Desperate Housewives hunk Jesse Metcalfe relives getting FIRED from steamy role of Eva Longoria's hunky gardener

Jesse Metcalfe has relived his firing from one of the most sensational shows of the noughties, Desperate Housewives. 

In 2004, Metcalfe played John Rowland, the hunky gardener whom Eva Longoria's character Gabrielle Solis was having an affair with and whose rippling abs made audiences drool. 

He was initially hired on as a series regular before he was downgraded, however he continued making appearances on the series over the years.  

Now Metcalfe has recounted the experience in an exclusive interview with The Daily Mail, theorizing his part was diminished to avoid restricting Longoria's role to merely a woman having an affair. 

'I was a series regular on the first season, and then they changed me to a reoccurring character for the remaining seasons,' he told The Daily Mail at Clarins' Night of Extra soiree at the Academy Museum's Dolby Terrace on Friday.

'I came back over the course of nine seasons, really. I just think they didn't want to limit Eva Longoria's storyline to just having an affair. Marc Cherry, our creator, told me that it wasn't Desperate House Gardeners, it was Desperate Housewives.'

From 2004 to 2012, Desperate Housewives was a smash success that followed the lives of women living in the suburbs of Wisteria Lane - where drama abound.  

It catapulted Longoria, then a rather unknown actress, into superstardom, as well as her co-stars Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and Nicollette Sheridan. 

Metcalfe first revealed the Desperate Housewives firing an interview on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast.

'I was fired from Desperate Housewives,' he told host Amanda Hirsch about his breakout role. 'After the first season they didn't really know where else to take my storyline.' 

He said on the podcast, 'Our creator Marc Cherry was like, "This isn't Desperate House Gardeners, this is Desperate Housewives, so unfortunately you're not going to be a series regular moving forward on the show."'

Instead, he was brought back intermittently.

'At that time I had been offered [the lead role in] John Tucker Must Die from 20th Century Fox, so I was like, hey, cool, no big deal. I'm going to be a movie star,' he recalled.  

Indeed, while Metcalfe did end up becoming a massive star on the big and small screens, he also has ventured out into skincare.

Last year Metcalfe launched NUTRL, a skincare line that has been on the rise.  

'I also launched my own skincare line back in April of 2025, it's called NUTRL Skin,' he told The Daily Mail. 'We're direct-to-consumer right now, but we've been on Good Morning America and The View and the line's kind of blowing up.'

'It's been really great,' he said of the response to the brand. 'It's a super clean, gender-neutral line that's great for all skin types. 

'Incredibly hydrating, anti-aging. We got a couple peptide complexes in our serums that promote collagen production.'

Metcalfe attended the Clarins soiree - thrown to celebrate the cosmetic company's new Extra-Firming Energy cream - with his girlfriend Helene Immel on his arm.

The couple has been together for two and a half years and the actor gushed on the Not Skinny Not Fat podcast that the romance has been 'going really good.'

'I certainly haven't dated for my career,' he explained about dating women who are not famous.

He noted about his love life, 'I've been very luck in love. I've had a lot of incredible women love me and support me in my life, but this one's the best one.'

Last July his ex fling Scheana Shay published her memoir My Good Side and wrote about their brief connection.

When the former Vanderpump Rules personality dated the actor in 2007, she said 'it felt like I was living a real-life fantasy with this guy I’d watched on TV and in movies for years.'

'It’s always nice when people speak highly of you,' he later told Us Weekly about Shay's kind words.