"I just went, F**k you": Taylor Momsen shares how she battled studio executives to quit the hit show Gossip Girl

Taylor Momsen, who played Jenny (Jennifer) Humphrey in the iconic teen drama Gossip Girl, recently opened up about how she once struggled to break free from the show.

As Taylor appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, she mentioned how it was difficult for her to get out of the contract that she signed with the CW, leaving behind the project (Gossip Girl), which was massively loved by the audience. For the Pretty Reckless band member, Taylor, she “knew she had to leave. But at the same time, leaving a career that is so prosperous was not easy.'’

The former actress, however, has already revealed her reasons for exiting the CW show back in 2023 on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast (via DailyMail), saying she never fully fit in on set because she was younger. Penn was also a cast member of Gossip Girl, and Taylor told him during the podcast, “I was so much younger than all of you.”

Choosing music as her full-time career and a passion that she had dreamt of following, Momsen said, 

“That's where music became such a solace for me. It was this place where I could just be, writing songs and emoting how I felt because I was by myself a lot. 'I didn't have my own clique. I didn't fit in with you guys, I didn't fit in with Connor's friends - I was younger than them. I was the new girl. I was Grinch girl. I was always in this kind of weird, isolated world - partially of my own creating, probably.”

After she decided to leave the show that had brought her immense fame and success, several people around her began to label her as “ungrateful,” claiming she was turning her back on the very project that had launched her career. But for them, she just had a few words to say, “Oh, I just went, f*** you,” she told Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast. 

She further added, 

“You don't know what you're talking - like you're not in my shoes so how dare you judge this.”

Taylor Momsen was not willing to be “stuck” on the show 

The former actress was just 13 years old when she began to work on Gossip Girl, and her last appearance on the show was in mid-season four. After her exit, the writers wrote her out of the show, and she returned in the final season six of Gossip Girl. 

Being under the contract with CW, it prohibited her from working in any other projects as she was still ‘’under contract” with Warner Bros. and CW. But for Momsen, it didn’t bother much, as she was looking for a way out of acting. She approached the writers, and the only solution they could offer was to write her out of the script, something she remains genuinely grateful for.

After struggling to get herself out of the contract, she reached out to the writers, and they said, "Well, we can't let you out of the contract because that's not our job, but we can write you out of the show." 

Taylor added, 

“And I'm like, "That's perfectly fine." I'm trying to get out. Like, it's not what I want to do anyways. It's good. I just wasn't in the script the next week.”

She further said that she ‘Irish dipped,’ her co-stars and didn’t inform them prior that she was willing to exit the show. She said, 

“I mean, they all knew I was making music. They all knew I had a band. I would play them stuff, because I was working on the first record while I was on the show. I would come in and play songs and play music. But I don't think anyone knew how serious I was at that stage.”

Speaking about how it all started, Momsen said on the podcast,

"It started with a, 'I don't wanna do this anymore,' but you are in a lock and key contract with CW Warner Brothers, you know, all of that stuff. It was a very long battle of me arguing with everyone and going, 'Get me outta this. I can't do this anymore. This is killing me. I have something else I want to do with my life and it has nothing to do with this and I can't be stuck here anymore.”

She even recalled how paparazzi in New York would photograph her while she was in character (Jenny) and then publish those photos as if they were of her real self. This often led to her receiving criticism for things her character did on the show, which she found confusing and hurtful, especially since she was only 14 at the time. Over time, these experiences made her realize that she wasn’t comfortable being controlled by others or defined by a role; she needed to find her own identity and be true to herself.