ABC Actor Reveals He Was ‘Essentially Homeless’ After He Was Let Go From CBS Show

Gibson previously had a recurring role as Noah Newman on The Young and the Restless. 

Rory Gibson is opening up about a difficult time in his life, revealing that he was “essentially homeless” after his departure from The Young and the Restless hit around the same time as the 2023 SAG/AFTRA strikes.

The actor, who took over as Michael Corinthos on General Hospital from Chad Duell in May, revealed to co-star Maurice Benard during Monday’s episode of Bernard’s State of Mind podcast that he and his fiancée, Alicia Ruela, were forced to couch-surf “for almost a year.”

“Things got real, real bumpy for a while because we hit the strikes. I’ve never shared this publicly, but me and my fiancée were essentially homeless,” Gibson said on the podcast.

While Gibson originally graduated from a contracted role to a recurring role on The Young and the Restless as Noah Newman, he stopped being called in for the CBS soap opera at the worst possible time.

Having booked a “small role” in Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire and testing for “these big projects,” Gibson said he felt like he was “on the right road” before the strikes hit and productions shut down.

“Simultaneously, I’m not getting called in for Y&R anymore. So, all of a sudden, everything goes dry,” he continued. “I already wasn’t making a ton of money. It got to a point where [Ruela] 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.”

After almost a year of couch-surfing, Gibson said he got his feet back under him in 2024 after getting a trainer job at Barry’s Bootcamp. The actor said it was “like [he] was resetting in a strange way,” and that as the entertainment industry began to pick up after the strikes, “life got kind of comfortable again.”
Alicia Ruelas and Rory Gibson attend the Netflix Premiere of Zack Snyder’s REBEL MOON – Part One: A Child of Fire at TCL Chinese Theatre on December 13, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Netflix)
While the time was a difficult chapter in his career, Gibson said it helped him further accept life as an actor. “I’m pursuing the thing that I love and that I want to do, and that I want to make something out of my life with, and I want to enjoy what I do while simultaneously having to accept the fact that it’s going to come with a lot of trials and tribulations,” he said.

Ultimately, Gibson wasn’t feeling “terribly fulfilled” during his time at The Young and the Restless, which he said wasn’t “the most ideal situation” for him. “Whereas now, it kind of does feel that way [at General Hospital],” he continued. “I feel extremely fulfilled.”