Did Pauley Perrette Shade Cote De Pablo After Her NCIS Exit?

On "NCIS," Pauley Perrette and Cote de Pablo played two characters who were on the same team, though their roles were wildly different. Perrette spent a lot of time filming on the show's forensics lab set, which was scientist Abby Sciuto's domain. While she was busy pretending to solve crimes by combing through evidence, de Pablo got to shoot many of her scenes outdoors and on location where field agent Ziva David often had to use her impressive combat skills to take out criminals.

Abby and Ziva were both fan favorite characters, and their dramatic exits from "NCIS" shocked viewers. De Pablo left first, abruptly departing just days before the cast and crew were supposed to begin filming Season 11 in 2013. During an interview with Digital Spy, actor David McCallum did not mince words when sharing his feelings about his co-star's actions. "It was frustration and anger that someone should just walk out on us," he said. "I just don't understand how a leading lady in a show that's worldwide, who ostensibly wants to have a career as an actress, suddenly walks away from such a gem and just vanishes a couple of days before we start production."

Even though Perrette would leave the show herself a few years later, fans believed that she also took a dig at de Pablo for her decision to quit — she just did so in a much shadier way.

While talking to reporters about Cote de Pablo's departure at the 2013 Summer TCA press tour, Pauley Perrette did not have anything negative to say about her co-star. She told E! News that she learned de Pablo was leaving shortly before the press did, so she was just as shocked as the show's fans. "But we love her. She's our friend. She had a personal decision to make," she said. "No one wanted her to leave. There was no drama."

However, Perrette just so happened to be wearing a t-shirt that had the words "I [heart] my job" emblazoned on it, which could have been construed as a response to de Pablo's exit. After all, she did reveal that job dissatisfaction played into her decision to leave. During a 2016 Q&A at Babson College, de Pablo shared her opinion that Ziva David "was not being treated with the respect that she deserved." She also complained that the show's scripts were not "good enough."

Perrette doubled down on her "NCIS" love on Twitter, where fans discussed the intent of her message. "This a dig at cote leaving??" asked one person. "No offence, but the message on your t shirt? very poor taste," another tweet read. We're just hoping Perrette was sincere when she told Yahoo! that the cast supported de Pablo's decision and had "nothing but love" for her after her abrupt exit.

As it turns out, Cote de Pablo loved her job enough to return to "NCIS" in 2019. During a BUILD Series interview, she revealed that a discussion with one of the show's writers about what Ziva David was possibly doing during her absence made her warm to the idea of coming back. This led to a conversation with the executive producers, and she liked what she heard. "It was just a very easy transition from there because it seemed that we were all on the same page," she said.

As for Pauley Perrette, viewers should not hold out hope of seeing Abby Sciuto's shiny black pigtails and Caf-Pow cups on "NCIS" anytime soon. She bid farewell to the series in 2018, and it seems that her departure was linked to some bad blood with her co-star, Mark Harmon. Perrette was reportedly upset with him for continuing to bring his dog to the show's set after it bit and seriously injured a crew member. Sources told TMZ that Perrette also claimed that Harmon "body checked" her in retaliation for her complaints about the canine. "NO I AM NOT COMING BACK! EVER! (Please stop asking?)," Perrette tweeted in June 2019. "I am terrified of Harmon and him attacking me. I have nightmares about it." So there you have it.