Rob Lowe Says Leaving The West Wing Was ‘The Best Thing I Ever Did’: ‘It Was a Super Unhealthy Relationship’

Rob Lowe isn’t mincing words about his exit from The West Wing.

The actor called his decision to leave the the hit NBC drama “the best thing I ever did” in a podcast interview with Stitcher Studios’ Podcrushed, likening his time there to “a super unhealthy relationship.” Lowe says that he “felt very undervalued” on the show, adding: “I did not have a good experience.” He insists that he “tried to make it work,” but he ultimately compares it to a toxic romance: “I walked away from the most popular girl at school, but I also knew that it was a super unhealthy relationship, and it was the best thing I ever did.”

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Lowe played deputy communications director Sam Seaborn for the first four seasons of The West Wing, which debuted on NBC in 1999. But he left the show after Season 4, citing a diminished role for his character. (Reports at the time also claimed that Lowe had sought a pay raise and been rebuffed, while Martin Sheen and other co-stars had received raises.) Lowe returned to guest-star in a pair of episodes in The West Wing’s seventh and final season.

At the time of his departure, Lowe said in a statement, “As much as it hurts to admit it, it has been increasingly clear, for quite a while, that there was no longer a place for Sam Seaborn on The West Wing. Warners had allowed me an opportunity to leave the show as I arrived — grateful for it, happy to have been on it and proud of it. We were a part of television history and I will never forget it.” An official statement from Warner Brothers Television and John Wells Productions said the move was made “amicably.”

Since leaving The West Wing, Lowe has of course continued to be a familiar face on the small screen with major roles on Brothers & Sisters, Parks and Recreation, The Grinder, Code Black and others. He currently stars as firefighter Owen Strand on the Fox drama 9-1-1: Lone Star.

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