slept with another handsome stranger, Jason Morgan (A.J.'s brother). Carly got pregnant and wasn't sure which of the three men was the father!

Carly soon learned that she couldn't stand A.J. and that she was through with Tony, so she wanted the baby to be Jason's. She found out it was A.J.'s and knew that if he found that out, he would try to take the baby from her (since he comes from the wealthy and powerful Quartermaine family). She switched some paternity tests to make it seem like it was Jason's baby. Tony was devastated to find out that it wasn't his. A.J. was completely clueless to the whole thing because of her lying about the blood type.

Jason found out the truth but had sworn not to break Carly's confidence. He knew that A.J. was not a fit parent, anyway, and that the Quartermaines would try to take the child. Carly kept trying to get Jason to love her, but his heart was already taken by Robin. Eventually, Robin found out the truth and told A.J. that little Michael was his.

In the meantime, impending mother seemed to soften Carly, so she made up with Bobbie. Unfortunately, her adopted mother Virginia died about the same time while visiting Port Charles. After Carly had her baby, she was struck by post-partum depression and refused to touch her baby. She then fled town, leaving the baby in Jason's care.

After Carly returned, now played by Tamara Braun, a long custody battle with A.J. ensued. At one point, Carly came up with the plan to marry A.J. in order to get custody, or his money, or something like that...the story kept changing. Jason was in on the plan but kept telling her it was a bad idea, like most of her plans. She and A.J. did marry and for a time they actually seemed like they might be in love, but things did not work out, due to both of them being so self-destructive.

When Sonny returned to Port Charles after an absence, he and Carly did not get along at all. Sonny values honest above all else and Carly was a manipulative liar. They were constantly forced into each other's company because of their mutual friendship for Jason. At one point, they had a huge fight and the passion of the fight ended up in a different kind of passion. They instantly regretted their impulsive display. Jason and Carly had been working on a relationship at that point, so it was a betrayal to him. Jason left town, upset with them both. Carly got pregnant after her one-night-stand, and she and Sonny slowly seemed to get along better. She went to confront A.J. At one point, they got into an argument at the top of the stairs. A.J. was drunk, and she was baiting him. They were both pushing each other's buttons. He went to grab her and she fell backwards, down the stairs. She lost Sonny's baby.

At one point she also shot Tony Jones, almost shot A.J., and was in a mental ward.

After that, she and Sonny had a lot of grieving to go through, but it seemed to bring them closer together. It took them a long long time before they admitted they loved each other. They only got married so that she couldn't testify against him in court (I forget why), but at that point they already loved each other (even though they couldn't admit it). Eventually they admitted their feelings.

In the meantime, Sonny kidnapped A.J. and made him sign a paper that gave Carly full custody of Michael. He then adopted Michael as his own son.

The couple have had a rocky road. Carly kept trying to get pregnant and tried not to lie to Sonny. She and Sonny keep arguing and fighting. She got scared by Sonny's dangerous lifestyle, so she came up with a stupid idea to force him to give information to the FBI so that they would have to go into the witness protection program (it didn't make much sense then, either). To Sonny this was the ultimate betrayal, especially after what happened with Brenda, his former fiancée who had done almost the same thing. They separated for a long time and came very close to divorce. Sonny grew closer to his attorney, Alexis, and Carly grew to be good friends with Zander and also Jax, who backed her new nightclub. Sonny even had a one-night-stand with Alexis, which Carly inadvertently walked in on. She was upset and ended up sending her car over a cliff. They thought she was dead, so she let them think that for a few days, to punish Sonny.

Eventually, the two almost divorced but decided they loved each other too much to go through with it. Their marriage seemed fairly solid but several things threatened it, such as Brenda's return and Alexis' baby, which Carly and Sonny don't know was his. Carly is very insecure and probably always will be, so these things usually cause her to freak out and so something stupid again.

Carly has grown a lot since she came to town. While she still has these impulses to lie and cause pain for herself and others, she generally ignores them now. She has learned from her mistakes. But what keeps her interesting is that we know she has that little voice in her head that wants to go back to being the bad old Carly. She is always drawn back to Sonny. She depends on both Sonny and Jason's friendship and counsel.

