After spending just over twelve years as a writer at “The Bold and the Beautiful,” Michele Val Jean is putting away her keyboard when it comes to writing material surrounding the Forresters, the Logans and the Spencers, among other families and characters featured in the popular CBS daytime drama series.
On Wednesday, it was revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that Val Jean would be leaving the soap where she had been a scriptwriter since January 2012, and comes fresh off the news that Patrick Mulcahey, her former colleague at both “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “General Hospital,” would now be spearheading the writing for long-running series alongside the show’s longest-tenured writer Elizabeth Korte.
Val Jean has yet to formally announce plans for what’s next in her life and career, particularly whether she’s looking to return to “General Hospital” to join Mulcahey and Korte as the show prepares for a creative overhaul or if this is her swan song as she enjoys the fulfilling world of retirement.
“I just read on IG that @MicheleValJean is leaving #BoldandBeautiful,” wrote soap fan and content creator Matt Hanvey, who first shared the news on X (formerly Twitter). “It seems like yesterday when you came on board, but that was so long ago now. Thanks for all the years of scripts! Can’t wait to see what you do next!”
In response to Hanvey’s tweet, Val Jean said, “Thanks, Matt. It’s been a great ride. Xoxo.” She later posted a separate tweet where she thanked the fans for all the love and great memories, saying, “Thank you all for the [roses, sunflowers, flower bouquet emojis]. It means so much.”
Launching her soap writing career in 1989 as a scriptwriter for NBC’s “Generations,” Val Jean would go on to have a short run as a breakdown writer and scriptwriter at “Santa Barbara” before joining the writing team at “General Hospital” in 1993.
Clink Boom!
On the ABC soap, Val Jean wrote or had a hand in writing several of the show’s most infamous storylines from the 1990s, including the Elizabeth rape storyline and the infamous “Clink Boom,” where Jax and Brenda (Ingo Rademacher and Vanessa Marcil) have just gotten married on a yacht and clink their glasses of champagne in celebration just as the car owned by Brenda’s then-ex Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) explodes with the mobster’s wife sitting in the driver’s seat not knowing that she had just turned the key that would ignite her right off the face of the earth.
“I mentioned this before in another context but since you’re talking about it, Guza knew he wanted #clinkboom. We (the headwriting team) worked backward to figure out how to get there. Great times,” said Val Jean on X (formerly Twitter) in 2019 of the iconic episode.
As for the Elizabeth storyline, Val Jean noted in a November 2021 post, “The immediate pick up of Elizabeth’s rape that started with her crawling out of the bushes looking for Audrey’s bracelet and Lucky happening by. Because it was so personal. My DNA was all over that episode.”
After nearly a decade at “General Hospital,” Val Jean was named the show’s co-head writer alongside Elizabeth Korte. However, their run was cut short (January 2001-April 2001) when they were replaced by Megan McTavish (“All My Children”), who had previously worked under the show’s then newly-installed executive producer Jill Farren Phelps while the two oversaw writing and production at sister soap “One Life to Live.” At the time, Val Jean had become the first, and still only, African American in television history to hold the postition of head writer or co-head writer at an American soap opera.
Throughout her career, Val Jean has been honored with seven Daytime Emmy Awards as part of the Outstanding Writing Team for both “General Hospital” (1995, 1999, 2003, 2009) and “The Bold and Beautiful” (2015, 2016, 2020), having been nominated 17 times overall.