Pauley Perrette bowed out of NCIS in 2018 after bidding farewell to her alter-ego Abby Sciuto, a character she played from 2003 to 2018.
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The much-loved actress has been keeping a relatively low profile since, but she has had some strong thoughts on whether or not she would make a comeback.
The CBS series - which is marking its 450th episode on Monday night - might possibly never feature Abby again, unless Pauley changes her mind in the future.
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That's because the star has said that she has retired from acting. "I'm retiring," she told TV Insider, while promoting the premiere for sitcom Broke in 2020 - the show she starred in after NCIS.
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"And I meant it! Nobody believed me, but I did." In April 2021, Pauley took to Twitter to share a selfie of herself and opened up about the reaction she had got when announcing her retirement.
She wrote: "The most interesting thing about saying you are retired is checking who is or who is not still your friend. (SHE CAN’T HELP MY CAREER NOW?!?!?!) Fascinating! And VERY TELLING!"
Pauley Perrette is unlikely to return to NCIS
Pauley previously sparked rumors that she would be returning to NCIS after a photo of her and Brian Dietzen was shared on Twitter in 2021.
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Brian addressed this afterwards in an interview with Looper, revealing, unfortunately, that it was most unlikely.
He said: "No, I have not heard that. I talked to her over the weekend, and I've not heard anything from her. I do know that in this new script I was just reading, there's mention of her character — not necessarily her, or anything like that. But that's the beautiful thing about the show. We can make mention of past characters that are no longer on the show and reference those people as you would a family member who no longer lives in the same house.
The former NCIS star has retired from acting
"You still talk about people. They're still in your heart. I love that there's a potential for that, but I haven't heard anything directly about her returning."
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While Pauley is no longer acting, she's still regularly updating fans on her life on social media. The star even joined Instagram for the first time at the end of 2022 and has been an avid user on it ever since.
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