General Hospital Relationship Timeline: Julian And Alexis
"General Hospital" is known for having amazing, fan-favorite super couples. There have been several over the years, including Robert and Anna, Frisco and Felicia, Jason and Sam, Sonny and Carly, and of course, Luke and Laura, just to name a few. Action, adventure, intrigue, espionage, and romance have filled all of their lives and storylines, per Fame 10.
While the characters Julian Jerome (William deVry) and Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn) are no longer a couple due to Julian's death, they did rank No. 37 out of 45 on Soaps She Knows' list of the greatest super couples in soaps. TV Guide not only considered them a super couple as well, but also posed the question as to whether or not Julian was the love of Alexis' life.
From an anonymous one-night stand all the way to attempted murder, theirs was a dysfunctional and tragic love story that spanned several decades, and still has repercussions today. Even when apart, their electricity has been palpable (via TV Insider). Let's take a look at Julian and Alexis' maladjusted relationship from the beginning.
A chance one-night stand
Julian Jerome, son of mob boss Victor Jerome (Jack Axelrod), first appeared on "General Hospital" in 1988 as portrayed by Jason Culp, son of the popular actor Robert Culp. William deVry took over the role in 2013. Per Soaps in Depth, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Julian (who had previously been shielded from his family's criminal activities) joined his father and sister Olivia St. John (Tonja Walker) in their illegal pursuits. After Victor's death, Julian became head of the Jerome Crime Family.
Alexis Davis was a lawyer who first appeared on "GH" in 1996 to defend Kevin Collins (Jon Lindstrom) from allegations of stalking. She has been portrayed by Nancy Lee Grahn ever since. Alexis is the daughter of megalomaniac Mikkos Cassadine (John Colicos) through an affair with singer Kristin Nilsson, his mistress. Upon learning of this, Mikkos' jealous wife Helena Cassadine (Constance Towers), cut Kristin's throat as a young Alexis watched in horror (via Soap Central).
According to Soap Opera Spy, prior to both characters appearing on "GH," in 1979 16-year-old Alexis snuck away from her American boarding school and went to a bar where she first met Julian, got drunk, and the two ended up in the back seat of his car, all without knowing each other's names. As a result, Alexis became pregnant and Mikkos forced her to give the baby up for adoption. Years later she would learn that the child was Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco), per Blasting News.
Fate brings a startling revelation
According to Michael Fairman TV, the Jerome crime family terrorized Port Charles for quite some time until Julian Jerome and a Duke Lavery impersonator, Jonathan Paget (Greg Beercroft), faced off in a lethal showdown. Julian had been declared dead but was secretly whisked away to the witness protection program. At the time of his "death," he had no idea that he fathered a child with Cheryl Stansbury (Jennifer Anglin), the sister of Tiffany Hill (Sharon Wyatt).
Returning to Port Charles in 2013, under the orders of a mysterious benefactor, his face altered by plastic surgery, and going by the name Derek Wells, Julian worked to take down the Corinthos organization. Meanwhile, Alexis Davis had cemented herself as the lawyer for mob boss Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). Kristina Davis (Lexi Ainsworth), the daughter of Alexis and Sonny, was suffering from Leukemia and only a bone marrow transplant could save her. However, none of the close family members were a match, but the stem cells from the recently stillborn baby of Sonny and Sam's were viable and helped save Kristina. This made Alexis realize that there was a connection between her and Sam. She had previously confided with her former husband Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) that she had a baby in 1980 and had to give it up for adoption, so he convinced her to try and track down the child (per Soap Opera Digest).
All this paved the way for Julian and Alexis to be reunited.
Secrets revealed
A few years later, Sam's son Danny also needed a bone marrow transplant, and this time Derek Wells was the one who saved the day when it was revealed that he was actually Julian Jerome and was Sam's father. He also learned that he had a son with Cheryl named Lucas Jones who had been raised by Bobbie Jones (Jacklyn Zeman) and Tony Jones (Brad Maule), per Sun Sentinel.
Now that the truth about Sam's parentage had been revealed, and Derek Wells' true identity was uncovered, he and Alexis Davis began an on-again-off-again relationship that was listed by Fame 10 as one of the most toxic relationships on "General Hospital."
According to Soap Opera Spy, although Alexis was constantly trying to distance herself from men who had mob ties, she couldn't help feeling the chemistry between herself and Julian. Theirs was a steamy affair that constantly amazed the viewers. Their children collectively approved of their relationship, and the attraction was undeniable. Sadly, while Julian attempted several times to break his ties with the mafia, he would constantly find himself pulled back in.
Per Soaps In Depth, Julian had finally convinced Alexis that he had gone legit and severed all mob ties. Because of this, she agreed to marry him and they were wed, despite the fact that an affair he had with Olivia Falconeri (Lisa LoCicero) brought a son named Leo into the world.
Julian could never get out from under evil's control
For Julian, sadly, things would never work out because he was always under the thumb of a criminal mastermind. It was revealed that the benefactor who brought him back to Port Charles was an alternate personality of Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) who had been pulling strings for years in an attempt to take down Sonny Corinthos (via Daytime Confidential). Julian's long-thought dead sister Olivia was also alive and well, and came back to town blackmailing him to commit yet more heinous crimes, including forcing him to try to kill Alexis with the very knife Helena used to kill her mother.
This was the end for Julian and Alexis and even though he turned over a new leaf by buying Charlie's Pub and attempting to be a humble businessman, he still found himself caught up in such things as covering up his son-in-law's baby swap and planting a bomb at a local restaurant that killed several people under orders of the evil mobster Cyrus Renault (Jeff Kober), whose intended target was Sonny's enforcer, Jason Morgan (Steve Burton). All of this just made things worse for Julian and he ended up in a confrontation with Sonny atop a footbridge that ultimately collapsed into the river just after Sonny shot him (via Soaps She Knows).
Alexis continues to move forward
Prior to the footbridge incident, Julian had transformed into an almost upstanding citizen for the love of Kim Nero (Tamara Braun). However, she'd betrayed him by cheating on him and planned to move to Manhattan. At this point, it was speculated by Soap Dirt that a return of Julian and Alexis was possible.
Alexis also had bad luck in the relationship department over the years as she found herself not only pregnant from a fling with Sonny, then later with his equally mob-tied half-brother, Rick Lansing. She left poor Ned Ashton (Wally Kurth) standing at the altar of their wedding, got smitten by ruthless killer Jerry Jax (Sebastian Roche), and mob kingpin Lorenzo Alcazar (Ted King) — but Julian was the bad boy that really stole her heart and she couldn't resist returning to him time and time again (via Soaps She Knows).
Alexis was finally able to attribute a great deal of her trauma and poor choices in men to her evil father, although she did recall a time when Mikkos had a tender moment with her mother just before Helena killed Kristin. As Michael Fairman TV points out, psychiatrist Kevin Collins reminded her that not every guy in her life was a toxic person. While Julian is gone, Alexis Davis is a strong character that will continue on. The steamy chemistry between Julian and Alexis will always have a fond, yet dysfunctional, place in the hearts of fans (per Celeb Dirty Laundry).