There was much speculation as to why Dobrev left the show early, with some fans thinking it had to do with her breakup with co-star Ian Somerhalder, who she called it quits with in 2013.
But when announcing her exit, Dobrev said it had “always” been her plan to leave the show after six seasons.
“I always knew I wanted Elena’s story to be a six-season adventure, and within those six years I got the journey of a lifetime,” she wrote on Instagram.
Later in a 2017 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the star doubled down that it had been her plan to leave the show after her six-year contract ended.
“That was the plan from the get-go,” she told the outlet.
“If anything, the fact that [leaving] terrified me drove me even more. I needed to feel that fear of ‘Oh, my God, what if I never get a job again?’ That just made me want to work five times as hard to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Dobrev did return to the show as Elena for the series finale in 2017, giving fans the closure they wanted.
