Ellen Pompeo Says Exiting ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ “Would Make No Sense, Emotionally or Financially”

Meredith Grey doesn’t intend to give up her scrubs — at least for a while.

Ellen Pompeo has played Meredith Grey in Grey’s Anatomy for two decades since the series debuted in 2005. However, in 2022, she negotiated her contract to reduce her episodes because she wanted to spend more time with her family. “I’m very lucky to be able to get to work sometimes and take time off,” Pompeo told El País in a recent interview. “I have a nice balance in my life.”

But, she has no interest in leaving the show all together. “That would make no sense, emotionally or financially,” she said. Her contract now has her earning $20 million a year. “The show was streamed more than a billion times in 2024. More than a billion times. The companies that own the show and stream the show make a lot of money from our images and our voices and our faces.”

She continued, “If I were to walk away completely, everybody gets to make money from my hard work for 20 years and I wouldn’t make any money. To me, it doesn’t make any sense that everybody [else] gets to profit off of my hard work.”

Pompeo also added that the fans’ support is important to her. “Emotionally, the show means a lot to people. I want to have an attitude of gratitude toward the show.”

Last month, Pompeo told The Hollywood Reporter that she initially was hesitant to join her other series Good American Family. “If I was going to do something different, it really had to be truly something different, right? I’m so well known as Meredith Grey,” However, she agreed when she realized it was a role she “could completely disappear into — and those don’t come along often.”