Despite having quit his role on Suits over six years ago, actor Patrick J. Adams has only recently revealed what exactly prompted the decision in a heartbreaking interview admission.
Adams was cast as the legal drama's lead character, Mike Ross, all the way back in 2011, who plays a genius university expellee who happens to stumble into an illustrious Harvard Law-worthy associate position by accident, impressing bosses with his photographic memory.
The years that followed saw the much-loved con-man consolidate his position at the prestigious law firm, win several suits and close cases with charismatic attorney partner Harvey Specter (played by Gabriel Macht), and fall head over heels for paralegal Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle).
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The USA Network series went on to rack up several impressive accolade nominations, with Adams himself being put up for a Screen Actors Guild award for his 'Outstanding' performance in the role back in 2012.
Naturally, therefore, fans of the show were blindsided when the Canadian-American actor announced after just seven seasons he'd be resigning from the show - which still had two more series' to go.
It's only until this week, however, that fans of the 43-year-old have learnt what spurred his exit after he revealed he'd been battling bad mental health behind the scenes - as will as woes within his marriage.
Appearing on the Dinner's On Me podcast, Adams firstly admitted: "I wasn’t taking good care of my mental health and I was drinking too much [at] the end of season seven.
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"I was in a zone of living a pretty unexamined life. Pretty miserable [and] I would say, pretty depressed."
He went on: "I didn’t have the tools to deal with that depression beyond just spending money and drinking too much, and not really knowing how to talk about it."
Delving deeper into his drinking habits, he went on to confess: "I would numb myself [to] deal with my insecurity and my fears. And they just weren’t working.
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"And they were taking a toll on my relationship, for sure, but also just making me a very not present father."
Adams is married to fellow actor, Pretty Little Liars star Troian Bellisario, with the pair tying the knot in 2016, seven years after they first met when cast together in the play, Equivocation.
Just months prior to his exit from Suits, he became a father for the first time when the couple welcomed a daughter named Aurora.
"That for me was a breaking point when I was like, ‘I think I should stop drinking probably, because I don’t wanna be that dad'," he admitted this week.
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"The best thing I think I ever did for myself was stop drinking. It just needed to happen in order for all these other things to happen."
The couple have since welcomed another baby girl, a daughter named Elliot, born in 2021.
The only thing that served as motivation to remain on the show was the hefty wage slips he'd been earning.
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"I didn’t know what else to offer," Adams explained. "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think about the money [Macht] made those last two years, but I never regretted the decision [to leave] for a second.
"It was the right thing for my marriage - it was time."
Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film, US News