Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox have called it quits after a five-year relationship.

The former Buffy the Vampire Slayer star and the retired NBA player have decided it’s time to go their separate ways, prompting Dushku to move back to her hometown of Boston.

“Rick’s an L.A. guy and I’m a Boston girl,” she told The Boston Globe.

Dushku, 33, told The Globe that she recently bought a condo near Watertown and is planning to go back to begin her studies towards a bachelor’s degree.

“It helps me navigate the stories that I want to tell in areas that are interesting to me,” she told The Los Angeles Times.

Sad news: Eliza Dushku & Rick Fox have split! http://t.co/WAhKr2HQFc pic.twitter.com/bvHHqAE92U

— E! Online (@eonline) June 24, 2014

Dushku said she’s looking forward to living on the East Coast after 22 years in L.A.

“I’d rather be a little physically cold here than emotionally cold in L.A.,” she said. “I missed my town and my family.”

Duskhu said she plans to focus her studies on psychological and sociological behavior, knowing that it will be useful to her as a director and actress.

“I’m actually looking to go back to school,” she told the Los Angeles Times‘ Hero Complex in March. “One of the areas that’s so interesting to me — and obviously it played out in the show ‘Dollhouse’ — are these deep crevasses of our brains and our emotions that make us tick, and what those combinations and variables are that are looked at in projects like [‘Gable 5’] and projects like ‘Dollhouse.'”

Although her education is her primary focus for the near future, the Dollhouse actress does not plan on completely foregoing acting.

“I have a new life right now,” said Dushku. “I’m on kind of a different path for the time being.”

Could it be that differing opinions on fashion could be a factor in their split?

In 2010, Dushku said living with the basketball pro opened her eyes to his lack of fashion sense.

“I never believed he was a bad dresser” until they moved in together, she said. “We’re in the middle of moving the clothes. The clothes were at one place and he kind of had to pick from the surviving things that he didn’t bring to the house.”

Dushku began dating Fox, 44, in 2009 and they moved in together in 2010. He was previously married to Vanessa Williams, with whom he has a daughter. He also has a son from a previous relationship.

Image via Wikimedia Commons