"There were HR issues." 11 stars who walked away from huge TV shows.

Earlier this week, Barbie Ferreira announced she's leaving Euphoria.

On Thursday, the actress, who played Kat Hernandez on the hit TV show, shared on her Instagram stories that she will not reprise her role in the third season.

"After four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character Kat, I’m having to say a very teary-eyed goodbye," the 25-year-old wrote.

"I hope many of you could see yourself in her like I did and that she brought you joy to see her journey into the character she is today. 

"I put all my care and love into her and I hope you guys could feel it. Love you Katherine Hernandez."

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While the news came as a shock to fans of the show, actors walking away from big projects is nothing new; in fact, many others have done it too. 

Here are 10 actors who have departed successful TV shows.

1. Sandra Oh

Image: ABC.

After playing Dr Cristina Yang for 10 seasons, Sandra Oh said goodbye to Grey's Anatomy in 2013. Yang was written out of the tenth season, leaving the Seattle Grace Hospital for a new job in Switzerland.

On her final day of filming, Oh gave out 250 gifts to cast and crew - champagne in a box with "an anatomical heart and a 10" - to say thank you and to celebrate the 10 seasons she played the cardiothoracic surgeon.

In a 2018 interview with Vulture the actor explained that she "felt like I did all I wanted to do."

"I didn't feel like, 'Ugh, that's all I can do, I've done everything.' It was more than that. It was actually, dare I say it, a sense of satisfaction," she added.

2. Nina Dobrev

Image: The CW.

Nina Dobrev left The Vampire Diaries after playing Elena Gilbert for six seasons.

Announcing her departure on her Instagram page, she wrote: "I always knew I wanted Elena's story to be a six season adventure, and within those six years I got the journey of a lifetime."

Dobrev said she left because not only was her original contract up but she was also ready to step "outside of [her] comfort zone" and try new things after playing the role since she was 20 years old.

3. Christopher Meloni

Image: NBC.

One half of Law & Order: SVU, Christopher Meloni said goodbye to the show in 2011. Stabler retired off screen during the Season 13 premiere.

The actor departed the show because of a contract dispute. Looking back on leaving, Meloni called his sudden departure "inelegant".

Meloni has since returned to the franchise as Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: Organized Crime.

4. Patrick Dempsey

Image: ABC.

Another actor who departed Grey's Anatomy after a long run on the show is Patrick Dempsey.

After over a decade playing "McDreamy", Dempsey and showrunner Shonda Rhimes came to an agreement to kill him off as the actor wanted to focus on his family and stop working the long hours the show required.

However, according to an excerpt from the unauthorised book, How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, the real reason was actually because of his alleged fighting with co-star Ellen Pompeo and Rhimes.

"There were HR issues," former executive producer James D. Parriott told the book’s author, Lynette Rice. "It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorising the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him."

"He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people," Parriott continued. "The network and studio came down and we had sessions with them."

He added: "I think he was just done with the show. He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and Shonda were at each other’s throats."

5. Emmy Rossum

Image: Showtime.

One departure that hit viewers hard was seeing Emmy Rossum's Fiona Gallagher go.

After eight seasons playing the mother figure for the troubled Gallagher family, the actor decided it was time to part ways in 2018.

In a Facebook statement, Rossum said her reason for leaving was to move onto other projects.

"The opportunity to play Fiona has been a gift. There are few characters — female or otherwise — as layered and dynamic," she wrote. 

"She is a mother lion, fierce, flawed and sexually liberated... I knew it the second I read the pilot script, this was different, this was special."

6. Steve Carell

Image: NBC.

After seven years (seasons) at Dunder Mifflin, Michael aka Steve Carell said goodbye and moved to Colorado with Holly.

At the time, everyone believed it was the actor's decision to depart The Office, but in the recent book The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, several crew members revealed that NBC executives never made an offer to keep him.

Casting director Allison Jones said: "As I recall, he was going to do another season and then NBC, for whatever reason, wouldn’t make a deal with him."

"Somebody didn’t pay him enough. It was absolutely asinine," she added.

7. Jim Parsons

Image: CBS.

This one might come as a surprise because Jim Parsons was with The Big Bang Theory until the end. But as a matter of fact, he's the reason the show wrapped.

After 12 seasons playing Sheldon Cooper, Parsons decided it was time to move on (despite how much they were getting paid). And therefore, the show ended.

In a lengthy post on Instagram, Parsons thanked everyone involved in the show and the fans.

"I will miss all of you and all of this [means] more than I can say and more than I can know at this time," he wrote.

8. Mischa Barton 

Image: Fox.

During the OC's season three finale, Mischa Barton's character, Marissa Cooper, was killed in a car crash. 15 years later, Barton finally shared the real reason she exited the show.

In an interview with E! News, the actress, now 36, explained she experienced bullying on set. 

"It's a bit complicated," she said. "It started pretty early on because it had a lot to do with them adding Rachel [Bilson] in last minute as, after the first season, a series regular and evening out everybody's pay - and sort of general bullying from some of the men on set that kind of felt really sh*tty."

Barton also told the publication playing Marissa Cooper became difficult because she was working such long hours and she didn't know where the character was going. 

When the producers gave Barton the chance to opt out of the show, she took it. But as she told E! News, she was still sad to leave behind her character.

"I was really sad I was going because that was like my family, but there had also been some things that weren't so cool and I would be lying to say I wasn't a little bit relieved that I was going to extricate myself from that situation," she said.

"There were people on that set that were very mean to me."

Read more: Mischa Barton was "bullied on set" and 11 other things you didn't know about The O.C.

9. Topher Grace 

Image: Fox.

Unlike other actors who departed their shows for new projects, Topher Grace left That '70s Show because he was financially stable.

"For me, five or six years ago, I looked around at my life and I had just met the woman who is now my wife. I was feeling really confident and good, and it occurred to me that I was really lucky to have been on a sitcom for a lot of years. I realised then that I didn't really need a lot more money," he told the IndieWire in 2018.

10. Meghan Markle and Patrick J. Adams

Image: USA Network.

And lastly, Meghan Markle and Patrick J. Adams, who notably exited Suits together in 2018. 

Of course, Meghan's exit from the show was announced after she got engaged to Prince Harry in 2017. 

Meanwhile, Patrick cited being away from his family and feeling like this was a natural end to Mike's story as his reason for leaving. Patrick did return for a few episodes during the show's final season.

Feature image: NBC/Fox/HBO.

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