Will & Grace: Megan Mullally to miss multiple episodes of final season

For a couple of weeks it pretty much will be “Just Jack.”

TVLine has learned exclusively that Megan Mullally recently took a temporary leave of absence from the final, 18-episode season of Will & Grace that resulted in her missing two episodes as Karen. It’s not clear why Mullally took the time off, but her mini-departure comes amid rumors of friction on the set between her and co-star Debra Messing.

The scuttlebutt started earlier this year when sharp-eyed fans noticed that Mullally and Messing stopped following each other on Instagram. And in subsequent Will & Grace-themed social media posts, the pair have rarely been pictured together. (It also appears that Mullally has stopped following her aforementioned onscreen sidekick, Sean Hayes.)

Eric McCormack — the only Will & Grace co-star with whom Mullally is still following on Instagram — downplayed talk of a feud earlier this fall, telling US Weekly that “people worried… entirely too much” about Instagram-gate, before adding, “The four of us get along like a house on fire, we always have.”

News of Mullally’s two-episode break arrives just hours before Will & Grace‘s hastily-moved-up 11th season is set to premiere on NBC. The two Karen-less episodes are slated to air later this season.

An NBC spokesperson declined to comment for this story. TVLine has also reached out to Mullally’s camp for comment.