A long time coming? Executive producer Elan Gale’s exit from Bachelor Nation didn’t come as a surprise to some stars of the franchise.

“I don’t know if I really want to reveal what we talked about, but just, you know, he was ready to move on,” Ashley Iacoentti revealed on the Monday, December 10, episode of her “Almost Famous” podcast with cohost Ben Higgins and guest Becca Tilley. “I think he’s been ready for a while … He’s been saying, ‘This is gonna be my last year, this is gonna be my last year’ for, like, the past two years.”

Tilley, 30, also heard that 35-year-old Gale, who started working on the hit ABC dating series in 2009, was ready for a new chapter.

“I always kind of thought — and this is just my personal opinion — Elan was a very integral part of The Bachelor and how it is so genius. He’s a very smart man,” she explained. “But especially in the last couple of years when I talked to him —and I don’t talk to him that often — it felt like he was ready to move on.”

The Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss announced Gale’s departure on Thursday, December 6, via Twitter. “He felt it was time to move on,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly.

A second insider added that the You’re Not That Great author, who is on the road nearly four months out of the year filming, was “over it” and wanted to spend more time with his girlfriend, actress Molly Quinn. Gale’s exit also came as a shock to the network, according to a third source.

Many Bachelor Nation favorites since took to social media to celebrate Gale’s contributions to The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, Bachelor Pad, After Paradise and Bachelor Winter Games.

“If you have enjoyed The Bachelor at all over the past 10 years this man played a role,” wrote Nick Viall via Instagram on Friday, December 7. “Elan has moved on from Bachelor Nation, he will be missed. So tell Elan thank you Bachelor Nation. Amen.”

Added Evan Bass: “Elan wasn’t able to be at [my wedding to Carly Waddell] but he’s the reason me and Carly are me n Carly,” Bass, who appeared on JoJo Fletcher’s season of The Bachelorette in 2015 before falling in love with Waddell on Bachelor in Paradise months later, shared via Instagram on Friday. “He’s the reason [our daughter] Bella exists. He taught me more in a few weeks than I’d ever learned in my entire life.”