Around the time The Gift was produced, the series' regular cast took
Jennifer Lien out to dinner. She had a poignant discussion with
Kate Mulgrew on the same night. Mulgrew later remembered, "I drove her home and said, 'This could be serendipity, Jen. You're so unusual and so deep and fine. I believe it's the beginning of a stellar career.'" Unfortunately, Lien only had one more minor acting role, some voice work, and retired from acting upon the birth of her son, leaving Hollywood for Tennessee. From 2012-2019 she's shown increasingly erratic behavior and had several run-ins with the law resulting in multiple arrests. In July 2012, Lien was arrested on a domestic violence charge, and in August of that year she was arrested after fleeing from a police officer that attempted to make a traffic stop on her for speeding, Lien wound up being charged with evading arrest, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault of a police officer. In September 2012, Lien was charged with indecent exposure to a minor after flashing a teenager in a public park, although those charges were later dropped. In December 2017, she was arrested for driving under the influence and drug possession, she was again arrested in 2018 for DUI and driving with a revoked license. In September of 2019 after being arrested for a third time for driving with a revoked license, her 8th arrest total, a judge ordered Lien to undergo a mental health evaluation after which she was diagnosed with an undisclosed mental disorder, with the judge ordering Lien to be placed in court-ordered psychiatric care. Following this information becoming public, in a November 6, 2023 interview with ScreenRant producer
Jeri Taylor confirmed that while creative reasons were initially cited, Lien's severe struggles with mental health and substance abuse issues had been affecting her performance and causing issues on the set, and was the the primary reason why she was written off the show.
