So ultimately the screenwriter isn’t entirely surprised by what happened.

“I knew he wasn’t a team player and that he wanted to do it his way,” White continued. “I was thrown that he would go to The New York Times to s–t on me and the show three days before the finale. It was kind of a b—h move.”

Indeed, just ahead of the season three finale, Tapia de Veer suggested there was bad blood between him and White that ultimately led to his departure, telling the outlet that when it came to the showrunner, he “didn’t give him what he wanted.”

White, meanwhile, sees this now-public falling out as the culmination of their experience working on the first three seasons of The White Lotus together. (A fourth season has already been commissioned by HBO.) 

“By the time the third season came around, he’d won Emmys and he had his song go viral, he didn’t want to go through the process with me, he didn’t want to go to sessions,” White noted. “He would always look at me with this contemptuous smirk on his face like he thought I was a chimp or something. He’s definitely making a big deal out of a creative difference.”