Sex Lives of College Girls’: How Does Reneé Rapp’s Leighton Murray Leave the Show?

By Rachel Seo

According To The variety SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Season 3 of “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” now streaming on Max. 

Fare thee well, Leighton Murray.

Following the July announcement that Reneé Rapp would leave “The Sex Lives of College Girls” in Season 3, the Max show has finally revealed how her character, über-rich legacy student Leighton Murray, departs from Essex College.

In the Season 3 premiere, Leighton discovers that the high-level mathematics class she was set to take is canceled due to a lack of participants. Her math professor tells her that though she can’t take the course at Essex, she can bus to a nearby college to do so. But an unpleasant incident with a public transit plebeian leads Leighton to ponder the direction of her life. Plus, her girlfriend, Alicia (Midori Francis), reveals that she’s dropping out of school to work for the mayor of Boston.

As reasons for leaving pile up, Leighton makes the difficult decision to transfer to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue her studies — though she initially doesn’t tell her beloved suitemates, Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) and Bela (Amrit Kaur). The three hear about it from a third-party source — former suitemate Jocelyn (Lauren Spencer) — and then confront Leighton, who apologizes for not telling them sooner. The four reconcile, of course, and then decide to see Leighton off in standard collegiate fashion (i.e. party!).

“Leighton Murray has never lost or conceded anything in her life,” co-showrunner Justin Noble said in an interview with Variety. “So the only way she would leave is if it’s what was unapologetically a win for herself.”

Rapp, whose music career has blossomed since the show’s premiere in November 2021, said in an interview with Variety that music has always been her end goal.

“[I thought], I can do music on the side, like, I can just hustle,” she said in. “And now I’ve just kept acting, because it keeps supporting the music…Acting was my way into tricking everyone that I warranted attention.”