Alley, 74, gave a heartfelt speech on this year’s Daytime Emmy Awards stage on Friday when she accepted her trophy for Outstanding Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series. The actress beat out performers Linden Ashby, Clint Howard, Jacqueline Grace Lopez, Valarie Pettiford, and Avery Kristen Pohl, who were also nominated for the award.

The small screen star was acknowledged for her performance as Heather Webber on General Hospital, which is a role she’s been portraying since 1980 after taking over for Robin Mattson.

During her acceptance speech Alley praised her on-screen family and real life one, admitting that she was “honestly surprised” about her win while speaking on the Pasadena Civic Auditorium stage in Pasadena, California.

Alley made sure to honor her late husband, Orson Bean, also. Orsen died in 2020 after he was struck and killed by a car in Los Angeles, California. “I just got to give him love . . . I miss you baby,” she said.

“My favorite thing about Heather is just how incredibly smart she is,” she told the news outlet. “When I started reading the scripts, I think she’s just the smartest card in the deck, and she knows it. But she’s also clearly not balanced and adept at manipulating people in a very smart way.”

Alley added, “It’s tremendous fun to play someone that smart who has no fear. She’s kind of like a blank check. She has no boundaries, and that’s a tremendous thing to play,” she added at the time. “I also think she has a big heart. She has killed six peopl,e but she has a heart of gold.”

This year’s Daytime Emmy Award isn’t the first one that she got for her role as Heather. She also won the Daytime Emmy for the character in 2023, and was nominated for the character again in 2024. However, last year, she lost the trophy to Dick Van Dyke.

Last year, General Hospital fans had much to say about Heather’s storyline on the long-running daytime program. During an episode that aired in October 2024, fans were floored over Alley’s character being officially released from prison after serving many years imprisoned for her crimes in Port Charles.

Throughout different seasons, Heather has been involved in killing police officer Ross Duncan and framing Edward’s granddaughter, kidnapping Skye, selling her baby on the black market, having an affair, and much more.