After 21 years of playing Sami Brady on Days of Our Lives, Alison Sweeney will be saying goodbye to the soap opera that made her a household name.
During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, that aired on Tuesday, Sweeney revealed that she will be leaving the cast at the end of the current season.
Sweeney joined the soap opera in 1993 and later won a special fan award from the Daytime Emmys in 2002. Not only has she been busy with the soap, she also took on the role as the host of The Biggest Loser in 2007, and has written two novels All the Days of My Life (So Far) and The Star Attraction. Sweeney told DeGeneres that, since she took the job on The Biggest Loser, she has never had more than a two-week vacation.
The good news is that Sweeney is not leaving on bad terms. There are no hard feelings, she just wants to be able to spend more time with her family. “I’m celebrating my 21st year … and I decided that it’s going to be my last year with the show,” she said. “I have worked so much, and my daughter just turned 5 and my son is 9, and I just want to be with them.”
“My passion for working at DAYS has kept me there, obviously, for 21 years,” she told Soap Opera Digest. “I love Sami and I love Salem and I love the people I work with, so it was a really, really hard decision to walk away.”
Although Sweeney knows that she will be leaving the show, she doesn’t know for sure how her character will be written off. While she says it would be nice for Sammy to have a happy ending, she said she “probably deserves some sort of very twisted, like Breaking Bad ending.” “She’s caused a lot of people a lot of problems.” Sweeney explained. “The writers have amazing imaginations and Sami has certainly caused her fair share of drama over the last 21 years. It will be 22, and I don’t even know what happens next. I’m so, like, flustered.”
So, what will Sweeney be doing with all of her spare time? “I’m really just excited to be with my kids and be with my husband and … have fun. And I write, my second book’s coming out and I love directing,” she explained to DeGeneres.
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