Actress Kirsten Storms Loses Custody as Ex Is Granted Restraining Order
General Hospital actress Kirsten Storms is at the center of a custody dispute after her ex-husband, fellow soap opera actor Brandon Barash, was granted an emergency restraining order against her. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, a judge agreed with Barash's claims that Storms is experiencing a mental health crisis and that their shared custody arrangement poses a risk to their 12-year-old daughter.
What Brandon Barash Alleged
In his filing, Barash described a pattern of concerning behavior stretching back roughly two years. He said that from September 2024 to June 2025, Storms never maintained a permanent residence, staying instead with friends or cycling through hotels — frequently moving because she believed people were following her and their daughter to her room. Her landlord also filed an eviction lawsuit against her, and Barash says her car is on the verge of being repossessed. He noted that he had loaned her $5,000, which remains unpaid.
Barash pointed out that Storms has held recurring roles on multiple soap operas since the late 1990s and has been a well-paid actress throughout her career — making the financial instability all the more alarming in his view.
A Psychiatric Hold and a Pattern of Episodes
The most striking detail in Barash's filing involves May 19, 2025, when Storms called him and told him she was "experiencing delusions and hallucinations" and did not feel she should have their daughter for her scheduled parenting time. Barash's current wife helped Storms get into a hospital, where she was placed on a psychiatric hold. Once released, Barash says, she acted as though nothing had happened.
In November 2025, he claims Storms called him to say people were breaking into her apartment, removing items and placing them into her car to "mess with her." A friend of Storms told Barash she believed the actress was abusing Adderall and possibly other substances, and had experienced repeated episodes of "melting down, being triggered, hearing things/voices that weren't there." Just before the filing became public, Storms posted a video online claiming she had been hacked.
Adding another layer to an already complicated picture, Storms disclosed in October 2025 that she had been diagnosed with an aneurysm on the right side of her brain — a discovery her neurosurgeon made during a routine follow-up scan. The scan was related to a separate procedure: in 2021, Storms had surgery to remove a large cyst from the lower part of her brain that had split into two and was causing her frequent pain.
In a December 2025 Instagram post, she said she was holding off on surgery to address the aneurysm because it had not yet reached the size that would make the procedure mandatory. Whether her neurological history is relevant to the behavior Barash describes in his filing is not established in the court documents.
What the Court Ordered
A judge approved the emergency restraining order, and Storms is currently permitted supervised visitation only with her daughter. Barash has also asked the court to require Storms to undergo a mental health evaluation, though it is unclear whether that has taken place. The judge was scheduled to review the status of the restraining order this week.
Storms has not publicly responded to the filing. Both she and Barash starred on General Hospital — Storms has played Maxie Jones on the show since 1999, and Barash was known for his role as Johnny Zacchara. Co-parenting arrangements are often modified by courts when a judge determines that a child's welfare is at risk, and the terms here reflect the seriousness with which the court is treating Barash's claims.
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