Jennifer Morrison Explains Decision to Leave 'Once Upon a Time'

Jennifer Morrison spoke with TV Line about her decision to leave Once Upon a Time.

The 38-year-old actress explained why exactly she made the decision to leave the series and she has been starring on the show since the beginning.

“It’s a tricky decision to make, because all those things are very attractive. But the other side of that is I did six years on House, I did a year on How I Met Your Mother, I did six years of Once Upon a Time – that’s collectively 13 years of network television back-to-back, which is a-ma-zing and the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but it’s a grueling schedule,” Jennifer said.

Click inside to read Jennifer Morrison’s full quote…

It’s one of those things where until there was a decision on the table to make, I had no idea what my instinct was going to be. You can’t assume that they’re going to invite you back, and you can’t assume that there’s going to be a Season 7. So until I knew that there was even a decision to make, I kind of pushed it out of my mind a bit. And then once the decision was real, I did have strong feelings right away, that I had to sort through.

Obviously I love the show, I love the character, I love Eddy and Adam, I’m very close with some of the cast…. It’s a tricky decision to make, because all those things are very attractive. But the other side of that is I did six years on House, I did a year on How I Met Your Mother, I did six years of Once Upon a Time – that’s collectively 13 years of network television back-to-back, which is a-ma-zing and the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but it’s a grueling schedule. I don’t know if everybody realizes that we work 16 to 18 hours a day, and being in Vancouver for the show meant flying every weekend trying to barely see my friends and family every once in a while. For six years, I was on average taking 100 flights a year.

It’s worn me down in a certain way, and it made me stop and think about where I was at in my life and what I wanted and what my priorities were. As much as I love the show, I ultimately had to do what was right for me, and I need to be home. I need to be in New York in L.A., I need to be around my family and friends and have a chance at a personal life, and to have opportunities to do new things creatively. So I’m ready for the new challenges.