Yes, just as many rumors with him as there were with Patrick. Ultimately, it comes down to what I can report. And I wasn't able to report it. But yes, I heard stories. We have an old saying in Hollywood: "Where there's smoke, there's fire," and almost always what you heard, there was truth to it. And this isn't necessarily the way that a beloved character goes away in the 18th season.

Once again, it's feeling like it's the last year. Look, we just got Kate Walsh. We're getting more. The ex is coming back and visiting us. It would be outstanding if Katherine Heigl came back. But I don't even think you can now because of the way they sent Justin Chambers off. You can't have her come back without having Justin coming back. I mean, they'd figure out a way, but it wouldn't feel right. And that bums me out because I really would like to see her back, but I don't know if it will.

So we always kind of wondered there for a while we being the reporters that cover Grey's if you get killed off this show, does that mean somehow that Shonda hates you? Yes and no. She didn't hate Eric Dane. And in fact, I remember she wrote a lovely goodbye column for EW at the time, [about] how much she loved Eric, Jay, and that character? And ultimately, maybe things weren't pretty with the way that Patrick left the show, but the only way you can close out that character is by killing him. Any other solution wouldn't have felt organic with his relationship with Meredith. [Shonda] set them up as the perfect couple. She set him up as the perfect man. So if she suddenly had him leave her and go move to Washington, DC, or something which was a possibility and then had them break up, that wouldn't feel right. So this was the only way to get him off the show is you got to kill him.

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