Rob Lowe has described leaving The West Wing as “the best thing (he) ever did”.

The St. Elmo’s Fire actor played Sam Seaborn, the White House deputy communications director, in Aaron Sorkin’s hit political drama from 1999 until 2003.

During a recent appearance on the Podcrushed podcast, the 59-year-old admitted he has “zero regrets” about leaving the show after four seasons because he felt “very undervalued”.

“It happens in any workplace. You can be in an environment where people sandbag you, wanna see you fail, don’t appreciate you – whatever it is,” he stated.

While Lowe shared some anecdotes about his time on the show in his 2011 memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, he deliberately left some tales out.

“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,” he claimed. “I did not have a good experience and tried to make it work…”

The Parks and Recreation actor compared his relationship with the TV series to dating a popular girl at school and explained that he wanted to be a good example to his sons.

“Everybody likes her, she’s beautiful, it must be great – all the things that people would say about making The West Wing to me,” Lowe said. “‘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?

“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 later reprised his character for two episodes in the show’s seventh and final season.

– Cover Media