Why Ellen Pompeo Almost Left Grey's Anatomy

Now in its 17th season, "Grey's Anatomy" officially holds the title of longest-running medical drama of all time, eclipsing "ER." Keeping a show going for nearly two decades is no easy feat. It can be difficult to avoid rehashing the same storylines, and it's even more challenging to convince actors to continue playing their characters for years.

You can't really expect a show like "Grey's Anatomy" to run this long without a handful of heartbreaking character exits. No one will ever forget how T.R. Knight's George O'Malley had us weeping when his character passed abruptly. Or when Sandra Oh's Christina Yang had to leave the hospital to pursue a better career opportunity in another country. Or the time when Patrick Dempsey's Derek Shepherd died in a car crash and Meredith Grey lost the love of her life.

Out of the original cast members, only Ellen Pompeo's Meredith Grey, Chandra Wilson's Miranda Bailey, and James Pickens Jr.'s Richard Webber have remained. It's hard to imagine "Grey's Anatomy" without the presence of these characters, but not many know that one of them almost left the show, and surprisingly, it's Ellen Pompeo.

Barely anyone would want to work in a toxic environment, and apparently, that's what "Grey's Anatomy" once was according to Ellen Pompeo. There were several issues that made it an unpleasant place to be, so there was a point when she seriously considered looking for other options to break free. "It's funny: I never wanted off the bus in the year that I could get off," she told Taraji P. Henson for Variety's "Actors on Actors" series. "The first 10 years we had serious culture issues, very bad behavior, really toxic work environment."

Sandra Oh's exit also made her contemplate leaving the show for good. When Oh announced that she was moving on, Pompeo wondered if it would still make sense for her to continue. They were the "Twisted Sisters" on the show, after all. At the time, she remembered thinking, "Ugh! How do I go on without Sandra?" she told Dax Shepard on the "Armchair Expert" podcast. "Is there a show without Sandra?"

Her perspective all changed when she started raising a family. She had to take it seriously since she needed to provide for her children. "Once I started having kids, it became no longer about me. I need to provide for my family," she added. "At 40 years old, where am I ever going to get this kind of money?"

Ellen Pompeo's family isn't the only reason why she chose to stay, though. When Patrick Dempsey left the show, the network thought it would be impossible to continue without a male lead. And so Pompeo rolled up her sleeves and worked to show that "Grey's Anatomy" could still be successful with a woman at the helm.

"Patrick Dempsey left the show in Season 11, and the studio and network believed the show could not go on without the male lead," she told Variety. "So I had a mission to prove that it could. I was on a double mission." She also shared that there were "big shifts" that happened on the show after Season 10, so she made it her goal to "have an experience there that I could be happy and proud about."

Now, Pompeo is one of the highest-paid actors on primetime television, earning around $20 million per year. And her next mission? She wants "Grey's Anatomy" to end with a bang. "We are really trying to figure it out right now," she revealed to "CBS Sunday Morning."  "What story do we tell to end a show this iconic? How do we do it? I just want to make sure we do this character, and this show, the fans ... I want to make sure we do it right."