Alison Sweeney announced earlier this year that she was leaving Days of Our Lives after 21 years, and this week explained the reason she decided to walk away from the role of Sami Brady.
Sweeney made the surprise announcement back in January, saying that she was ready to take the first real break since starting the role at age 16.
“I’ve been on Days of Our Lives for 21 years. I’m celebrating my 21st year and I decided that it’s going to be my last year with the show,” Sweeney announced. “I’ve been on Days of Our Lives since I was 16-years-old, and I have never had more than a two-week vacation in that whole time. It’s awesome. I love Sami, I love Salem, I love my job, I love daytime, I love the fans — I love everything about it.”
Now Sweeney is revealing more about her decision to leave Days of Our Lives , telling Fox News that the show’s producers tried to keep her from leaving .
“It was my decision,” she said. “In fact, they asked what they could do to keep me. I said, ‘I just need to do new things and challenge myself in different ways.’ I loved playing Sami for 21 years. It was an amazing experience but I really wanted to stretch out in different ways like writing and seeing what other roles are out there and being at home more, taking my kids to school. My son is 9, and my daughter is 5.”
The decision was not the easiest, Sweeney shared. In fact her final day as Sami Brady got quite emotional.
“ My face was red and blotchy almost all day,” she said. “It was very, very emotional and they threw me this huge goodbye. My kids and husband came.”
Alison Sweeney even made sure to bring some mementos with her on the way out.
“I took a picture of my parking spot,” she said. “I live pretty close to the studio so I drive by occasionally, and it’s hard to drive by. I think it won’t sink in for a couple of months.”
Though Alison Sweeney is done with the Days of Our Lives chapter of her career, she is far from done in Hollywood. She is the host of the hit NBC reality competition The Biggest Loser .