It’s been three years since General Hospital paired Kelly Monaco’s Sam with Dominic Zamprogna’s Dante. The couple seemingly came out of nowhere after Kelly had been paired with leads Steve Burton and Billy Miller.

Dominic Zamprogna explained how he and Kelly Monaco got close in real life and about their last scenes together.

"She's a remarkable person. She's tough as nails and admirable in so many ways, and it’s been cool to become a friend of hers. And that won't end," Zamprogna said of Monaco

Fellow General Hospital star Wally Kurth, who has played Ned Quartermaine on and off since 1991, told Us Weekly that “you can’t take it personally” when it comes to losing an acting gig.

Since General Hospital paired Sam and Dante, their portrayers had grown closer than ever before. “You become fast friends with people that you work with like that,” Dominic Zamprogna tells Soap Opera Digest.

Kelly Monaco was “amazing” to the very end of her 21-year General Hospital run, says leading man Dominic Zamprogna. Fans of the long-running ABC sudser first met Monaco’s Sam on Oct. 1, 2003, having previously seen Monaco plat Livvie Locke on the GH spinoff Port Charles.

General Hospital fans experienced a tearjerker for the ages last week when Sam McCall unexpectedly died after donating part of her liver to an ailing Lulu Spencer. Kelly Monaco's final scenes as Sam