Yesterday, Patrick Dempsey told an avid television audience a big Grey’s Anatomy secret: Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) has COVID-19.
On Wednesday, Patrick was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
He showed up via Zoom to talk about his Grey’s Anatomy cameo with the comedic host.
During the discussion, he inadvertently shared that his on-screen wife, now a widow, has been stricken with the deadly coronavirus.
The actor was enthusiastic as he appeared on a set in Maine while talking to Ellen DeGeneres in her Los Angeles studio.
Apparently, Patrick was too enthusiastic during his television appearance since he brought up the Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 spoiler.
How Patrick Dempsey spilled the Grey’s Anatomy spoiler
Patrick committed the faux pas as he spoke about his experience being back on the ABC show following his character’s death six seasons ago.
Dempsey explained how he — and hence, Derek Shepherd — happened to be asked back from the dead on Grey’s Anatomy.
As the story goes, he and Ellen Pompeo were catching up with each other after not speaking for quite a while. She contacted him, so they took a walk along the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, where they both live.
As they hiked, they talked about ways to get people to wear masks during these treacherous times. That’s when his former co-star said there was an idea floating around that would likely impact the coronavirus situation.
So, the star who plays Meredith Grey on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy asked the 54-year-old actor if he would be willing to come back on the show he left in 2015.
Patrick Dempsey was happy to return to Grey’s Anatomy
His answer was completely positive.
“What a great opportunity for people and how great it would be for the fans… to see everybody reunited in this sort of bizarre way,” Patrick stated.
Then he credited showrunner Krista Vernoff for coming up with this unique and uplifting concept “where I would come and visit (Meredith) in her COVID dream.”
There it was: That spoiler that will be exposed for real during the second episode of Season 17 of Grey’s Anatomy on November 19.
Patrick shares details about his return to Grey’s Anatomy
During their discussion, Patrick also told Ellen DeGeneres how the show could pull off such a secret stunt.
He said that at first, except for some ABC executives, Krista and Ellen, nobody else knew about his return. Then directors Debbie Allen and Kevin McKidd were also told what would happen.
And that was it.
The reason just such a small group of people were alerted to his secret appearance on Grey’s Anatomy was obvious.
“They were really concerned that someone would take a picture and it would get out somehow,” Patrick told his host, adding, “But we managed to keep it a secret, which was pretty phenomenal.”
He called the response from fans about his reappearance on Grey’s Anatomy “incredibly overwhelming and very moving.”
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9.8c on ABC.