Ellen Pompeo Says Farewell to Grey’s Anatomy After 17 Years

Ellen Pompeo has announced her departure from the beloved series Grey’s Anatomy after 19 seasons. Pompeo posted a selfie on Instagram November 17 with a note to fans.

“I am eternally grateful and humbled by the love and support you have all shown me, Meredith GREY and the show for 19 seasons!” Pompeo wrote in the caption. “Through it all….none of it …would have been possible without the best fans in the world. You all are RIDERS and you all have made the ride so fun and ICONIC!!”

The actress ended the caption with a promise to return to the ABC series, “I love you madly and appreciate you right back. This isn’t your first time on the rollercoaster… you know the show must go on and I’ll definitely be back to visit.”

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The departure of Meredith Grey comes to no surprise. Pompeo, who is an executive producer of Grey’s Anatomy, has actually been pushing for the show to end. “I’ve been trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end“ she told Insider. “I feel like I’m the super naive one who keeps saying, ‘But what’s the story going to be, what story are we going to tell?'” Pompeo continued, “And everyone’s like, ‘Who cares, Ellen? It makes a gazillion dollars.'”

In December, Pompeo spoke to Drew Barrymore about why she’s leaving Grey’s on The Drew Barrymore Show, “I feel super happy, but listen, the show has been incredible to me and I’ve loved a lot of the experience,” she told Barrymore. “Listen, it’s just, I gotta mix it up a little bit,” and mixing it up she is.

Pompeo is set to lead in an untitled eight-episode limited series ordered at Hulu. The series is based on true story about a Midwestern couple that adopts what they believe to be an 8-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism but soon start to believe otherwise. Pompeo will be executive producing under her production company Calamity Jane.