The Resident’s Emily VanCamp Breaks Silence on Her Season 5 Exit

Ahead of The Resident‘s Season 5 premiere this fall, news broke that star Emily VanCamp would be exiting the series. She served as one of the show’s leads for the first four seasons, alongside Matt Czuchry, but opted to leave in the beginning of Season 5. There was no reason given for why VanCamp left, until after this week’s new episode, when the actress spoke to Deadline about her motivation to move on from The Resident.

As many suspected, it came down to VanCamp’s family. The actress recently gave birth to her first daughter, Iris, and her on-screen character Nic gave birth to a baby at the end of Season 4. Following the birth of her daughter, and the strains of the pandemic, VanCamp decided that it was best to spend some more time at home with her family.

“It’s such a bittersweet moment for me,” VanCamp told Deadline. “I loved doing The Resident so much for the four years I was on it. Oftentimes you hear about someone exiting a show because something bad had happened or there was some bad blood. But in this case, it’s the exact opposite. There’s nothing but love and respect between all of us and this decision was not an easy one for anybody but it was the right one for me, personally. I’m grateful that I was met with understanding and compassion.”

“We started talking about [my leaving] awhile ago,” she continued. “I spent so many years on network television, but then suddenly priorities shifted. I think there comes a moment in every woman’s life — in every person’s life — where it becomes less about work and more about family, and that’s what happened while I was making the show. Doing that many episodes in a different city and then you add Covid to that, most of us couldn’t see our families for almost a year. It really solidified for me that family is where my heart is at the moment.”

Nic being pregnant at roughly the same time as VanCamp allowed her to keep her pregnancy mostly private. She gave birth between seasons of The Resident and her exit from the series was reported just a few days later.

Are you sad to see Emily VanCamp leaving The Resident in Season 5? Let us know in the comments!