Robe Lowe Has Talked About Leaving 'The West Wing' Like Departing a Toxic Relationship

The world was crushed when The West Wing came to an end in 2006, but the fandom hasn't gone anywhere. There are still discussions, theories, and a whisper of hope for a revival, although it all seems to be fantasy. While many series have earned a second life in the 2020s, The West Wing brings political baggage into an already fraught political landscape, making it a perilous bet.

However, one topic that seems to keep resurfacing is speculation about why Rob Lowe left the series after Season 4. After all, his character, Sam Seaborn, was one of the most beloved, so why did he get the boot?

Here's what we know about what Rob has said in regards to leaving the show.

While fans might hope that Rob's time on The West Wing was as idyllic as their parasocial relationship with his character, Sam Seaborn, that appears not to have been the case.

Rob has spoken out over the years about his time on set. While sometimes he strikes a pleasant chord, not all his memories are fond.

In 2023, Rob sat down with Podcrushed to explain his feelings about the show; "Whenever I talk to actors who complain about, you know, their relationships on their shows, it happens — it happens in any workplace. You could be in an environment where people sandbag you, want to see you fail, don't appreciate you, whatever it is.

Whenever I share my stories, people are like, 'I will never share my own stories again'."

He added, "They would make your hair stand up, and there's some of them I wrote. I shared some of them in my book, but I purposely didn't share half of the other ones because it would make the people involved look so bad that I didn't want to do it to them. So, I did not have a good experience."

The actor says he "tried to make it work," but had a realization.

He said his kids "were getting to a certain age where I could see them having first girlfriends and being in a relationship that was abusive and taking it." He compared their experiences to his time on set, continuing, "'She's the popular girl, everybody likes her, she's beautiful, it must be great' — all the things that people would say about making The West Wing to me. 'It's so popular, it's so amazing, it must be amazing.' But I know what it's like, and if I couldn't walk away from it, then how could I empower my kids to walk away from it?"

Luckily, he seems to have taken his sense of humor with him when he left the show in 2002. In July 2025, he took to TikTok and explained, "So a lot has been talked about my issues, such as they were, on The West Wing, which, I love that show and I love everybody in it. It's all good now, but there were some difficulties. At one point, they had sort of written me off the show. I didn't feel like I had a lot to do.”

He then held up a milk carton with a missing children-like ad for his character, Sam, adding, "And so I made these, and I sent them to everybody affiliated with the show. The network, the studio, producers, executives." I sent these to everybody, he joked. "Let's see what the stats are. Sam Seaborn, 170 pounds. Eyes blue. Missing since the Christmas episode, 2002. Please call Bernie Brillstein, my manager, if you've seen this man.”