Mark Cuban Reveals What It Will Take to Return to Shark Tank (Exclusive) ArticlePure

Is this really goodbye?

Mark Cuban’s final appearance on Shark Tank aired on Friday, May 16 after 15 years on ABC’s long-running show, so PEOPLE asked the Shark investor himself about whether that final episode was really his last — and if so, what it will take for him to dive back in.

“Who knows,” Cuban optimistically tells PEOPLE exclusively of what it will take for him to return to Shark Tank in the future. “Maybe after my kids are all out of school I’ll come on and raise hell again — but I doubt it.”

The business mogul, who solidified his status as a show staple since becoming a regular Shark in 2011, announced he’d be stepping away from Shark Tank in November 2023. His reason for departing, in part, was to spend more time with his kids.

When asked how his decision to leave Shark Tank shaped his time with his family since filming his final episode eight months ago, Cuban says it hasn’t “much yet” due to the show’s production schedule — which never required filming during these months.

“But for this coming fall, I’ll be able to finally be home for my wife, son’s and oldest daughter’s birthdays. We almost always were shooting then,” he explains, noting that they always shoot in June and September.

Cuban and his wife Tiffany Stewart share three children together. They welcomed their first child, daughter Alexis, one year after they wed in September 2002. Their daughter Alyssa followed in 2006 and son Jake in 2010.

Now that he won’t have to film, Cuban’s dialed in on just being dad (and perhaps a self-deprecated dose of humbling from his teenagers, too).

“They will have more time to ignore me and tell me how I’m not as cool as I think I am. All which I love,” he says. “It will give me more time to learn and tell them dad jokes and my stupid sayings and leave the room rolling their eyes.”

He adds, “I would rather all of that than listen to royalty deals!”

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Elsewhere in his interview with PEOPLE, Cuban reflected on his final day on the Shark Tank set.

While he admitted to having “no second thoughts at all” about his decision to leaving the show, he revealed what — or rather, who — he’d “miss more than anything.”

“Our crew from Sharks to PAs to producers are incredible to work with and to know. That’s who I will miss more than anything,” he shared, noting that he felt “a lot of sadness” — but at the same time, he sensed “some closure and readiness to move on.”

Cuban also explained how Shark Tank took his “celebrity” to a “completely different level.”

He added, “And to be recognized everywhere I went, here in the USA and wherever Shark Tank played globally. It completely changed my life.”