The Most Dramatic Grey's Anatomy Departures

Ellen Pompeo (Dr. Meredith Grey)

After nearly two decades of heartbreak, laughter and a whole lot of medical emergencies, Ellen Pompeo is hanging up her white coat and stepping away from Grey's Anatomy.

By 2023, Pompeo's Dr. Meredith Grey was one of just three remaining characters from the show's original cast. On her final episode, "I'll Follow the Sun," which aired Feb. 23, 2023, fans watched as Meredith walked through her final day at Grey Sloan Memorial and prepared to move her family to Boston.

The episode was the first since the series' winter hiatus. Before the break, Meredith's storyline ended with her character's decision to leave Seattle for New England, where she accepted a position with the Catherine Fox Foundation to research Alzheimer's disease.

Ahead of the episode, Pompeo had already stepped back from the series to pursue outside projects, including Orphan.

On The Drew Barrymore Show in December 2022, Pompeo opened up about her reduced role.

"I feel super happy, but listen the show has been incredible to me and I've loved a lot of the experience," she shared. "Listen it's just I gotta mix it up a little bit. I'm 53, my brain is like scrambled eggs ... I gotta do something new or I'm literally gonna turn into, like, [someone who] can't do the New York Times crossword puzzle every single day."

Pompeo's official exit came after years of hinting that the show, or at least her time on it, was coming to an end.

In 2018, she told Entertainment Weekly that she was looking for "a change."

"I'm clearly not prepared right now to make any formal announcement about what my future is on the show, but I am really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories that we can tell," Pompeo said.

In September 2021, she shined some light onto why she's stuck it out for so long despite her inclination to see what else is out there.

"It's not because I haven't been trying," she told Entertainment Tonight of leaving Meredith behind. "I have strong relationships at the network [ABC] and they have been very, very good to me, and have incentivized me to stay."

Justin Chambers (Dr. Alex Karev)

After starring as Dr. Alex Karev for 16 seasons, ABC confirmed to PEOPLE on Jan. 10, 2020, that Chambers had left the beloved medical drama.

"There's no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that's defined so much of my life for the past 15 years," Chambers said in a statement to PEOPLE. "For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is that time."

He added, "As I move on from Grey's Anatomy, I want to thank the ABC family, Shonda Rimes, original cast members Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens, and the rest of the amazing cast and crew, both past and present, and, of course, the fans for an extraordinary ride."

Throughout the years, fans grew to love Alex Karev — an egotistical medical intern who blossomed into a nurturing pediatric surgeon throughout the seasons. In his penultimate season, Karev was fired for his involvement in the insurance fraud scandal and was hired Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Pacific Northwest General Hospital.

Because Chambers' last episode aired on Nov. 14, 2019 — he was absent from the midseason finale and it was explained that he was taking care of his ailing mother — the character did not get a send-off episode.

After months of wondering, it was later revealed that the reason Karev left Seattle — and his wife Jo (Camilla Luddington) — was to move to Kansas to be with his ex-wife, Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) and their 5-year-old twins.

Jessica Capshaw (Dr. Arizona Robbins) & Sarah Drew (Dr. April Kepner)

When the actresses confirmed on Twitter in March 2018 that neither would be returning for season 15, Deadline — the first to report the news — implied that star Ellen Pompeo's negotiation for a $20 million salary led to Drew and Capshaw being removed. "This is above my pay grade," Pompeo clarified on Twitter, adding that the situation shouldn't be made to "pit women against each other."

Following the news, Drew took to Instagram to reminisce about her time on the show and thank the cast and crew.

"My nine years on Grey's Anatomy has forever shaped and changed me. I grew as an actor and as a human. I developed beautiful life long friendships. I found my voice and learned how to collaborate creatively with our incredibly talented group of writers and with our leadership," Drew wrote in a tribute post shared to Instagram. "Our writers are simply extraordinary."

"This past year, I began my journey as a director and had the privilege of being taught by Chandra Wilson, Kevin McKidd and Debbie Allen," she added, noting other cast members who doubled as directors on the show.

"I was able to grow my family and have my two beautiful children while working in an environment that took great care of me thanks to Shonda Rhimes and the precedent she set. And I got to be a part of a show that continues to push boundaries, inspire people to pursue their dreams, find strength in hardship, and fight for what they believe in," she concluded. "What an honor and a privilege to have had the chance to be a part of this extraordinary family."

Capshaw shared her own tribute on social media, specifically highlighting the significance of her character, Arizona Robbins.

"For the past 10 years, I have had the rare privilege of not only playing Arizona Robbins, but also being madly in love with playing her. Arizona Robbins is kind, intelligent, funny, insightful, bold, playful, fierce and really good at her job," Capshaw tweeted.

"She was one of the first members of the LGBTQ community to be represented in a series regular role on network television. Her impact on the world is permanent and forever. Forever," the star said of her fan-favorite character.

