General Hospital duo Josh Swickard and wife Lauren reveal how they balance multiple roles

General Hospital star Josh Swickard and his actress/producer wife, Lauren Swickard, have a busy life juggling their professional careers and their family. The couple has two small children, Savannah and Arthur, and a third on the way. The couple shared their thoughts on balancing parenthood with their careers on the Lifestyle with Ice program.

Josh Swickard loves life on General Hospital

Josh Swickard and Amanda Setton on General Hospital | Image: ABC

The program is hosted by best-selling author and life coach Roy Ice, and according to its social media, “delivers meaningful conversations on mindset, mental health, resilience, relationships, wellness, personal growth, and faith and purpose.”

The Swickards did a live interview in a Los Angeles studio in front of an audience, and the interview is posted on YouTube, which can be seen below. The couple described their careers and how they juggle things to spend quality time with their children. Swickard is a contract actor on General Hospital as Harrison Chase. He said his workload varies on the show, and some weeks are busier than others.

Josh also noted that having a consistent acting role on GH means that he doesn’t have to travel and be away from home for other acting jobs.

“Reason 7,000 I’m so grateful to be on GH is we film here,’ he said. “While we really have young kids, it’s super important to me. I don’t want to sacrifice my career, but my priorities are where I don’t want to be in Bangladesh shooting for six months.”

Lauren recurred on General Hospital in 2023 as Janice, a nurse at the Ferncliff mental hospital who helped Sasha (Sofia Mattsson) when she was wrongfully imprisoned there. She does most of her work nowadays writing and producing, most recently on the TV series County Rescue and Casa Grande, which Kate Mansi (Kristina Corinthos-Davis) starred in before joining GH.

“When she’s off, she works less,” Josh said. “When she’s on, she’s gone. Which is nice because when she’s gone, we can focus. We have four weeks of heck and then we can get back to life.”

"Josh is superdad when I’m not there, doing the parenting and taking care of the home," Lauren said. "When I’m on it’s a lot, and Josh takes a lot, and he’s the main caretaker. And when I’m off, I have a lot of space to take care of the family, enjoy the house.”

The couple also talked about how they prioritize their marriage over their careers.

Ice and his cohost, relationship counselor Mike Tucker, praised their approach to parenting. They discussed how important the first seven years of a child’s life are to their long-term emotional and mental development, and how important it is for parents to set a solid foundation. Swickard said he can act his entire life, and he will have more time to do other projects once the kids are older.

General Hospital, from contender to co-star

Josh Swickard screen-tested with Finola Hughes (Anna) and Steve Burton (Jason) on GH | Image: JPI

To end the program, Roy Ice gave a monologue with tips for anyone who struggles to balance careers with raising children.

When they weren’t discussing parenting tips. Josh described how his acting career began when he was modeling in Illinois and how he ended up as Chase.

He said when he began on GH that he had no idea about the legacy of the show. He recalled screen-testing with legends Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) and Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) and not knowing who they were. But he has learned to love the genre and the people he works with.

“The talent that is on that show,” Josh said. “Every year, my gratitude gets deeper and more real. Coming up on seven years, I’m on cloud nine.”

The Swickards met while starring together in the Netflix movie Ropes in 2017. They played a couple who meet and fall in love in that film and quickly became a real-life couple, marrying in 2019.

They described how Josh was the second choice for the male lead in that film, and had to show up to set with only a few days’ notice after the first choice backed out. The couple shared how grateful they were that it didn’t work out with the original actor.

They talked a lot about their first impressions of each other, and how impressed she was by the way he prepared to play the role of an expert cowboy, taking roping lessons and looking the part.

They have since starred as a couple in two Netflix films, A California Christmas and its sequel, A California Christmas: City Lights.

Josh also talked a lot about his family, including his 100-year old grandfather Art. He described being in Guatemala several years ago, working with a church with his father, who is a pastor. He talked about being there to help people whose homes had been destroyed by a volcano. Josh was impressed with the positive attitude they had: “I’m royally bummed if my coffee’s cold in the morning,” he joked.