Suits Season 7 was a major turning point for the legal drama that originally aired on USA Network and became more popular than ever when it blew up on Netflix last year. In addition to Gina Torres’ Jessica Pearson only making sporadic appearances after moving to Chicago in Season 6 for her short-lived spinoff, by the end of the season, Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle both departed as series regulars. Adams’ exit was an especially big deal since his character, Mike Ross, was Suits’ co-lead with Gabriel Macht’s Harvey Specter, and the actor has now opened up about the personal circumstances that resulted in him leaving the show.
While appearing on Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Adams acknowledged that Markle departing Suits to officially join the Royal Family paved the way for him to do the same, which is something he didn’t regret, as he also wanted to be closer to his longtime girlfriend and soon-to-be-wife Troian Bellisaro rather than continue their long distance relationship. That said, Adams was also dealing with his own struggles that factored into his decision, saying:
I wasn’t taking good care of my mental health and I was drinking too much come the end of the seventh season. I was in a zone of living a pretty unexamined life. Pretty miserable, [and] I would say, pretty depressed, and 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.
Patrick J. Adams was hardly an unknown prior to Suits, as he appeared opposite Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn in the 2003 comedy Old School, and made guest guest appearances on shows like Friday Night Lights, Lost and NCIS. But Suits unquestionably gave him a major professional boost, with the show following along with Mike Ross, a college dropout with an eidetic memory, whom Harvey Specter to be an associate for his law firm, all while keeping it a secret that Mike never graduated from Harvard.
But by the time Season 7 rolled around, Adams was overwhelmed with his mental health and drinking issues, and he continued to grapple with them ever after leaving the series, which in turn affected how he raised his daughter Aurora, who was born in 2018. He continued:
… I would numb myself and take care of myself [to] deal with my insecurity and my fears. And they just weren’t working, and they were taking a toll on my relationship, for sure, but also just making me a very not present father. That for me was a breaking point when I was like, ‘I think I should stop drinking probably, because I don’t wanna be that dad.’ I was missing that. But the best thing I think I ever did for myself was stop drinking. It just needed to happen in order for all these other things to happen.
Clearly Adams is in a much better headspace now compared to back then, and leaving Suits helped get him there. It is important to mention, though, that the actor didn’t stay gone from the series too long, as he recurred during Season 9. With Gabriel Macht said to reprise Harvey Specter in the upcoming spinoff Suits L.A., maybe there’s a possibility that Adams could bring Mike Ross back to life on that show too, which premieres February 25 on the 2025 TV schedule.
Not only can Suits be streamed with a Netflix subscription, those who have a Peacock subscription in their streaming arsenal can also access it. That latter platform will also be where episodes of Suits L.A. will go up following their initial airings on NBC. Patrick J. Adams’ next series, the drama Lockerbie, is currently filming.
