Most divorced couples quietly unfollow each other and never look back. General Hospital & Beyond The Gates star Jon Lindstrom and Days of Our Lives actress Cady McClain are not like most divorced couples. Two years after announcing their split, these two daytime legends are sitting at the same dinner table, smiling for cameras and looking genuinely delighted about it. McClain posted the photo on Instagram, and the entire soap world immediately had thoughts.
The Caption That Said Everything
McClain did not just post the photo quietly. She leaned into it completely and called Lindstrom her “rather talented and kind ex-husband” with the kind of unbothered confidence that most people spend years trying to find after a divorce.
McClain also acknowledged that their close friendship might confuse people and addressed that crowd directly. “if it baffles you… I can’t help you.” She also took a quiet but pointed shot at anyone who needs relationships to fit neat categories, writing that she is “more comfortable out of the box.” Beyond The Gates castmate Daphnée Duplaix replied in the comments with “Warms my heart.” And the internet agreed.
The dinner was not just the two of them either. They were joined by Daytime Emmy-winning makeup artist Eldo Rey Estes, who led the team at As the World Turns, and Daytime Emmy-winning producer Carol Shure from both All My Children and ATWT.
This was a table full of daytime royalty having what McClain described simply as “a lovely dinner and a very fine time.” No drama. No awkwardness. Just four soap opera veterans enjoying each other’s company.
Days Of Our Lives News: A Love Story Written Entirely on Soap Sets
Their story reads like it was scripted by a daytime writer, and honestly, it might as well have been. McClain and Lindstrom first crossed paths briefly on the All My Children set in the early 2000s. She was playing the iconic Dixie Cooney Martin while he was there, shadowing a director.
They barely connected then, but the universe clearly had other plans. The real spark came at As the World Turns in 2008 when Lindstrom joined the cast as Craig Montgomery opposite McClain’s Rosanna Cabot. Chemistry does not lie.
They got engaged in 2012 and married on Valentine’s Day 2014 because, of course, they did. Even during the pandemic, their careers found ways to intertwine. In 2020, on Days of Our Lives, Lindstrom stepped in as a body double for Matthew Ashford’s Jack in a kissing scene with McClain’s Jennifer Deveraux. Only in daytime television does your husband become your leading man’s stand-in. It is the kind of detail that makes their story genuinely unlike anyone else’s in the industry.
Beyond The Gates News: The Split, The Achievements and Life After Together
In April 2024, the couple announced their separation after ten years of marriage in a since-deleted Instagram post. They wrote that their goals had been pulling them in different directions and kept the statement dignified throughout. At the time, Lindstrom remained based in Los Angeles, continuing his work on General Hospital, while McClain had been spending significant time in New York. Two careers, two cities, two different paths forward. But the split was gracious, even if it hurt.
Both have continued building remarkable careers since. Lindstrom earned three Daytime Emmy nominations in 2019, 2020 and 2023 for his General Hospital work and recently published his debut novel, Hollywood Hustle. McClain won a Daytime Emmy for Days of Our Lives in 2021 and claimed another for All My Children back in 1990.
Now both stars share the screen again on Beyond The Gates, reunited by creator Michele Val Jean, who previously wrote for Lindstrom’s twin characters Kevin and Ryan on General Hospital. Val Jean tapped both for the show’s original cast in 2025, calling them “soap opera icons and brilliant actors” and admitting they are “two of my favorite people on the planet.” With a post-divorce dinner photo this warm, that description feels very easy to believe.
General Hospital fans and Days of Our Lives loyalists have followed both of these careers across decades of daytime drama, and this chapter may be the most genuinely impressive one yet. A decade of marriage, a graceful split and a friendship strong enough to survive all of it. That dinner photo is not just sweet. It is a whole statement. Stay tuned to Soap Opera Daily for every update on Jon Lindstrom, Cady McClain, Beyond The Gates and the world of daytime television they both continue to shape.