Rob Lowe Says Working on ‘The West Wing’ Was Like An Abusive Relationship: ‘I Did Not Have a Good Experience’

Rob Lowe opened up about his less-than-joyful experience as a cast member on The West Wing, revealing that some stories from his time on the show are too horrible to tell.

Lowe discussed his long career, personal life, and departure from the popular show on the Wednesday edition of The Podcrushed podcast.

The actor played deputy White House communications director Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and was written out of the show by the fourth season after rumored salary disputes.

Lowe revealed that during his time on the show, he felt “undervalued.”

“I felt very undervalued. Whenever I talk to actors who complain about their relationships on their shows and sometimes it happens. It happens in any workplace. You can be in an environment where people sandbag you, want to see you fail. Don’t appreciate you. Whatever it is. And whenever I share my stories, people are like, ‘I will never share my own stories again,'” Lowe explained.

“They would make your hair stand on end. 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 and tried to make it work and tried to make it work and tried to make it work,” Lowe added.

The actor compared the experience to an abusive relationship.

“My kids were getting to a certain age where I could see them having first girlfriends or friends and being in a relationship that was abusive and taking it,” Lowe said.

“The girlfriend, but 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?” Lowe explained.

“I walked away from the most popular girl at school. But, I also knew that it was a super unhealthy relationship. And it was the best thing I ever did,” Lowe concluded.

Watch above via The Podcrushed Podcast.