In case you didn’t hear, Sandra Oh’s Grey’s Anatomy days are over . After 10 years on the hit show, Oh has decided it’s time to go, but it wasn’t a decision she made lightly.
“I’ve gone through a lot of therapy over this,” the 42-year-old actress told THR , welling up.
“I started thinking about it because I had to prepare myself. I gave myself two years to emotionally let go. At the end of last season, Shonda took me aside and said, ‘What are your thoughts?’ I said, ‘I’m ready.’”
Oh has played Cristina Yang, best friend to Meredith Grey ( Ellen Pompeo ) since the ABC show premiered in 2005.
“Creatively, I really feel like I gave it my all, and I feel ready to let her go,” she continued. “It’s such an interesting thing to play a character for so long and to actually get the sense that she wants to be let go as well. [Cristina] wants to be let go, and I am ready to let her go.”
Other series leads have left in the past, but series creator Shonda Rimes said that Sandra Oh’s Grey’s Anatomy split felt different.
“This year is going to be bittersweet for us. We’re both going to savor every moment of Cristina Yang, and then we’re going to give her the exit she deserves. And when Sandra walks out of my door, Grey’s Anatomy will once again be forever changed,” Rimes said in a statement.
Rimes also said that she hasn’t scripted Oh’s departure yet, but joked, “Cristina Yang is not going to magically decide she wants babies, no.”
Though she admits that letting go of “such a huge part of my life” is difficult, Oh hopes that she can “usher her [Yang] into the next section of her life in the best way possible.”
“It’s got to be Cristina Yang’s happily ever after,” she said.
After Oh exits, she will likely return to theater . She said she would like to take Dr. Yang’s stethoscope and ID badges as mementos.
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