"I am grateful that I have gotten to bring her to life and for the life that she has brought to me," she concluded. "I am sad to see her go, but I am consoled by the idea that she will continue to live on and on in all of our consciences and our imaginations. Shonda, thank you for the ride on this incredible rollercoaster. With a heart full of love, Jessica."

Sara Ramirez (Dr. Callie Torres)

Rhimes admitted she felt surprised after Ramirez announced their departure on social media in May 2016. "I found out maybe three days before you guys found out,'" the producer said at Vulture Festival in New York City that year. "This departure, indeed, was different from all the others. It wasn't a big, planned thing. I had a different plan going and then Sara came and said, 'I really need to take a break.' "

Patrick Dempsey (Dr. Derek Shepherd)

McDreamy's death in a car accident shocked fans of the show — unless they got their hands on an early issue of Entertainment Weekly. Hours before his final episode aired in April 2015, EW subscribers received the week's issue — containing an exit interview with Dempsey — earlier than planned. Fans erupted over the spoiler on social media, and put together an online petition, which garnered 100,000 signatures, to bring back his character.

"It was clear we were both ready. But we kept it very quiet," Dempsey revealed to PEOPLE of his and Rhimes' decision to let the actor go, in 2016. With no table reads, the actor said no one knew how his character would perish. "I knew he was going to be gone, but I didn't know how she was going to handle it. Shonda just said, 'I'm going to do it in a really good way,' and she did her thing."

Eric Dane (Dr. Mark Sloan)

Though viewers held out hope that Dr. Mark Sloan, aka McStreamy, would survive the injuries he endured from the fatal plane crash that killed his love interest, Dr. Lexie Grey, in season eight, Dr. Sloan died early on in season nine after his best friend Derek Shepherd and Callie Torres — the mother of his daughter — decided to take him off of life support.

While that was the reason for his character's departure onscreen, behind the scenes, Dane reportedly left after being offered a role on the series, The Last Ship — which he starred on until 2018 when the show ended.

"Grey's Anatomy is a world — it's not about any one individual actor, and the storylines were sort of … you know, heading in different directions," Dane told Entertainment Weekly in 2013. "So it was an opportunity for me to go, and I was interested in something different. I loved doing Grey's Anatomy. I would have done it until the final episode, but this was something I couldn't pass up."

At the time, Rhimes also commented on his departure telling TVLine, "After much consideration and conversations, he and I have decided that this is the right time for his storyline to end. We're a big family here at Grey's with a long history together and Eric will always remain an important part of our family."

Fans were in for a reunion made in heaven, literally, when Dane, Dempsey and T.R. Knight made a guest appearances during season 17.

Katherine Heigl (Dr. Izzie Stevens)

"I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination," Heigl explained in June 2008 of why she decided to withdraw her name from consideration. Two years after shading the creative team, and numerous leaves of absence from the show, the 27 Dresses star exited for good when her character, Izzie, moved out of Seattle.

In a 2016 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Heigl revealed she went to speak with the show's creator and head writer after realizing that her comments might have offended the writers on the show.

"I went in 'cause I was really embarrassed," she told Stern. "So I went in to Shonda and said, 'I'm so sorry. That wasn't cool. I should not have said that' … I shouldn't have said anything publicly, but at the time, I didn't think anybody would notice. I didn't know that journalists would see who submitted and who didn't. I just quietly didn't submit and then it became a story and then I felt I was obligated to make my statement and 'shut up, Katie.' "

Two years earlier, in 2014, Rhimes seemingly addressed Heigl's exit and controversy surrounding the cast of the medical drama, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "I don't put up with bulls--- or nasty people. I don't have time for it," she said of what she called her "no a-holes policy."

T.R. Knight (Dr. George O'Malley)

The medical drama launched Knight's career, but in July 2009 he left due to an ongoing "breakdown of communication" with Shonda Rhimes. After getting only 48 minutes of airtime (versus the 114 minutes Sandra Oh's character received) in the first nine episodes of season 5, he asked to go. "My five-year experience proved to me that I could not trust any answer that was given," Knight told Entertainment Weekly of his character at the time. In February 2017, though, he returend to Shondaland in the season 2 premiere of The Catch, and in December 2020, he appeared in an episode of Grey's during one of Meredith's dream sequences.

Isaiah Washington (Dr. Preston Burke)

The actor used a gay slur to refer to costar T.R. Knight during an on-set spat in the fall of 2006, prompting Knight to come out as gay. Though Washington apologized, he used the term again in January 2007 to deny the incident to reporters at the Golden Globes. In June, after his character broke off his engagement to Dr. Christina Yang (Sandra Oh) and didn't appear in the season 3 finale, ABC confirmed that Washington wouldn't return to the series.

In 2014, Washington returned following Oh's decision to leave the show. The reason for his comeback, according to Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, had to do with closure for the actors' characters.

"I feel like there have been a lot of people that have been like, 'How can you do this?' And I feel very strongly and fully believe in people's ability to grow and change and learn from their mistakes and when they know better, to do better," Rhimes told Entertainment Weekly. "If people don't think that, over the course of seven years, it's possible for a human being to change, then there really is no future for the human race at all."