Alison Sweeney Is Leaving 'Days Of Our Lives' After 21 Years On The Soap

After 21 years, Alison Sweeney has announced that she is leaving Days Of Our Lives. Sweeney has played the role of Samantha "Sami" Brandy since she was just 16-years-old, and won several awards for doing so (including a Daytime Emmy in 2002), but now she's excited to walk away and enjoy some downtime with her family.

"I have never had more than a two-week vacation [since I began Days] in that whole time and yeah," Sweeney told host Ellen DeGeneres on her daytime talk show. "It's [been] awesome. I love Sami, I love Salem, I love my job, I love daytime, I love the fans, I love everything about it."

However, Sweeney also loves her family and wants to be more hands-on in the future.

"My daughter just turned 5 and my son is 9, and I just want to be with them and enjoy my last year," she explained.

As for when her final episode of Days will be, Sweeney said that it hasn't yet been confirmed.

"I'm going to be on Days all this year," she assured fans. "We'll see what happens!"

"I mean it would be awesome to have some kind of happy ending, but then I also think Sami probably deserves some sort of very twisted like Breaking Bad ending, I don't know," she joked. "Sami has certainly caused he fair share of drama over the last 21 years. It will be 22 and I don't even know what happens next!"

"I'm really just excited to be with my kids and be with my husband and . . . have fun," she added. "And I write, my second book’s coming out and I love directing!"