Kriti Mehrotra
By revolving around the experiences of Los Angeles’ first responders as they navigate their personal and professional lives, ‘9-1-1‘ has been one of the most acclaimed procedural shows on our screens since its premiere in January 2018. The fact that the cast includes big names like Peter Krause, Angela Bassett, and Jennifer Love Hewitt is just a plus. However, the third episode of season 5 has left fans wondering whether the latter’s character, Maddie Buckley, could be saying goodbye to the series for good. So, here’s everything we know about the matter!
What Happened to Maddie Buckley?
As the sister of Evan “Buck” Buckley, Maddie Buckley’s first appearance in season 2 came as a pleasant surprise, soon after which, her romance with Howard “Chimney” Han starts evolving. This pair stays together through several traumas and obstacles, only to end up welcoming a beautiful baby girl into their lives. Things take a turn for the worse, though, when Maddie begins to experience the realities of postpartum depression and also quits her job. In fact, in the debut episode of season 5, we see that her medications don’t seem to be helping either.
All this culminates when Maddie begins to consider that she might not be able to make progress in her current situation. Therefore, she drops off her and Chimney’s daughter at the fire station (not specifically with Chimney) and explains her reasoning in a video message to him. Maddie says she knows that he is probably hurt and confused, but she has to leave because their daughter is not safe with her, “not now and maybe [not ever].” She further insists that she is not in any danger, so he doesn’t need to go to the police, ending with, “I love you. I love both of you. And I’m really sorry.”
Is Jennifer Love Hewitt Leaving 9-1-1?
From what we can tell, Jennifer Love Hewitt is not departing from her role of Maddie Buckley or ‘9-1-1’ anytime soon. Neither she nor the creators or producers of this show have made an announcement regarding this topic, so we can definitely expect Jennifer and Maddie to return. ‘9-1-1’ probably introduced this storyline involving her mental health to serve two purposes: demonstrate the actualities of labor and its aftermath and give Jennifer a proper maternity leave. After all, like her character, Jennifer recently gave birth in September 2021, welcoming her third child with her loving husband.
Jennifer has implied that representing postpartum depression through Maddie has been significant, yet it appears as if she has no intention of leaving her character at just that stage. But for now, she’s focusing on her family — husband Brian Hallisay, 7-year-old Autumn, 6-year-old Atticus, and newborn Aidan James.
Jennifer reiterated this on Instagram by writing, as seen above, “Well this is how my kids sent me to the hospital. My belly was a big hit. “It is said that women leave their bodies in labor… they travel to the stars to collect the souls of their babies, and return to this world together.” It was my greatest honor to go and collect you Aidan James. Now back to snuggles and resting. 👶🏻🧡”
Read More: Is Ryan Guzman’s Eddie Leaving 9-1-1?
