With Grey’s Anatomy going into its 20th season in 2024, fans have seen their share of character exits. Many of our beloved Seattle doctors have left the show under dramatic circumstances — Patrick Dempsey’s “terrorizing” behavior leading to McDreamy’s death, for instance, or Katherine Heigl’s tumultuous relationship with creator Shonda Rhimes — while other departures were done seemingly in service of the show’s narrative. That may have been the case for Sarah Drew, who played April Kepner for nine seasons. She recently recalled being shocked and confused over being written off, but explained why it was actually a blessing in disguise.
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. She recalled the pain of that time on the Whine Down podcast, telling host Jana Kramer:
When I was written off the show, it came as a total shock and it was very, very devastating. I was blindsided by it. It didn’t make any sense to me… Nobody understood it. It was so confusing, which is why I say that it was so painful.
But Sarah Drew is a big proponent of holding pain and joy in the same space, so she also recalled the overwhelming support she and Jessica Capshaw — who played Arizona Robbins and was written off at the same time — got from Grey’s Anatomy fans, as well as Shonda Rhimes’ touching tribute.
While she said she’d been told that April got written off because Grey’s Anatomy had too many characters and needed to downsize, Sarah Drew seemed dissatisfied with that line of reasoning. She’s since chalked it up to a bigger plan that got the ball rolling on a number of different opportunities that she likely wouldn’t have pursued on her own. She continued:
It was time. I didn’t know that it was time, but that’s where my faith comes into play in that, because I wouldn’t have left on my volition. The money’s too good, it’s too stable of a job, I have a family, so I wouldn’t have gone. And I loved it there. It was a beautiful time and experience, so I wouldn’t have gone. But if I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t be writing, I wouldn’t be producing, I wouldn’t be activating my brain and my heart on all these other layers and levels that has, like, fed my soul and brought me so much joy.
Last year Sarah Drew reunited with Grey’s Anatomy co-star Justin Bruening (who played her sometimes love interest Matthew) for Reindeer Games Homecoming, a Lifetime movie that she wrote, produced and starred in, and she’s adding another writer/producer credit to her resume this year with the upcoming Christmas movie A Cowboy Christmas Romance, which premieres at 8 p.m. ET December 9 on Lifetime.
However, you can still relive her time as April Kepner, and the Japril Era is one great starting point for a Grey’s Anatomy rewatch. All 19 seasons of the ABC medical drama can be streamed with a Netflix subscription.