Patrick J. Adams recently revealed his struggles with depression and excessive drinking during ‘Suits’ Season 7, when his character Mike Ross was written out.
“I wasn’t taking good care of my mental health and I was drinking too much [at] the end of season seven,” the actor told Jesse Tyler Ferguson during an episode of the ‘Dinner’s on Me’ podcast (per The Hollywood Reporter).
“I was in a zone of living a pretty unexamined life. Pretty miserable [and] 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.”
He explained that his drinking issues began to harm his marriage and fatherhood, pushing him to finally give up on the habit and later quit the show.
“The only reason to stay was money,” the actor said. “I didn’t know what else to offer. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think about the money [co-star Gabriel Macht] made those last two years, but I never regretted the decision for a second. It was the right thing for my marriage. It was time.”
After Adams left, ‘Suits’ continued for two more seasons and kept gaining popularity even after the finale, recording 57.7 billion total minutes viewed on Netflix last year. The success sparked a new spinoff series, ‘Suits: L.A.’
The upcoming show will see Macht’s return while Adams will appear in other projects like BBC/Netflix series ‘Lockerbie’ and the ‘Yellowstone’ sequel ‘The Madison.’