Heartland: Here’s Why Ty Had to Leave the Show

Graham Wardle’s TV farmhand appeared on the hit series for 13 seasons.

More than five years after his departure, fans are still reeling over Ty Borden leaving the Heartland series.

For 13 seasons, Graham Wardle’s Ty was a cornerstone of the Canadian farming drama. His plight as a former big-city juvenile offender forced to work as a farmhand at the series’s central Heartland Ranch won fans over from day one.

However, after a decade-and-change on the show, Wardle departed from the series, even though it has gone on to run for many more seasons with out him (including many that have now started to spick up steam on Netflix).

Why Did Graham Wardle Leave Heartland?

CBC
Questions about Graham Wardle’s Ty Borden leaving Heartland after Season 13 have not stopped despite five more seasons of the series having come and gone since then.

Longtime fans of the Canadian drama will remember that Bordon’s series mainstay was notably killed off thanks to a gun hot he sustained during the Season 13 finale back in 2019.

That episode, titled “The Passing of the Torch,” saw Ty shot by a poacher trespassing on the Heartland Ranch property; however, it was not the gunshot itself that caused the character to meet his end.

He could have been saved, but it was a fatal blood clot that ultimately took him out. The Season 13 finale ended with Ty looking to have recovered from the bullet wound, before he would die early in Season 14.

The Season 14 premiere picked up with the character suffering from a devastating deep vein thrombosis, which killed him off and shook the series to its core.

However, all this time later, some have continued to take the character’s death as a bit of a shock and something that did not necessarily need to happen in the continuity of the show.

Ty’s death ultimately came about due to circumstances almost entirely outside of the show, as Wardle sought to exit the show following over a decade of playing his Heartland character.

At the time of his character’s on-screen death, Wardle told The Canadian Press (via The Chronicle Journal), “I felt in my heart it was time to move in a new direction,” citing that as the primary reason he wanted to leave the series:

“I felt in my heart it was time to move in a new direction. I now host the ‘Time Has Come’ podcast, and there will be a future episode coming out where I plan to share much more about my decision and my appreciation for the 14 years I’ve spent on ‘Heartland,'”

Speaking on a March 2021 episode of his spirituality-themed Time Has Come podcast, Wardle admitted that his leaving the series ultimately came down to needing “a break” from acting to focus on other things:

“That is a little bit about my experience with my departure from the show. People have asked me if I am going to continue acting. If there are more projects coming up. And, I gotta be honest, I am taking a break. I am going to take a break from acting and focus on my podcast, focus on some other projects that I have got on the go, my writing, my book. Acting has been really fun for me and I have really enjoyed it, b ut I think it is important for me to take a break.”

He said he is “very grateful” for his time on the show and is “happy that [it] is continuing to tell great stories:

“I am so grateful for all the supporters over the 14 years of the show that I was on it. It is very beautiful, and I am very grateful for you guys. So, thank you so much. It was a wonderful chapter in my life. I love telling stories. I love creating experiences for people and doing everything that I can to share my passion with the world. And playing Ty Borden for 14 years was really cool. It was really fun, and I learned a lot. I learned so much, and I am so grateful for it. I am really happy that the show is continuing to tell great stories and evolving, and people are still able to enjoy it.”

Wardle has since continued to be committed to this break from acting, with his last credit being his final appearance on Hearltand Season 4.

Heartland is now streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

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