Why did Jensen Ackles leave Days of Our Lives? Exit reason explored

Jensen Ackles played Eric Brady on Days of Our Lives between 1997 and 2000. He portrayed a young adult Eric who had started working and expressing his opinions about the people in his life. 19-year-old Jensen joined the soap and went on to win the Best Male Newcomer award from Soap Opera Digest the next year followed by Daytime Emmy nominations in 1999 and 2000.

However, Jensen exited from Days of Our Lives in 2000 as his contract came to an end and he didn't renew it. He cited the stagnancy of his role as one of the reasons for not pushing forward for a renewal of the contract with the soap. His character of Eric was later replaced by Greg Vaughan.

For the newly indicted viewers of Days of Our Lives, Eric's character was introduced into the storyline 1984 along with his twin. The character recently exited the show abruptly after Eric decided to settle with his longtime love, Nicole, and move to Paris.

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Days of Our Lives: Jensen Ackles exited his role as Eric Brady in 2000

After Jensen's exit, Greg Vaughan played Eric on Days of Our Lives (Image via Instagram/@dayspeacock and /@jensenackles)

As mentioned before, Jensen Ackles joined the cast of Days of Our Lives in 1997 to play a teenager Eric Brady. He received the audience's love, and awards and nominations for his portrayal of the morally straight youth who is turning into a complicated personality.

After three years in the role, Jensen left the soap in 2000 after his contract expired. However, it left his fans wondering why the contract was not renewed. Jensen was soon seen playing a serial killer on Fox' Dark Angel in 2001, followed by another character on the same show till 2002.

As Eric worked as a photographer in the soap, his role started taking a repetitive story arc, handling the camera in Titan's lab, and sharing complex relationships with Nicole, Taylor, and Billie. The stagnancy in the story arc reportedly prompted Jensen to move away at the end of the contract.

Moreover, while working under contract on Days of Our Lives, Jensen reportedly had to give up many opportunities such as a role in the movie, Never Been Kissed. While Jensen credited his time on the soap with having learned much about acting, he faced issues in grabbing other projects because of his soap background. However, with Dawson's Creek, Blonde, Supernatural, and The Boys under his belt, the actor is riding the proverbial tide of success.

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Some of the other projects of Jensen Ackles

Before joining Days of Our Lives, Jensen was part of Mr.Rhodes and Wishbone on television. Some of the other well-known television titles that Jensen has been part of include Blonde, Dawson's Creek, Dark Angel, Supernatural, Smallville, Walker, Big Sky, The Boys, The Winchesters, and many more. He is awaiting his upcoming project, Vought Rising, which is The Boys spinoff.

He has also lent his voice for Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd in some of the Batman and Justice League movies. He was also part of Devour, My Bloody Valentine 3D, and Buddy Games.

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Days of Our Lives: Getting to know the character of Eric Brady

Born to Marlena and Roman Brady, Eric and his twin, Sami, have played the two opposites of morality in the soap. Initially played by various child actors, Jensen Ackles stepped into the role in 1997 as a teenager who was displeased by his mother's affair with John Black.

While his sister, Sami, took on negative actions, Eric stayed as straight as possible. He also took a stand against Sami's manipulations. Eric's oldest and most lasting relationship has been with Nicole Walker who he met as a teenager. When Nicole married Lucas, Eric tried to get involved with Greta, a relationship that didn't sustain for long.

Jensen's Eric left Salem City in 2000. In 2012, Eric, portrayed by Greg Vaughan, returned to the city and found himself interacting with Kristen. Kidnapped and detained, along with Nicole, Eric confessed his lingering love for Nicole, as she did too. After being released, he broke up with Nicole over her betrayal and started getting close to Serena Mason.

However, he broke up with Serena over her relationship with Xander. Despite, professing their love for each other, Nicole rejected him for her marriage to Daniel Jonas, while Serena was strangled to death by a serial killer. A devastated Eric became an alcoholic and inadvertently caused an accident leading to the death of Daniel.

After being released from prison for vehicular homicide, Eric tried to help Nicole through various problems. As they came close, Brady forced Nicole to leave Salem. Feeling spurned, Eric had an affair with Jennifer Horton. However, when he learned about the real reason for Nicole's abrupt departure, he left Jennifer and rushed to Nicole.

They married and divorced and came close again in the storyline. Over the years Eric has had other women in his life such as Sloan Peterson, Jada Hunter, and more. Sloan eventually manipulated him to marry her, while his quick intimacy with Nicole had left her pregnant. When Sloan miscarried her baby, she managed to adopt Nicole's baby.

Eric developed an immense love for the baby and named him Jude. However, after learning that Jude was Nicole's baby, he returned the baby to Nicole and divorced Sloan. As he was getting ready to leave Salem and take up a new position in Paris, Nicole informed him that he was the biological father of baby Jude.

As such, Eric and Nicole left for Paris together as per the plot of Days of Our Lives. Whether Eric will return to Salem in the future is not known currently.

Viewers can continue watching the other story arcs of Days of Our Lives on Peacock on all weekdays.