Kristian Alfonso Shades ‘Days of Our Lives’ Amid Exit

Kristian Alfonso is throwing a little shade as she prepares to exit Days of Our Lives after nearly four decades playing Hope. In the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest, as per TVLine, Alfonso attested once again that she stepped away from her iconic role after the show’s leadership suggested pulling her from the show for five months, adding, “In the last few years, Days of Our Lives is not the Days of Our Lives as I know it.”

Alfonso had previously told Entertainment Tonight last week that it was news of a hiatus that marked the end of her rope with the show calling it the “perfect moment” to make the decision that it was “time for a change.” She continued, “I was taken aback when he said that they wanted, he and [producer] Albert wanted to take me off camera for four to five months. It was not something that had ever been discussed but that’s what it was, and to come back in five to six months, or four to five months — whatever that time frame was — I just thought, you know what, it’s time to really write a new chapter.”

Despite the way she’s leaving Days, Alfonso added that he has had an “incredible run” on the show. “I’ve had so many amazing friends and memories,” she added. “I cannot say enough how I’ll miss so many people working there and working with them, but they are in my life and we do socialize, but like I said, I think it’s time.”

Alfonso’s episodes are still scheduled to run through the end of October, and the actress said she shot her final episode during the winter before the soap opera’s production was shut down due to coronavirus and before she had decided to leave. “I would have liked to have given the fans that have been so devoted to Days all of these years a final goodbye,” she told Soap Opera Digest, “and not, ‘Oh, she’s out looking for someone,’ or ‘She’s upstairs cleaning her room’ or ‘She’s taken a trip.’”

Despite the less-than-ideal ending Hope will have because of her exit, Alfonso promised she will not be returning to the show even to tie up loose ends. “I’m not coming back,” she told the outlet. “I’ve had a great run and so many wonderful moments on the show and worked with so many wonderful people. It’s time for me to start a new chapter professionally. The time has come.”