Ruth Wilson declined to discuss her decision to exit Showtime’s The Affair during an interview Thursday on CBS This Morning, catching co-host Gayle King off guard when she said, bluntly, “I’m not allow to talk about why [I left].”

The moment was initially met silence from King, who then alluded to an interview Wilson did back in February, during which she revealed that she was paid less than male costar Dominic West. At the time, West spoke out in defense of Wilson, telling the UK’s Channel 4 that Wilson deserved to be paid more than him following her 2015 Golden Globe win for Lead Actress in a Drama. In response to King’s question, Wilson asserted that she “never complained to Showtime about pay parity.”

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Ruth Wilson’s surprise departure from the Showtime drama The Affair. The actress has done very few interviews about her character’s death, which shocked viewers earlier this month, though she fueled speculation by telling CBS This Morning yesterday, “I did want to leave, but I’m not allowed to talk about why.” We caught up with Wilson at the Metrograph premiere of The Little Stranger on Thursday night, where she revealed that she didn’t have any say about how her character left the show — and if she had, things would have turned out differently. “No, I had no say over how the character’s arc was going to end, or how she would die and leave. I always hoped that she would … I always had the image that she would walk into the sunset with her son with no man,” Wilson said, adding, “That’s what I hoped for her. But no.”

This is a very different ending from the one that Wilson’s character, Alison, ends up getting. In the episode, “Secondary Drowning,” her death happens at the hands of her married boyfriend, Ben, though it’s ruled as a suicide. The show’s creator, Sarah Treem, told The Hollywood Reporter that Wilson wanted to leave the show. “That was a request,” Treem said, “so that was decided basically before we started writing. It wasn’t a discovery of any kind. That was very deliberate.”

Although some have questioned whether Wilson’s previous comments about being unequally paid compared to her male co-star, Dominic West, were the reason for her swift exit, Wilson told CBS This Morning that she “never complained to Showtime about pay parity.”

After Wilson’s appearance on CBS This Morning, Showtime released a statement about her Affair departure: “We can’t speak for Ruth, but heading into season four everyone agreed the character’s story had run its course. Ultimately, it felt like the most powerful creative decision would be to end Alison’s arc at the moment when she had finally achieved self-empowerment. The impact of her loss will be felt as the series concludes next season. We thank the many fans who embraced the character of Alison and especially thank Ruth for her indelible work over the past four seasons.”

Ms. Wilson would not explain why she is leaving the show, though it has been widely suggested that her termination was punishment for having complained that she had been paid less than Dominic West, a male lead on the show. Others ventured that she had simply found a better role.

“It isn’t about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs,” Ms. Wilson said. She added coolly, “But I’m not really allowed to talk about it.”

There was a meaningful silence. “There is a much bigger story,” she eventually volunteered, urging me, more than once, to contact Sarah Treem, a writer and producer of the show.

Ms. Treem did not amplify, repeating in an email a statement previously issued by Showtime. “The character of Allison had run its course,” she wrote. “By completing her arc this season, the consequences of her death will lead to compelling story lines for our final season.”

First it was Ruth Wilson, and now it’s Joshua Jackson who may not be returning for the fifth and final season of The Affair.

EW has learned that Jackson, who plays Cole Lockhart on the Showtime drama, is unlikely to be back on the show next season. According to a source close to production, Jackson was initially only contracted for a couple of seasons, but due to his interest in his character’s story line, the 40-year-old actor continued to sign on for additional seasons as they came.

Showtime declined to comment on the news of Jackson’s departure.

With story arcs for The Affairs‘ final season still in development, the source adds that the creative team is in the middle of figuring out where his character would go now that his primary love interest (Wilson) has died, and Jackson is presently in discussions on how they’d wrap up Cole. Whether that’s one episode or more is unknown for now.

At the end of season four, Wilson’s character Alison was killed under ambiguous circumstances, leaving Cole distraught and at a loss to where his life would go from there, taking solace in his shared daughter with Alison. Wilson confirmed back in August that she was not returning to the show, telling CBS This Morning that her characters was dead and that she “did want to leave, but I’m not allowed to talk about why.”

The Affair will likely return early next year for its final season where all the characters’ story arcs will find their conclusions.

The Affair is taking a quantum leap in its final season, with a key assist from new series regular Anna Paquin. As teased in our recent time warp-themed Blind Item, a portion of the Showtime drama’s fifth season will jump ahead roughly two or three decades in order to tell a story centered on Alison and Cole’s now-adult daughter Joanie Lockhart, played by True Blood vet Paquin. (FYI: When last seen, Joanie was 5-years-old; Paquin is 36.)

According to sources, Paquin’s Joanie returns to a climate-change ravaged Montauk to piece together the truth about what happened to her late mother (played by former cast member Ruth Wilson), bringing The Affair‘s five-season narrative full circle. Wilson’s Alison was killed off near the end of The Affair‘s fourth season, seemingly via suicide. However, in the penultimate Season 4 episode, it was revealed that she had died at the hands of love interest Ben (played by Ramón Rodríguez).

News of the The Affair‘s partial time jump comes amid a dramatic Season 5 cast shake-up. As previously reported, Joshua Jackson (Cole), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Luisa), Omar Metwally (Vik) and the aforementioned Wilson will not be back as series regulars. Cast members confirmed to return (for a present-day storyline) include Dominic West (Noah), Maura Tierney (Helen), Julia Goldani Telles (Whitney), Jadon Sand (Trevor) and Sanaa Lathan (Janelle).

Per The Affair‘s official Season 5 logline, the 10-episode farewell “will chronicle the aftermath of the [Season 4] finale’s horrific events and find the characters coming to terms with the consequences of their choices — as they make the realization that if they really want to change their futures they must first face the past. This final season is about how everything does really fall apart in the end, but somewhere in that wreckage, the seeds of change finally sprout.”

The Affair‘s fifth and final season will premiere on Showtime in 2019.