At the end of the July 29 episode of Days of Our Lives, Nicole and Eric left Salem with Baby Jude to start a new life in Paris. But while Arianne Zucker shared a heartfelt farewell to the soap she’s called home for decades, Greg Vaughan shared a surprising bit of information about his own exit.

Nicole was always going to have to leave town because Zucker’s contract was not renewed, but Eric and Nicole’s happy ending wasn’t part of Vaughan’s plan.

In his Instagram Stories, set to “Something in the Orange” by Zach Bryan, the actor shared some screenshots of Soap Opera Digest’s casting notice about his departure from the show and then a black screen with the words: “I didn’t leave by choice, I never had a choice” followed by a broken heart emoji.

Vaughan, who had previously played Diego on The Young & The Restless and Lucky on General Hospital, took over the role of Eric Brady in 2012 and remained until his exit in 2016 when he starred in the primetime series Queen Sugar.

After another run from 2017-20 (which earned him the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2018), Vaughan made some appearances in 2021 and was back on contract with DAYS by 2022.