Dominic West finally opens up about The Affair co-star’s controversial exit

Five years after his co-star and on-screen lover’s abrupt exit from their show, Dominic West has finally revealed his side of the story.

Dominic West has spoken about his co-star Ruth Wilson’s exit from their series, The Affair.

Dominic West has finally weighed in on the scandal that saw his former co-star quit their show, claiming she needed to “protect” herself.

Ruth Wilson appeared as West’s younger on-screen lover in The Affair from 2014 until 2019, before abruptly being written out of the Emmy-nominated series.

Wilson later spoke cryptically of the situation, saying an incident on set “didn’t feel right” and that she “didn’t feel safe.”

In a new interview with the UK’s Sunday Times, West was reportedly hesitant as the controversial subject was broached, but confirmed his co-star’s allegations.

“We talked a lot about it and I suppose I did experience it,” he told the publication.

“I don’t really like talking about it but … yeah, everything Ruth has said is absolutely right.”

Wilson and West played on-screen lovers in The Affair.

Wilson, who reportedly left the show due to the number of sex scenes she’d had to film, later described them as “desperately awkward” in an interview with the Times.
“Dom and I had to do so many sex scenes and I decided at one point I wasn’t going to show my nipples anymore,” she explained, adding that things had changed since the introduction of intimacy co-ordinators.

West spoke about his co-star’s exit in a new interview. Picture: Justin Tallis/AFP

Wilson has said she didn’t “feel safe.” Picture: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images

“But before nothing would be said. It would be about making it up as you go along.

“No one wanted to discuss [sex scenes], so the actors were invariably left to create something on the day and that’s desperately awkward. It’s a horrible place to be.”

Wilson went on to claim her intimate on-screen interactions with West had begun to feel “exploitative.”

“If something doesn’t feel authentic, in the context of something like a sex scene, it can start to feel exploitative. And that was happening on The Affair a bit,” she said.

“Now I’m working as a producer [and] we have the space where if you’re feeling a bit uncomfortable we can talk about that.”

Originally published as Dominic West finally opens up about The Affair co-star’s controversial exit