James Denton may be best known as the heartthrob Mike Delfino on Desperate Housewives, but off-screen, the actor says one of the best decisions he ever made had nothing to do with his career. Instead, it was about giving his children a healthier place to grow up.

In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the 63-year-old actor reflected on why he and his wife, Erin O’Brien, left Los Angeles after Desperate Housewives ended and moved their family to Minnesota. Looking back, Denton believes it was the right choice.

“It’s not a great place to raise kids,” Denton said of Los Angeles, while emphasizing that he wasn’t criticizing the city itself. “It’s nothing against L.A. … It is what it is. There’s a lot of positives, a lot of negatives.”

Denton and O’Brien are parents to son Sheppard, now 23, and daughter Malin, 21, who were just 10 and 8 years old when the family relocated to the Midwest. He said one of the biggest differences was escaping the intense image-driven culture often associated with Hollywood.

He explained that he has watched many of his friends’ children struggle with “the social media impact and the desire to keep up with the other people.”

“Whether it’s the plastic surgery or the nails or the hair or all that,” he said. “It’s really interesting to me and something my daughter didn’t really go through in the Midwest to that degree. So that was interesting to see. Wow, that is a different culture for kids.”

While acknowledging that “some parents handle it great and do a wonderful job,” Denton said he believed it was simply easier to remove his family from that environment.

“L.A. is a tougher place because of, I think just that whole, the emphasis on image, which really is hard to escape in L.A.,” he said.

Family also played a major role in the move. Erin O’Brien’s relatives live in Minnesota, giving their children the opportunity to grow up surrounded by grandparents and cousins.

“Their mom and I were like, ‘Look, all of her family was up in Minnesota, great place to raise kids, in the Midwest, great public schools, let’s get them out of LA. Let them grow up somewhere a little more healthy and then I’ll figure it out,'” Denton recalled. As it turned out, he quickly landed a starring role on Hallmark Channel’s Good Witch, filmed in Toronto, allowing him to fly home every weekend.

Years earlier, he summed up the decision simply: “Our kids get to grow up with their cousins and grandparents. And we got them out of L.A., so it’s all good.”

Today, Denton has returned to Los Angeles, but he says he has no regrets. He noted that he’s met many “fantastic” young people who were raised there but still believes the Midwest “was a better place for them to grow up.”

Away from television, Denton is currently portraying George Washington in A General’s Prayer at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. The one-man production explores the first president’s reliance on prayer during the darkest days of the Revolutionary War, particularly at Valley Forge.

Denton said the play reveals a side of Washington that many Americans rarely see.

“He was at the end of his rope,” Denton said. “It’s interesting to see him that vulnerable because you never get to see it. He’s so stoic, and he’s so revered… It’s interesting too how he had so many names for God.”

For Denton, the production carries a timeless message. He hopes audiences will remember Washington’s call for Americans to be “bound by a familial affection” and united despite their differences—a theme he believes remains just as relevant today as it was nearly 250 years ago.