‘Downton Abbey’ season 4 spoilers: Siobhan Finneran explains decision to leave

As you likely know already, Siobhan Finneran made the shocking decision late last month to leave “Downton Abbey,” even though this is the series that put her on the map, and that her character in Mrs. O’Brien was one of the most notable people who worked in the famous servants’ quarters. In making this move, she joined Jessica Brown Findlay and Dan Stevens as cast members who checked out following the first three seasons on the show. However, her exit does not mean that her character is going to die; thanks the O’Brien’s profession, there are other ways to write her out of the series.

Finneran is speaking out for the first time about her exit, and in a new interview, she explained that the simple reason behind her exit is just that she wants to move on to do some other things in her life, and it does not seem to be due to any other circumstances or drama behind the scenes:

“I signed up to do three series and that was all I wanted to do. I talked it through with my family and it was the right decision for all of us. I had great fun doing it but I just didn’t want to do it any more. I decided this before we even did the last series. When I stop loving something, I stop doing it.”

While it remains surprising in some ways that anyone would want to leave what is one of the most-popular British series currently airing around the world, the reality here is that it is a great deal of work to film something like “Downton Abbey,” whether it be the long filming days or the time you have to spend promoting it year-round to other countries.

Are you going to deeply miss O’Brien on the show this coming season? If you want to hear what Maggie Smith is saying now about her future as the Dowager Countess, just be sure to check out the story over at the link here.

Photo: ITV