Carly got pregnant with Sonny's son, Morgan, but his brother Ric kidnapped her and kept her in his house's panic room. He intended to kill her and steal her baby so that he and his wife, Elizabeth, could raise it on their own. Lorenzo Alcazar rescued Carly and they fell in love. He helped deliver her baby. Unfortunately, Sonny thought that Lorenzo was hurting her, so he shot at him, hitting Carly in the head, so Carly was in a coma for a while after she gave birth. Carly and Lorenzo were together for a while. Carly was played for a while by Jennifer Bransford. She became mentally unstable, thanks to Faith's drugging her, and she had to be committed. Lorenzo rescued her, but she was always drawn back to Sonny, so she and Lorenzo eventually broke up.

Carly found her biological father, John Durant. He was a Federal prosecutor but also became D.A. in the town for a while. He hated Sonny and wanted to bring him down. He was a bit obsessed, though, and a little corrupt. He loved Carly but was killed in a shoot-out. Carly's children were also kidnapped, which was a horrible thing for her to go through.

In 2005, Laura Wright started playing Carly. She made the role her own. The role seemed to be written much stronger with her playing Carly. Sometimes she comes over like a harpy and seldom shows her softer side.

Carly had good instincts when she didn't trust Sonny's new girlfriend, Reese, but no one listened to her. They just thought she was jealous. It turned out that Carly had been seduced by Reese's father when she was a teenager, back in Florida. This broke up Reese's happy family. Reese got into a terrible car accident after talking to Carly, and her mother angrily told her father that Reese was dead, so he killed himself. Carly once again had a mental breakdown.  Reese ended up dying in a terrible train crash.

Carly was briefly taking care of her dead friend Courtney's son, but it turned out that the father was Nikolas, so he took custody of the boy, which kind of broke Carly's heart. She and Jax bonded over the boy and fell in love. It took a very long time, but they eventually were married. Their relationship has always been rocky.

Carly fell back into bed with Sonny during a hostage crisis with Jax's brother Jerry, and both realized it was a mistake. She told Jax the truth about it, for once, and they finally got married.

Her son Michael was shot and went into a coma for over a year, and she blamed Sonny. This was a really terrible time for Carly. She has always been a good mother, above all else. Carly got pregnant with Jax' daughter, Josslyn. It was a tough pregnancy, but Josslyn survived and was born. Carly had a bitter foe with Sonny's wife Claudia. She turned out to be the one who shot Michael. She helped Carly give birth to Josslyn and then tried to steal the baby, but Michael stopped her by hitting her over the head. She died, and Michael went to prison.

Michael's coma, trying to get over it, and then going to prison, has all been very difficult for Carly. She always worries about him and particularly wanted to protect him from Sonny's life.

Josslyn got very sick from kidney cancer, so Carly had to beg Elizabeth, Lucky and Jason to let Jake save her life. Jake had just been declared brain dead after being run over by a car.  He saved Josslyn, so Carly and Jax were very grateful.

Carly is always running to Jason when she needs help. Even though she can be exasperating, they are great friends. She is always jealous of Sonny and Jason's relationships with other women. Carly doesn't generally get along with women, but she has hit it off okay with Olivia. She and Jax owned the Metro Court Hotel together but when he left town, he sold his part of it to Kate, knowing that it would annoy Carly. Carly hates Robin, Sam, Elizabeth, and Kate especially.

Carly fought Jax for custody when they were breaking up. Sonny helped her by destroying Jax and his reputation by planting drugs and other things.  Jax eventually gave up and left town. He tried to kidnap Josslyn but Shawn rescued her. Sonny tried to kill Jax, but he survived. However, he's been out of town ever since. It's been hard for Carly, who still loves him.

Carly was attracted to her bodyguard, Shawn, but they never acted on it. She has been dating Johnny, Sonny's enemy, but he betrayed her by sleeping with Kate.

Back to the General Hospital Character Descriptions Page

Back to the Main General Hospital Page

Page updated 5/12/12