‘Nashville’ Stars Lennon & Maisy Admit They Were Left In Tears By Connie Britton

Nashville stars Lennon and Maisy are opening up about their reaction to the news that Connie Britton had quit the CMT show, admitting that her shocking departure left them in tears.

The singing sisters, who have appeared alongside Connie on Nashville for the past five seasons as her daughters Maddie Conrad and Daphne Conrad, recently revealed how they couldn’t stop crying while filming Connie’s final scene, which saw her character, Rayna Jaymes, die after a tragic car crash.

Calling Connie’s final day on set “so sad,” Maisy Stella told Us Weekly that Britton’s departure was “so emotional” for herself and her sister.

“I couldn’t stop crying — that whole day, we were sad and sobbing the entire day,” Maisy, who alongside her sister, Lennon Stella, is half of country music duo Lennon and Maisy, said of Britton’s final day on the Nashville set. “We were all just sobbing.”

Revealing that she and Maisy got Connie a bracelet with the word “stepmom” written inside after hearing that Britton had quit the CMT series, Lennon added that Rayna’s shocking death on Nashville “felt like a real death” to her.

“That episode was a very emotional time in my life, too, just because of that,” Lennon continued of Rayna’s heartbreaking death that shocked Nashville fans last month. “It was just so sad — every day was just, like, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry.”

Lennon and Maisy’s candid confessions about Connie’s final day on the Nashville set come shortly after producers confirmed to the Tennessean earlier this month that it was very much Britton’s decision to quit Nashville after five seasons playing Rayna Jaymes. Producers also revealed that her departure left them no choice but to have Rayna die knowing that she wouldn’t willingly leave her daughters played by Lennon and Maisy.

Nashville creator and executive producer Callie Khouri dished on Rayna’s death and Connie’s decision to quit with the Tennessee newspaper, calling the death a “painful, irrevocable decision.”

“We couldn’t come up with a plausible way that [Rayna Jaymes] would simply disappear,” Callie added of why Nashville producers had no choice but death for Rayna prior to Lennon and Maisy’s recent confessions.

But despite Connie Britton’s decision to quit Nashville and Rayna’s subsequent death, Lennon and Maisy told Us Weekly that the show’s crew have found a way to move on from Rayna’s death and carry on without Britton, despite Lennon calling the actress “the biggest part of the show.”

“I think that [the writers have] done a really good job making up for it and filling in the space,” Lennon said of how Nashville will continue on without Connie and Rayna after Maisy admitted that the duo couldn’t stop crying over the news. “I feel like they’ve kind of focused on different things with different characters to draw the attention elsewhere.”

Lennon and Maisy’s candid confessions about Connie’s decision to quit Nashville and Rayna’s ultimate death came shortly after their long time co-star Hayden Panettiere, who has played Juliette Barnes on the show since it first began in 2011, also spoke out about Connie’s leaving by admitting that she was “terrified” when she learned that Britton had quit.

“I was terrified because she’s always been there from the beginning, and we’ve always been such a team and such a support for one another,” Hayden recently told Access Hollywood of Connie’s quitting Nashville, which left a number of fans seriously angry with the actress.

“I felt like, ‘Oh, my gosh! We’re all going to have to carry this show without her,'” Panettiere continued, adding that keeping Nashville alive without Rayna Jaymes’ presence when the show returns later this year is “a really overwhelming idea” for her.

Lennon and Maisy’s co-star also spoke out about Rayna’s death and Britton leaving Nashville during an appearance on The Talk earlier this month. Panettiere confessed that the situation surrounding Connie’ departure was hard for her to talk about, particularly when it comes to Lennon and Maisy’s characters Maddie Conrad and Daphne Conrad losing their mom.

“It’s hard for me to even talk about it,” Hayden said at the time, shortly before Lennon and Maisy admitted that they couldn’t stop crying after hearing that Britton had quit the show. “The idea of seeing two little girls lose their mom, it’s hard for me to talk about. It really is.”

What do you think of Lennon and Maisy’s candid confessions about Rayna Jaymes’ death and Connie Britton’s decision to quit Nashville after five seasons?

[Featured Image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images]