Canadian actor Patrick J Adams, who plays Mike Ross on Suits, has officially announced he is leaving the hit legal drama after seven years as one of the stars of the series.
While the news is gut-wrenching for fans of the show, it’s not a total surprise. It’s actually long been suspected that Mike wasn’t returning to Suits.
In November last year rumours were rife that Meghan Markle (who played Rachel Zane), wasn’t the only one closing the door to the show.
“He was always leaving the show. He made his mind up a while ago,” an insider told Us Weekly.
“Patrick wants to pursue other things and he’s realized his time at Suits has come to an end.”
Patrick shared an emotional goodbye message across his social media, which he titled State of the Union.
“Hi, Earth,
“I’m sorry this has taken so long,” Patrick begins his message which came a day after the news of his exit broke across media. “
After explaining he was asked to keep quiet initially, he goes on to thank his fans and co-stars, calling his experience on Suits, “one of the great honours of my life.”
Adams married Pretty Little Liars actress Troian Bellisario in December 2016. He told Hollywood Reporter that being away from his wife was putting pressure on the relationship.
“I had this voice in my head that said that we’ve told his story and if he hangs out longer, Mike is just going to be another lawyer on television. That didn’t feel right for him. It didn’t feel right for where I was at in my life, either. I started having conversations with Aaron [Suits director] and we both decided [Adams leaving] made sense, as sad and scary as it was. It just felt like it was the way to go.
What’s next for Patrick?
Patrick told Hollywood reported that firstly, he’s just happy to be taking a break.
“There are also a couple of great stories I’m trying to develop to take out and pitch”, he explained.
“But behind the camera work is fascinating to me. After seven years on this show, I feel really empowered and capable of taking on more of a leadership role and getting things made.”
In August last year, Patrick, who plays ‘Mike Ross’ opposite Meghan’s ‘Rachel Zane,’ shared a throwback photo of the princess-in-waiting, as she has become known, in celebration of her birthday.
“Ross and Rachel – the next generation,” he captioned the shot.
The photo, which showed the actress plant a purely-platonic kiss on her co-star’s cheek, quickly went viral. And it wasn’t long until the post took on a life of it’s own…
It wasn’t long until the “innocent” photo was taken out of context. Image via Instagram/PatrickJAdams.
“I woke up in the morning and realized ‘Oh, yeah. I live in a world where you can’t post things about Meghan,” Patrick, who is married to Pretty Little Liars’ Troian Bellisario, told Esquire.com. “I had this onslaught of people retweeting the thing, people thinking it was a recent picture, and I just thought, ‘What the hell is going on?'”
He decided to quit social media temporarily as a result of the firestorm, telling the publication he would “over think” every post he sent out into the ether.
“It was such an innocent moment of sentimentality that was twisted into something totally different. It made me feel like… why put myself through this?” he said. “We’re like brother and sister, it’s not like it was lurid or anything, but it just became a story that people wanted to talk about.”
