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The Affair's Ruth Wilson: 'There's a Much Bigger Story' Behind My Exit

The nature of Ruth Wilson‘s unexpected and seemingly abrupt exit from The Affair is proving to be as entangling a mystery as the Showtime series itself.

Wilson’s character, Alison, was killed off of The Affair earlier this month, toward the end of Season 4 — at first apparently by way of suicide, though it was later revealed that foul play was at hand.

Making the rounds in recent weeks to promote the feature film The Little Stranger, Wilson has been asked about her unexpected vacating of the Golden Globe-winning role. She told CBS This Morning that while she once noted that costar Dominic West makes more money than she does, she “never complained to Showtime about pay parity.” She then said that she is “not allowed to talk about why” she chose to leave the series.

Series boss Sarah Treem, addressing the hot topic, has alternately said the character of Alison had “run its course”… as well as state that Wilson wanted off the show.

Now, in a New York Times profile, Wilson reiterated that the reason for her exit “isn’t about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs,” before maintaining, “I’m not really allowed to talk about it.” Though this time she did eventually disclose, “There is a much bigger story” to her exit than has been revealed.

Wilson then cued the Times to reach out to Treem, who responded with… the statement issued in the immediate wake of Alison’s send-off:

We can’t speak for Ruth, but heading into Season 4, everyone agreed the character’s story had run its course. Ultimately, it felt like the most powerful creative decision would be to end Alison’s arc at the moment when she had finally achieved self-empowerment. The impact of her loss will be felt as the series concludes next season. We thank the many fans who embraced the character of Alison and especially thank Ruth for her indelible work over the past four seasons.

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