On Thursday, Ellen Pompeo offered an emotional letter to “Grey’s Anatomy” fans as she prepares for her final episodes on the famous ABC show.
“I am eternally grateful and humbled by the love and support you have all shown me, Meredith GREY, and the show for 19 seasons!” she wrote beside a photo on Instagram. “Through it all….none of it…would have been possible without the world’s best fans.”
Pompeo, who announced her departure from the program earlier this summer, went on to explain that the show’s die-hard following made her experience “so enjoyable and ICONIC.”
“I adore you and appreciate you in return.” You’re not riding the rollercoaster for the first time… “You know the show has to go on, and I’ll surely be back,” the 53-year-old hinted.
Pompeo, who has been with the show since its inception in 2005, received praise and gratitude from fans of the long-running show in the comments area.
On Thursday, Ellen Pompeo greeted “Grey’s Anatomy” fans on Instagram. Instagram/ellenpompeo
“19 fantastic seasons of breaking new ground.” “I’m excited to see what comes next for you as you transition,” one person said.
“‘Thank you’ isn’t even close to being enough, Ellen, but it’s all we have,” another fan added.
A third fan informed the actress that her role on the program “saved” her life, saying, “Mer became the character I so desperately needed to look up to as she went through so much, while evolving as a person myself.”
Pompeo has been with the show since it premiered in 2005.
Despite the fact that Pompeo will no longer be a cast member of the award-winning series, she has pledged to be a “part of the program” in other ways.
“I work as an executive producer.” [Grey’s Anatomy] has been my heart and soul for the past two decades. “As long as [it’s] on the air, I’ll never truly be gone,” she told Deadline in September.
Over the summer, the actress stated that she would be taking on a smaller part. Instagram/ellenpompeo
Despite having “immense gratitude” for her experience on the show, the actress recently defended former co-star Katherine Heigl for coming out against the show’s rather problematic atmosphere.
Following her departure from the show in 2010, Heigl was “blacklisted” in Hollywood after complaining about the grueling hours on production, which Pompeo echoed a decade later.
Fans congratulated her in the comments section. Getty Images for ABC
“I recall Heigl saying something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working — and she was 100% accurate,” Pompeo explained on an episode of her podcast, “Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo,” adding that “she was telling the truth.” She wasn’t telling the truth.”
“Had she said that now, she’d be a complete hero,” the “Old School” actress concluded. She is, nevertheless, ahead of her time. [She] made a comment about our hectic hours, and let’s trash a woman and call her ungrateful.”
