14 DAY TRIAL // The other day, word got out in the media that Patrick Dempsey’s departure from the medical series “Grey’s Anatomy” had not been a creative decision but creator Shonda Rhimes’ way of punishing her leading man for having an affair on set.
At the time, Dempsey was married to estranged wife Jillian Fink. When the affair became public knowledge, it cost him both his job and his marriage, as she filed the divorce papers right away. More details on the events leading up to Rhimes’ decision to kill off Dr. McDreamy Derek Shepherd have emerged.
Affair began in August, messed up everything on set
Yesterday’s report didn’t say anything about the length of the clandestine relationship Dempsey started with an unidentified, younger female staffer, but it did note that co-star Ellen Pompeo was the one to discover it. Being friends with Jillian, she felt an obligation towards her to tell her, and the whole thing escalated from there.
Now, Radar Online says that before Ellen went to Jillian with the news, everyone on set had learned of the affair, because it ruined everything good they had going on. First off, Dempsey made no attempt to keep it a secret; secondly, he would choose to spend time with the young intern instead of fulfilling his contractual obligations.
Sources tell Radar that he would refuse to come out of his trailer to shoot his scenes, and he would act out at the slightest provocation. He would also complain more than usual about storylines and the amount of time he was getting on camera on each new episode.
“It was obvious to everyone Patrick was [sleeping with] her,” one tipster reveals. “It got very messy and emotional on set and became a huge liability.”
Rhimes removed the intern from the set, having her work on a different project, but that too failed to prove a good solution because then, Dempsey started showing up late for work, forgetting lines and acting as if he were a rookie all over again.
Rhimes had “no other choice” but to kill Dr. McDreamy
As per the report, Rhimes initially “suspended” Dempsey when word of the affair got out and when he’d started acting out of sorts professionally. After the intern was removed from the picture, the series creator (and writer) thought her leading man would go back to normal, so she wrote his character back into the story, giving him as much onscreen time as before.
An improvement failed to appear as expected, so she was left with “no other choice” but to fire Dempsey and kill off Dr. Shepherd, another insider explains for the aforementioned media outlet.
Rhimes obviously knew that Dempsey still had another year on his contract, but she chose to ignore it and just go ahead and write him off. Her predicament must have been huge, if anything from the above report is accurate.
Still, whatever happened behind closed doors on the set of the series, one thing is certain: Dr. Shepherd is dead and fans are still not ok with the idea. They still blame Rhimes for it and they still want her to bring him back, or they promise they will not tune in for another episode again.
Are you among them too? Let us know in the comments what you make of this off-screen “Grey’s Anatomy” drama.