After his TV life on Wisteria Lane as Mike Delfino, James Denton sought out his own slice of American suburbia.
In an interview on Thursday, March 25 with The Morning Show, the actor explained his decision to leave Hollywood following the hit ABC series Desperate Housewives, which he starred on from the premiere episode all the way until his murder in the final season.
Behind the scenes, the father of two wanted a different life for his growing kids, so off to his wife Erin O'Brien's native Minnesota they went. "We thought maybe we should get the kids out of L.A.," he recalled. "It's not a great place for kids. It's tough. The schools are really expensive, so we decided as soon as Housewives ended, we'd come up here and let them grow up in a little more normal suburban American neighborhood."
"It was a conscious decision," he said, "to get them near family and out of L.A."
While he may be further from Hollywood's epicenter, that doesn't mean Denton has stopped working. Most recently, he starred on The Hallmark Channel's The Good Witch for five years. However, it was not so easy for him to get cast in different roles following the mega success of the Golden Globe-winning Housewives.
"I had trouble getting seen for anything that was a suit and tie role or maybe a politician," he remembered. "Anything like that that wasn't blue collar, I had a little trouble right after Housewives."
"That's the only downside," he noted, "but you'll never hear me complain."
For a status update on where more of Denton's former Desperate Housewives co-stars are today, just keep scrolling!