Did ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Creator Shonda Rhimes Just Admit To Killing Off McDreamy Because She Didn’t Like Patrick Dempsey?

Shonda Rhimes recently made some surprising admissions in regards to a certain character’s death on one of the many shows that make up Shondaland. According to People, the producer admitted that she had killed off a character in one of her series because she did not get along with the actor. With that in mind, was she referring to Patrick Dempsey’s recent departure on Grey’s Anatomy?

Rhimes’ revealing comments came during her appearance on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. During their interview, Rhimes was asked, “Have you ever killed off a character because you didn’t like the actor?”

After pausing to consider the question, Rhimes responded by saying, “Yes.”

Although Rhimes admitted to killing off a character over personal issues, she would not reveal who that actor was or what show it was on. “I’m not naming names,” she told Wilmore.

Rhimes has produced a number of hit TV series over the years, including Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder, so it really isn’t known which show she was referring to. That being said, the latest character to die in Shondaland was Patrick Dempsey, whose character met a tragic and unexpected end at the end of the last season of Grey’s Anatomy.

According to the Daily Mail, many fans have taken Rhimes’ recent comments to mean that she killed of Dr. Derek Shepherd because he didn’t like him. Whether or not this is the case is unknown, but given all the controversy surrounding Shepherd’s death, it would seem as though she may have been referring to him.

While she appeared to be alluding to the death of Dempsey’s character, Dr. Derek Shepherd, there have been so many high profile deaths in her shows that it is hard to tell who she was talking about. Other characters that met a controversial end include Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) from Grey’s Anatomy, Sam Keating (Tom Verica) from HTGAWM, and James Novak (Dan Bucatinsky) and Harrison Wright (Columbus Short) from Scandal.

Meanwhile, both Rhimes and Dempsey have moved on with their lives following his departure from the hit medical drama. For his part, Dempsey has already started to work on different projects, including his upcoming appearance in Bridget Jones’s Baby.

As far as Rhimes is concerned, the acclaimed producer was on The Nightly Show in order to promote her upcoming book, Year of Yes. Apparently, Rhimes spent an entire year saying yes to anything that she thought “was terrifying, awful, gonna make me freak out.”

In writing the book, which is more of a memoir than anything else, Rhimes stated that it helped her deal with some personal issues she was confronting in her own life. By the time she finished writing, she realized that she really wrote for herself more than anyone else.

“The more I wrote about what I was doing, the more I got out of it, and I ended up writing the book just for me, which I think was a good thing,” she stated. “If I had been thinking that anybody else was going to read it, I probably would have censored myself so that what came out was sanitized,’ she laughed, ‘for my protection.’ ”

As to what the future holds, Rhimes was confident that anything is possible, especially if she continues to say yes to everything that frightens her.

“There is no real finish line,” she stated. “There is no way for there to be one because now everything feels possible now. Now that I know what happens when you say yes, how could I possibly go back to saying no?”

Season 12 of Grey’s Anatomy, Season 5 of Scandal, and Season 2 of HTGAWM continue Thursday nights on ABC.

Tell us! Do you think it was Patrick Dempsey that Shonda Rhimes killed off of Grey’s Anatomy because they didn’t get along? Let us know in the comments below.

[Image via ABC]