Andy Samberg left ‘SNL’ for his mental and physical health: ‘I was falling apart in my life’

Andy Samberg, 45, has revealed the real reason why he left “Saturday Night Live.” “It was a big choice. For me, it was like, I can’t actually endure it anymore.

But I didn’t want to leave,” Samberg said on the latest episode of Kevin Hart‘s Peacock interview series “Hart to Heart.” “Physically and emotionally, like I was falling apart in my life,” Samberg said.Samberg, who has been married to singer Joanna Newsom, 42, since 2013 and shares two kids with her, rose to fame on “SNL.” He was a cast member and writer from 2005 to 2012, becoming known for his “digital shorts,” such as his famous “dick in a box” sketch with Justin Timberlake, his “Lazy Sunday” sketch with Chris Parnell, and his catchy songs with amusing lyrics, such as “Like a Boss,” “I’m on a Boat” and “The Space Olympics.” Samberg told Hart that he wanted to be on “SNL” since he was 8 years old.

The first blow to his morale happened when his friends and Lonely Island collaborators Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone — who also started with him in 2005 — left when their writing contracts were up in 2010. “I was basically left in charge of making the shorts, which I never pretended like I could do without them,” Samberg said about Schaffer and Taccone’s departure. “We made stuff I’m really proud of in those last two years, but there’s something about the songs that I can only do with Akiva and Jorm.

It’s just how it is, we’re just a band in that way,” he explained. The grueling schedule also had a negative impact on him.“Physically, it was taking a heavy toll on me and I got to a place where I was like I hadn’t slept in seven years basically,” Samberg explained.