General Hospital's Eden McCoy Has Grown Up Before Our Eyes
Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy) is the perfect mix of her two parents, Jasper Jacks (Ingo Rademacher) and Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright) on "General Hospital." She's pragmatic like her father, but she's also a risk-taker like her mother. Eden McCoy's co-star Laura Wright told Soap Opera Digest in May 2023 that she knew right away that the young actor would fit right in with the rest of the cast after meeting her in 2015. She recalled, "I do remember her on that first day, but it wasn't until the storyline where Josslyn had friends at the house and was drinking and got caught with a beer bottle in the couch or something where I was like, 'Okay! Now we have an actor!'"
McCoy might have only been 12 at the time, but she jumped right into her work. As a fresh-faced pre-teen, McCoy didn't hide her excitement about being cast on the show. "I still can't believe it but please watch me as Josslyn Jacks in my first episode of General Hospital on ABC Wednesday," she said on her Facebook page, adding, "I am very grateful to be a part of this amazing cast and show — much more to come — I love my GH family already."
However, the Josslyn that everyone first saw when she made her debut on "General Hospital" is certainly not the same Josslyn that fans see today.
Eden McCoy has spent nearly a decade on screen
After having spent time in Australia with her father, Jasper Jacks, Josslyn Jacks returned to the fictional town of Port Charles just in time to see her mother, Carly Corinthos, marry Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) in 2015, according to Soaps in Depth. Josslyn was already old enough to understand what Sonny did for a living and how dangerous it was, and that's why she was so concerned about her mother's safety. Off-screen, Eden McCoy admitted that working with the formidable Maurice Benard was just as intimidating. She told Soap Opera Digest, "Maurice was super-scary and intimidating to me at first. And like I've said a million times, now, in our relationship, he's just a sweetheart."
While she wasn't filming scenes for "General Hospital," McCoy's personal life definitely kept her busy and on her toes. In 2018, she revealed that she was deciding to attend the University of Southern California and play beach volleyball, according to Soap Opera News. That same year, she broke up with her long-term boyfriend and decided to focus on school and work to keep her mind off of it. In 2019, she also scored a Daytime Emmy nomination. She told Soap Central that she was floored by the news. "I just gasped and sat in silence for like five minutes, not even believing what I had just seen," she said at the time.
Eden McCoy has no plans to leave Port Charles
Josslyn Jacks is a character that has certainly followed in her mother's footsteps on "General Hospital," as Joss has also had quite a love life, one that nearly rivals her mom. No one would have ever guessed that Joss would have been the first person to have a sex tape on the show, but McCoy told TV Insider that it was a storyline that was worth telling. She said, "I'm super happy with this [story] because this hasn't been done ... I feel like the teen pregnancy thing has been used." If that drama wasn't enough, fans are also suspicious that Joss was behind Sonny's recent arrest. However, McCoy hinted to Soaps that her character wasn't responsible.
Putting her stepfather in jail, dealing with a sex tape, and trying to juggle college life in Port Charles is all in a day's work for Eden McCoy as Joss. And just to think, off-screen she's a USC student, too. Now, how long McCoy will stay on "General Hospital" is anyone's guess, but the actor did say that she will stay on the soap for as long as the soap wants her. While speaking to "The Chat" podcast back in 2022, McCoy said, "I just signed a new three-year contract, [so fans have] nothing to worry about ... I just love them [school and 'GH'] too much not to do them both."