Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo has insisted that she was "not involved" in the exits of her co-stars Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew.
Earlier this month, fans were shocked by the news that season 14 would be the final one for Dr April Kepner (Drew) and Dr Arizona Robbins (Capshaw), leading to some suggesting Pompeo's $20 million salary was a reason for their exits.
This is something that has been denied by Pompeo before, but she has spoken again about the outrage on The Ellen Show.
"It's absolutely not true. I'm not involved in these kinds of decisions. However, there's a few problems that you encounter doing a show for 14 seasons," she explained.
"One of them is the writers have a really hard time creatively, thinking up new stories for all these characters. I think we have 16 regular cast members. It's always sad when we lose people for whatever reason, whether they want to go or they don't want to go. It doesn't make it any easier.
"It's important for us not to pit women against each other and to really dispel the notion that women are always victims."
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Capshaw and Drew's exits have led fans to worry about what will happen to April because, while Arizona could leave Seattle for an attractive job offer, options for April seem more limited as relocating would be a huge obstacle given she has a daughter with her ex-husband.
It's led to fans coming up with an increasingly common theory that April will tragically die by suicide, especially as we've seen her struggling with her mental health this season.
Grey's Anatomy airs on ABC in the US and on Sky Living in the UK.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
