Jeff Garlin has left the long-running ABC sitcom The Goldbergs amid allegation of on-set misconduct and an ongoing HR investigation, Variety reports.

It was reportedly a mutual decision between between Garlin and The Goldbergs for him to leave. His departure is effective immediately, and The Goldbergs will have to finish filming its ninth season without him. It’s unclear how the show will handle the departure of the actor who played the patriarch of the show’s titular family. 

Reps for Garlin, The Goldbergs and Sony Pictures Television (which produces the show) did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.

No formal allegations against Garlin have been made public, though rumors about his workplace conduct have been swirling for some time, and three former Goldbergs employees recently told Vanity Fair that the actor allegedly engaged in a verbal and physical conduct that made people uncomfortable. Garlin spoke with Vanity Fair for that piece too, and in it he denied rumors at the time that he’d been fired, but confirmed he’d been under HR investigations for three years. 

Garlin specifically addressed one alleged incident with a stand-in that was reportedly both physical and verbal. Garlin denied things got physical and instead insisted the issue was “a joke that was completely missed” (Garlin added that he’d worked with the stand-in before and apologized afterwards.)

Garlin added that the issue was a “difference of opinion” between himself and Sony. “My opinion is, I have my process about how I’m funny, in terms of the scene and what I have to do,” he said. “They feel that it makes for a quote ‘unsafe’ workspace. Now, mind you, my silliness making an unsafe workspace — I don’t understand how that is. And I’m on a comedy show. I am always a kind and thoughtful person. I make mistakes, sure. But my comedy is about easing people’s pain. Why would I ever want to cause pain in anybody for a laugh? That’s bullying. That’s just uncalled for.”

Additionally in the interview, Garlin was confronted with allegations that he made people uncomfortable by touching and hugging them. “If I hug someone, and they feel uncomfortable from it, they have every right to even go to HR,” Garlin said. “But HR has never said a word to me about hugs. Just so we’re clear on that.”

He was also asked about a text he allegedly sent to a Goldbergs colleague suggesting they come to the next table-read without wearing a lot of clothes. Garlin said he didn’t remember sending the text and added, “I’d like to see the text and who I sent it to. But everything that I write like that is about joking. I am respectful of women and women’s bodies. And I don’t make jokes about that, because I don’t find it funny.”

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