The Madison Star Matthew Fox Finally Reveals Why He Stepped Away After Lost

After ruling TV in the 2000s and 2010s, Lost alum Matthew Fox stepped away in 2015 and stayed off-screen until 2021’s Peacock thriller Last Light. In a new interview, he finally reveals why he hit pause for years.

Matthew Fox is stepping back into TV again, and he has a tidy explanation for why he pressed pause in the first place. The internet, as usual, has other theories.

The break, in his words

Fox, best known as Jack Shephard on Lost, kept a low profile after 2015. He stayed off television from 2014 until 2021 and only turned up in a few films, with his last big-screen appearance in 2015's Bone Tomahawk. In a recent interview about his new series, The Madison, he laid out why he stepped away:

'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. And so it was the right moment for me to step back, take a moment, and engage with the people that I love and care about most in the world.'

He also said that time off reminded him how much he missed storytelling, which is part of what pulled him back.

The pushback

That family-first explanation drew plenty of side-eye online. Commenters brought up the baggage that trailed him in the early 2010s: in 2011, Fox was arrested in Cleveland after an alleged assault on a female bus driver, though charges were dropped; in 2012, his Lost co-star Dominic Monaghan publicly accused him of beating women. Many fans argue those controversies, fairly or not, are the real reason he receded from the spotlight. The discourse under the interview video went exactly how you think it went.

Where he left off, and what is next

• No TV roles from 2014 to 2021
• Last film appearance: 2015's Bone Tomahawk
• Return to TV: Peacock's limited series Last Light in 2021
• Next up: The Madison, a new series from Taylor Sheridan, with Fox back in a leading role

So yes, Fox is back on television, and the reception is already split between welcome-back and raised eyebrows. The new show will finish the argument for him one way or the other.