*NOTE: This post contains Grey’s Anatomy spoilers.
For 11 seasons, Patrick Dempsey has been Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepard to Grey’s Anatomy fans, and nothing short of shock met his exit from the show in 2015.
As one of the show’s main characters, Dr. Shepard’s death was a hard one to recover from for fans (although there have been hints throughout the season). At the time, multiple reports also came out about his contract, which would have actually kept him in the show until Season 12.
Following Patrick’s shocking exit from Grey’s, show creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes issued this statement:
“Derek Shepherd is and will always be an incredibly important character – for Meredith, for me and for the fans. I absolutely never imagined saying goodbye to our ‘Mcdreamy.’ Patrick Dempsey’s performance shaped Derek in a way that I know we both hope became a meaningful example – happy, sad, romantic, painful and always true – of what young women should demand from modern love.
His loss will be felt by all. Now, Meredith and the entire Grey’s Anatomy family are about to enter uncharted territory as we head into this new chapter of her life. The possibilities for what may come are endless. As Ellis Grey would say … the carousel never stops turning.”
ABC President Paul Lee also discussed Patrick’s exit with the press.
“Patrick obviously has lots of interests outside. He’s very big in motosports. [Creator Shonda Rhimes] decided that was the way to go,” he told reporters at the 2015 Television Critics Association press tour. “We’ve seen the pitch for Grey’s next season, and the show reinvents itself again.”
However, there’s allegedly more to the story, according to Lynette Rice’s upcoming book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy – an unofficial book on the behind-the-scenes of the beloved drama featuring interviews with cast and crew members. In an excerpt published by The Hollywood Reporter, Patrick reportedly really wanted out from the show even though he was offered more money to stay, while a producer claims there were “HR issues” surrounding his departure.
“It’s ten months, fifteen hours a day. You never know your schedule, so your kid asks you, ‘What are you doing on Monday?’ And you go, ‘I don’t know,’ because I don’t know my schedule,” Patrick said in the excerpt of their filming schedule. “Doing that for eleven years is challenging. But you have to be grateful, because you’re well compensated, so you can’t really complain because you don’t really have a right. You don’t have control over your schedule. So, you have to just be flexible.”
“It [was] hard to say no to that kind of money. How do you say no to that? It’s remarkable to be a working actor, and then on top of that to be on a show that’s visible. And then on top of that to be on a phenomenal show that’s known around the world, and play a character who is beloved around the world. It’s very heady,” he later shares. “It [was] a lot to process, and not wanting to let that go, because you never know whether you will work again and have success again.”
Meanwhile, executive producer James D. Parriott alleges, “There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him. He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people. The network and studio came down and we had sessions with them. I think he was just done with the show. He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and Shonda were at each other’s throats.”
Others also noted that there were tensions between Patrick and his co-star Ellen Pompeo, who portrayed McDreamy’s love interest Dr. Meredith Grey, who was allegedly “frustrated” and “angry” that Patrick “wasn’t working as much”
“She was very big on having things be fair. She just didn’t like that Patrick would complain that ‘I’m here too late’ or ‘I’ve been here too long’ when she had twice as many scenes in the episode as he did,” Producer and writer Jeannine Renshaw says in the excerpt. “When I brought it up to Patrick, I would say, ‘Look around you. These people have been here since six thirty a.m.’ He would go, ‘Oh, yeah.’ He would get it. It’s just that actors tend to see things from their own perspective.”
She also claims that Patrick did “a lot of the complaining,” and Shonda witnessing it firsthand kickstarted the wheels turning on his exit.
“Shonda had to say to the network, ‘If he doesn’t go, I go.’ Nobody wanted him to leave, because he was the show. Him and Ellen. Patrick is a sweetheart. It messes you up, this business,” she recalls.
Patrick also talked about how he got the news of his character’s death and how his last day went down.
“It was not in the fall. Maybe February or March. It was just a natural progression. And the way everything was unfolding in a very organic way, it was like, ‘Okay! This is obviously the right time,'” he said. “Things happened very quickly. We were like, ‘Oh, this is where it’s going to go.'”
“I very quietly left. It was beautiful. It was raining, which was really touching,” he recalls of his last day. “I got in my Panamera, got in rush-hour traffic, and two hours later I was home.”
In 2018, Ellen revealed that they haven’t spoken since his exit.
“I have no hard feelings toward him. He’s a wonderful actor, and we made the best TV you can make together,” she said during an appearance on Red Table Talk. “Typically, when people leave the show, they need to sort of find themselves, who they are without the show, because the show takes up so much of your life. 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.”
Grey’s has been running 17 seasons now, with season 18 coming this fall. Patrick has since made a surprise cameo in season 17, which fans absolutely loved.
Back in April, Patrick told Variety that he’s down for Derek making another cameo.
“Who knows? Never say never with this show, right?” he told the outlet. “I’m glad we did it this year. And [showrunner] Krista Vernoff did a fantastic job telling the story.”
Patrick and Shonda’s reps are yet to requests for comment, and ABC has no comment at this time.
