Update Shocking! MINUTES AGO: Ingo Rademacher Presents Compelling Evidence to Reopen His Lawsuit Against ABC.
Former General Hospital star Ingo Rademacher (ex-Jax) is requesting that his lawsuit against ABC for alleged wrongful termination be reopened and has brought former co-star Steve Burton (Jason) into the mix as well.
Rademacher originally joined the cast of GH as Jasper “Jax” Jacks back in 1996 and remained with the soap until 2013. He returned for a brief stint in 2016 and then returned to GH in 2019.
However, in November 2021, it was announced that he was let go for not agreeing to comply with the Disney/ABC COVID-19 vaccine mandate that was in effect at the time for safety reasons during the height of the pandemic.
The following month, Rademacher sued ABC, claiming his request for a religious exemption from the vaccine was denied and arguing religious and disability discrimination as well as political retaliation.
In January 2023, ABC asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, arguing that Rademacher’s beliefs regarding the vaccine were not religious in nature and that GH was already considering writing him off the show anyway.
And by June, an L.A. Superior Court judge ruled in the network’s favor.
Sister site InTouch.com is now reporting that Rademacher is demanding the case be reopened and new evidence be considered that “provides compelling support for his political discrimination claim: namely, evidence that ABC rehired Steve Burton, the other General Hospital actor it let go supposedly because of its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.”
Like Rademacher, Burton also declined to comply with the mandatory vaccine policy but did not sue the network for letting him go. Instead, he spent his time away from Port Charles reprising his role of Harris Michaels on Days of Our Lives.
But in January 2024, it was announced that Burton was returning to GH as Jason, as the vaccine mandate had been lifted.
Rademacher is also alleging that GH producers discussed recasting the role of Jax and were planning to fire him before the vaccine mandate was instituted, insisting his axing was politically motivated.
ABC is naturally opposing his attempts to reopen the case, but his appeal is ongoing.
