Gossip Girl Star Finally Breaks Silence on Abrupt Exit 15 Years Later

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Taylor Momsen quietly left the show Gossip Girl without making a formal announcement. She was known for her role as Jenny Humphrey, a student who became a fashion designer on the popular teen drama.

In a recent interview, Taylor Momsen shared that she didn’t tell her Gossip Girl castmates when she decided to leave the show. She wanted to concentrate on her music, and she simply stopped appearing on the call sheet. As she explained on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she wasn’t included in the script the following week, and that was that.

Taylor Momsen, the lead singer of the rock band The Pretty Reckless since 2009, mentioned that her former co-stars from Gossip Girl knew she enjoyed singing and writing songs, but she doesn’t think they realized she was planning to make a career out of music right away.

Everyone on set knew I was a musician and that I was in a band. I even played them some of the songs I was writing for my first album while we were filming, but I don’t think they realized how committed I was to making music at that time, said the singer of “Make Me Wanna Die.”

The actress described leaving the show as a simple choice, though actually untangling herself from her contract was difficult. She remembered a lengthy struggle involving arguments with the network and studio, CW and Warner Bros., where she repeatedly insisted she needed to leave. She felt the show was harming her and that she had other goals she wanted to pursue, and she couldn’t stay in the role any longer.

Understandably upset by the criticism, Taylor Momsen strongly defended her choice to leave the show. She explained she reacted by telling people they didn’t understand her situation and had no right to judge. Ultimately, the issue was a contractual obligation – the head of Warner Bros. reportedly refused to release her from her contract, using harsh language.

Gossip Girl’s Writers Came to the Rescue

You know, when things got tough with the show’s producers, I really reached out to Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz. I managed to convince them to let me have more creative control and stop writing storylines for my character. I’ll always be grateful to them for that – they seriously didn’t have to, but they ended up writing me off the show so I could pursue music and go on tour with my band. It was a huge deal for me.

Despite her issues with the show, Blake Lively chose to reappear for the final episode of Gossip Girl. She explained, “I’m a TV fan, and I really like seeing the whole cast back together. It feels good to bring the story to a proper conclusion.”

Taylor Momsen’s time playing Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl wasn’t always easy, both for her character and behind the scenes. Jenny evolved from an innocent teen to a successful fashion designer, and Momsen herself often made headlines for her behavior during filming. Over the show’s six seasons, from its start in 2007 to a short return in the final episode, Momsen played Jenny in a total of 88 episodes.

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2025-11-05 23:36