Irish screen hunk Jonathan Rhys Meyers will return as Henry VIII in the final season of Showtime’s hit show "The Tudors" on April 11. But this week the gorgeous Irish actor is more than ready to leave the throne.

'I’m glad to say goodbye,' he told the press. 'It’s nice to say goodbye to things. Its funny, I made a movie with Anthony Hopkins 10 years ago and he said one of his favorite parts of making films was going on to the next thing. It’s like the death of one thing but the beginning of another. I had the best time doing the series and Henry was one of the best parts I’ve ever played. And in this final season he becomes an older man which was a bit more challenging because it took some prosthetic make-up.'

'I think he makes great television, but in the final analysis, he was not a great monarch. Henry was wracked with ego, vanity and thoughts of his own divinity. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so he was very corrupt. I have a degree of admiration for him, but not much. Basically, he was a bastard, but an interesting and attractive bastard.'

Rhys Meyers has no time for critics who lament the historical inaccuracies of the Tudors plot. In particular he scoffs at the idea that he's much better looking than the real Henry.

'He was a lot heavier and taller than I am, but so what? I think I’d have been stupid to put on a fat suit and I wasn’t about to gain a lot weight. But I think Henry was better looking than he was portrayed in the classic portrait by Hans Holbein. I think he would have hated it. It may be great art, but it’s not a good picture. I’ve seen fat, ugly pictures of Brad Pitt because some paparazzi got him from a bad angle on a bad morning. So how would he feel if that were the sole image of him that would be seen by future generations? He’d be going, ‘What the hell? I was a great looking guy.'