Matthew Fox needed to quit Hollywood after missing a lot of his children's early years.
The 59-year-old actor - who became a huge star playing Dr. Jack Shepard in Lost from 2004 to 2010 - stepped away from his career on the small screen in 2015, and he has made his major TV return in new Yellowstone spinoff The Madison.
Reflecting on his hiatus, Matthew told Variety: "I felt like it was time to engage really intensely with my family.
"I had missed some of their childhood because I was on set all the time with Lost and doing films and promoting everything.
“It was the right moment for me to step back and take a moment and engage with the people that I love and care about the most in the world.”
Matthew's first TV return came in Last Light in 2022, which was his first television role since Lost came to an end.
He has since appeared in comedy show C*A*U*G*H*T before landing his role in The Madison, and he was quickly convinced by producer Taylor Sheridan to get on board.
He explained: "I kind of missed storytelling."
The show, which sees Matthew play a bachelor thriving in the great outdoors, follows a New York City family who relocate to Madison River Valley in Montana after two relatives die in a plane crash.
Michelle Pfeiffer is also part of the cast as matriarch Stacy Clyburn.
Back in 2022, Matthew - who also appeared on the big screen in the likes of Vantage Point, World War Z and 2015 Western, Bone Tomahawk - admitted he didn't have a lot left to accomplish.
He told Variety at the time: "I kind of had a bucket list in my mind of things that I wanted to accomplish in the business.
“I wanted to do a Western. It’s a very odd Western, but it’s a Western. And so that sort of completed the bucket list.”
He was ready to "be home" after his wife Margherita Ronchi had "beautifully" held down the fort and raised their sons Kyle, 28, and Byron, 25.
He added: “I really felt like I was retiring from the business, and working on other creative elements that are really personal to me – some music and writing.”
