Cecily Strong has left the building – or rather, the SNL studios.
The 38-year-old comedian departed the popular late-night show on Saturday (December 17). Her departure was announced just a few hours before the episode was supposed to start.
The official Instagram of Saturday Night Live shared a handwritten sign which read:
“We’ll miss you, Cecily!”
This sign was accompanied by several photos of her on SNL/.
As caption, they wrote:
“Tonight we send off one of the best to ever do it. We’ll miss you, Cecily.”
Cecily joined the cast of SNL back in 2012.
After the weekend, she took to Instagram to share her first statement since news broke that she was leaving the show:
“My heart is bursting. I have a lot of big huge life changing love to unpack, so this is what I can say tonight 💙.”
She went on, talking about her experience on her “dream job”:
“Ten and a half years ago I got my dream job. The first actual work day I tried to be very cool and make it look like I knew what i was doing and I was supposed to be there. I left that night around 11 after saying goodbye to everyone. I got stuck wandering around the building because none of the elevators went to the first floor and I was trying so hard to avoid having to go back upstairs to ask for help because I’d already said goodbye!!! I think I went to every floor trying to figure out if there was another exit I was missing. I might have even gone into a stairwell. I ended up going back upstairs and my soon-to-be great friend Colin Jost helped me out and walked me over to the secret night time elevator.
It felt as impossible to leave that night as it does now. And my great friend Colin Jost ended up helping me again, this time by getting Elvis to sing me off (thank you Austin Butler you absolute kind and generous dreamboat).”
Cecily concluded by apologizing for being quiet publicly about her decision, and expressed her love for her cast mates and show:
“I’m sorry I’ve been a little quiet about it publicly. I didn’t want the extra pressure on something already so emotional for me. And I’m so grateful I got to have these wonderful past six shows to help me ease into it and get to meet and laugh and probably overly hug [new cast members Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker] who I think are not only brilliantly funny but really great humans.
I am ready to go, but I’ll always know home is here. I’ve had the time of my life working with the greatest people on earth.”
