With the news of Sarah Drew’s returns, fans are wondering: Why did April leave Grey’s Anatomy and why is she back? Drew, who played Dr. April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy from seasons 6 to 14, left the series in 2018.
In the episode before the season 14 finale, April has a near-fatal accident after her ex-fiancé’s car rolls into a ravine with both of them in it. Unconscious, April is taken to Seattle Grace Memorial, where the doctors, including her ex-boyfriend Jackson Avery, work to keep her alive. At the end of the episode, April wakes up but something has changed in her. In the finale, April reveals that she’s quit her job as a trauma surgeon at Seattle Grace and now does medical work for the homeless. The episode also sees April and Matthew marry after a surprise re-engagement. That’s the last time Grey’s Anatomy fans saw April…until season 17 when she came back for a cameo on May 6.
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The cameo led to tons of questions from Grey’s Anatomy fans, but the main one is why the heck did April leave Grey’s Anatomy in the first place. Ahead is what we know about why Drew quit Grey’s Anatomy and why she decided to come back.
Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff told Deadline in 2018 that Drew and Jessica Capshaw’s (Arizona Robbins) exits rom the series in season 14 were based completely on “creative direction.” “The characters of Arizona and April are permanently woven into the fabric of Grey’s Anatomy thanks to the extraordinary work of Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew,” she said at the time. “As writers, our job is to follow the stories where they want to go and sometimes that means saying goodbye to characters we love. It has been a joy and a privilege to work with these phenomenally talented actresses.”
Shonda Rhimes also commented on the characters’ exits at the time: “It’s always hard for me to say goodbye to any of my characters. Both Arizona Robbins and April Kepner are not only beloved but iconic—both the LBGTQ and devout Christian communities are underrepresented on TV,” she said. “I will be forever grateful to both Jessica and Sarah for bringing these characters to life with such vibrant performance and for inspiring women around the globe. They will always be a part of our Shondaland family.”
After the news, there was speculation that Drew and Capshaw left Grey’s anatomy because of Ellen Pompeo’s (Meredith Grey) new deal with ABC, which would pay her $20 million per season. Vernoff denied the speculation at the time in a tweet. “It smacks of an old, broken, patriarchal notion that women must be pitted against each other and that one woman’s success will be costly to others,” she wrote, noting that Pompeo has “advocated passionately” for her cast members throughout the show. “The only thing a constant on Grey’s Anatomy as Ellen Pompeo is our penchant for reinvention. It is part of our success and what keeps the show exciting.”
As for Drew, she hinted in her own Twitter statement that the decision for April to leave Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t her choice. “Thank you for all of the love. I know you’re sad. I’m sad too. I haven’t really had the time to process this information. I’ve been with it for less than 48 hours, so I’m not ready to say my thank yous and give an all encompassing statement about my 9 years here,” she wrote. “That will come later 🙂 For now, I’d like to say: I love you, and I love April, and her story isn’t over yet. And the really good news (for me, at least) is that I’m here on set shadowing one of my favorite people, Kevin McKidd, with my beloved Grey’s family all this week and next, so I get to process all of my feelings surrounded by the community that has nourished and nurtured me for almost a decade. For that, I am so grateful. Much love, Sarah.”
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2020, Drew confirmed she has no bad blood with Grey’s Anatomy .”That’s a hard question to answer because nobody has asked me to come back, so I can’t answer that,” she said at the time of a potential return. “All I will say is that I love my family over there, so I would never say no to the possibility, but it has not presented itself.”
She also told ET that she thinks April and Jackson are “end game.” “If it were up to me, they would have been the end game,” she said. “That’s if it were up to me, but, you know, it’s not up to me.”
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In a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Drew recounted how she was told the show "needed to downsize" to accommodate the countless cast members. She was subsequently terminated as a result along with Jessica Capshaw, who portrayed Dr. Arizona Robbins.
Creatively, I really feel like I gave it my all, and I feel ready to let her go... 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.
At the conclusion of season 14, Arizona departs the show to move to New York to be with Sofia and Callie with the possibility that she reconciled with the latter.
Sarah Drew joined Grey's Anatomy in Season 6, and fans particularly became enamored with the relationship between April and Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) before Drew bid fans farewell at the end of Season 14.
Sara Ramirez left Grey's Anatomy after 10 years because she felt it was time to take a break and explore other projects. Shonda Rhimes didn't plan for Callie Torres's departure and had a different storyline in mind for the character.
Why Sarah Paulson Didn't Return In Season 11. While a younger Ellis Grey appears again in season 11, Sarah Paulson didn't return to the series as she was shooting American Horror Story: Freak Show, so Sally Pressman took on the role (via TVLine).
Her exit was searing, especially for fans of Cristina's friendship with Meredith Grey. So how did Cristina get written off? The character opted to move to Switzerland for a cardiothoracic position that had previously been held by none other than her ex-fiancé, Preston Burke.
"It's very rare, I would say, to be able to see in such a way the impact of a character. In some ways, you do your work as a bubble and you let it go," she explained. "I left that show, my God, seven years ago almost. So in my mind, it's gone.
"I love that I love that people are still [fans]," Oh said of viewers who wish she'd make a cameo, as so many other alums have in recent seasons. "I love that you asked me that, because Cristina Yang is, of course, near and dear to my heart," Oh shared. "[But] I will say, not anytime soon, my love."
Arizona Robbins, played by actress Jessica Capshaw, wore a prosthetic leg. To give the appearance of a real prosthesis, it was built from a cast of Capshaw's thigh.
Two weeks after a terrible accident almost left her dead, April Kepner (Sarah Drew) bid farewell to the team at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She was given a far sweeter exit than some of the former Grey's players, as she married her on-and-off love Matthew (Justin Bruening) in a surprise wedding.
In July 2010, it was reported that she was promoted to series regular for season 4, after appearing in the final five episodes of season 3. She remained in the series until the final episode.
Avery left Seattle with former spouse April Kepner (Sarah Drew) to run the Catherine Fox foundation. On the 400th episode of the show, Jackson returned to Seattle and it was revealed that he and April had rekindled their romantic relationship while living in Boston.
In reality, it seems that Jeanine Mason was simply written out of the show and has no animosity towards the wider Grey's Anatomy team. Although Bello got a much better opportunity in the end, her struggles as an immigrant worker truly give her arc an added touch of depth.
According to Deadline, she approached producers ahead of time about her intentions to leave and seek out other opportunities, leading to Maggie's Season 19 story arc as the final chapter in her time at Grey Sloan. Maggie has been a character on the show since Season 10.
Dane portrayed Dr. Sloan, affectionately nicknamed 'Dr. McSteamy,' from 2006 until his character's dramatic exit in the early episodes of season nine in 2012. While Dane admitted to struggling with drug and alcohol issues during his time on the show, he believes that his removal was primarily for financial reasons.
And finally, Kim Raver originally exited Grey's Anatomy after Season 8, with Teddy deciding to take a new job. However, she returned in Season 14. Kim's original exit happened when she elected to not renew her series option as she "was ready to give Teddy Altman a much-needed vacation," according to Shonda Rhimes.
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