Cecily Strong Reveals Why She Stayed Quiet About Her ‘Saturday Night Live’ Exit

Cecily Strong bid farewell to Global’s “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend after 11 seasons, and the star has now revealed why she waited so long to speak about it publicly.

Strong had not one but two goodbye moments — first during “Weekend Update”, when she reprised one of her recurring characters, Cathy Anne, for a final time. Then, as the final sketch, Strong played a character named “Cecily” who worked at a Radio Shack, and all her co-workers were gathered together to say goodbye.

Kenan Thompson played her boss, Frank Lasagna, in a sketch that was obviously just a way to send her off with a bang.

Host Austin Butler then joined the cast to perform “Blue Christmas”.

Strong shared a clip of the performance afterwards, writing: “My heart is bursting. I have a lot of big huge life changing love to unpack, so this is what I can say tonight 💙

“Ten and a half years ago I got my dream job. The first actual work day I tried to be very cool and make it look like I knew what i was doing and I was supposed to be there. I left that night around 11 after saying goodbye to everyone.

“I got stuck wandering around the building because none of the elevators went to the first floor and I was trying so hard to avoid having to go back upstairs to ask for help because I’d already said goodbye!!!” she recalled.

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“I think I went to every floor trying to figure out if there was another exit I was missing. I might have even gone into a stairwell. I ended up going back upstairs and my soon-to-be great friend Colin Jost helped me out and walked me over to the secret night time elevator. It felt as impossible to leave that night as it does now. And my great friend Colin Jost ended up helping me again, this time by getting Elvis to sing me off (thank you Austin Butler you absolute kind and generous dreamboat). I’m sorry I’ve been a little quiet about it publicly.”

Strong added of why she remained quite tight-lipped about her exit, “I didn’t want the extra pressure on something already so emotional for me. And I’m so grateful I got to have these wonderful past six shows to help me ease into it and get to meet and laugh and probably overly hug Molly, Marcello, Devon, and Michael who I think are not only brilliantly funny but really great humans. I am ready to go, but I’ll always know home is here. I’ve had the time of my life working with the greatest people on earth.”

“Saturday Night Live” airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on Global.