Going their separate ways. Ellen Pompeo admitted she hasn’t talked to former Grey’s Anatomy costar Patrick Dempsey since he left the hit ABC series in 2015.
“We haven’t spoken since he’s left the show,” TV’s highest-paid actress, 49, admitted on the Monday, December 10, episode of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk. “I have no hard feelings toward him, he’s a wonderful actor and we made, you know, the best TV you could make together.”
She continued, “That’s a talented man right there. He did 11 amazing years.”
Dempsey’s character, Derek Shephard, was dramatically killed off in the season 11 episode titled “How to Save a Life.” There were reports at the time that the 51-year-old actor was “acting like a diva” and clashed with creator Shonda Rhimes towards the end of his tenure, which ultimately led her to write his character off the series. Pompeo, however, says there will always be a place in her heart for her longtime colleague.
“Typically when people leave the show, they need to sort of re-find themselves, who they are, without the show, because the show takes up so much of your life,” she explained. “You need that time to figure out who you are without the show. So, we have not spoken but I will always have a place in my heart for Patrick.”
The mother of three broke her silence on the dramatic storyline just days after Dempsey’s shocking departure.
“I have always said what keeps me going is the fans. Knowing we move you and inspire you,” she tweeted at the time. “There are so many people out there who have suffered tremendous loss and tragedy. Husbands and wives of soldiers, victims of senseless violence and parents who have lost children. People who get up each day and do what it feels like is the impossible.”
She added, “So it is for these people and in the spirit of resilience I am honored and excited to tell the story of how Meredith goes on in the face of what feels like the impossible. I hope you will all join me on her journey.”
