Patrick J. Adams is shedding light on his exit from Suits.
While speaking with Modern Family alum Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his Dinner’s On Me podcast, Adams admitted, “I wasn’t taking good care of my mental health and I was drinking too much come the end of [the] seventh season.”
“I was in a zone of living a pretty unexamined life,” he continued, per Variety. “[I] was pretty miserable [and] was, I would say, pretty depressed. 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, or in therapy sort of, but not really doing it.”
Adams starred alongside Gabriel Macht as Mike Ross in the hit legal drama, which has seen a remarkable surge in popularity since it wrapped thanks to fans streaming on Netflix and Peacock. While the show ran for nine seasons, Adams did not appear in Season 8, and is only credited with being in a couple Season 9 episodes on IMDb.
“There were all these things that I knew I needed to probably be doing that I wasn’t doing,” he added.
The actor explained, “I would numb myself [to] deal with my insecurity and my fears,” noting that these patterns “just weren’t working.”
“And they were taking a toll on my relationship, for sure, but also just making me a very not present father,” he continued. “That for me was a breaking point when I was like, ‘I think I should stop drinking probably, because I don’t want to be that dad.’ But 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.”
Prior to this revelation, Adams noted that “a bunch of different things” led him to leave. He said that by the end of Season 7, his character was “just a lawyer at a law firm,” as Mike’s secrets were “peeled away” by then. He eventually concluded that “the only reason to do this is money.” After seeking advice from his mother, who supported his decision to leave, he opted to exit.
Though he joked that sometimes he thinks about the money Macht made on Suits in his final two years, Adams said he “never regretted the decision for a second,” as “it was the right thing for [his] marriage” to fellow actor Troian Bellisario.
Adams has since launched Sidebar, a Suits rewatch podcast that he co-hosts with his co-star, Sarah Rafferty. NBC is also debuting a new Suits spinoff, Suits L.A., which will star Stephen Amell, and is set to premiere on Feb. 23, 2025.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, call or text the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) hotline at 800-950-NAMI (6264).