Patrick Dempsey left people sad when he quit his role as Dr. McDreamy

Grey’s Anatomy viewers will remember April 23, 2015, as a day that impacted their lives forever. Though it wasn’t catastrophic, the abrupt death of Dr. McDreamy, played by Hollywood darling Patrick Dempsey, left many people saddened.

In the 1987 romantic comedy Can’t Buy Me Love, Dempsey played Ronald Miller, a geeky adolescent who had to pay for claiming to be a girlfriend. Years later, the celebrity resurfaced in the medical program Grey’s Anatomy as the dreamy doctor whose death sparked outrage among his devoted following.

Though Dempsey intimated in 2013 that he would be departing the program, Entertainment Weekly announced in 2014 that he and co-star Ellen Pompeo, who portrays Meredith, inked a new two-year deal, extending the good doctor’s tenure at least until 2016. Dempsey’s departure from the popular series was little known, leaving even those of us who had never watched it wondering, “Why?”

According to sources, Dempsey, a father of three, reached a breaking point and began acting out on the set of the program.

In an interview for the book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy (2021), Dempsey admitted to resenting the Grey’s schedule. “It’s ten months and 15 hours a day. You never know your schedule, so your child wonders, ‘What are you doing on Monday?’ And you say, ‘I don’t know,’ because I don’t know my timetable,” Dempsey explained. “Doing it for 11 years is a challenge. But you have to be grateful because you are well rewarded; you can’t complain since you don’t have a right.”

And what happened in early 2015 might explain his on-set conduct.

On January 23, 2015, Radar Online broke the news with a piece titled “McDreamy is about to be on the market!”

Dempsey, a renowned racing car driver, was attending a 24-hour race event in Daytona Beach, Florida, when his wife of 15 years, Jillian Fink, filed for divorce.

To set things right, Dempsey resigned from his career as Dr. McDreamy to concentrate on his roles as a husband and father. He told People that the prospect of ending his marriage was “scary.”

“I was not ready to end our marriage. I didn’t feel like we had completed all of the tasks. We both wanted to do the task. That’s where everything began.” He went on, “It’s always destabilizing when you’re potentially breaking up a family or you have a big section of your life that’s ending.”

His love story with Jillian, like the screenplays for the romcoms in which he acts, is full of comedy, melancholy, hope, and, of course, love.

Dempsey, then 28, came into the Delux salon in 1994 and met his stylist, Jillian Fink, who also happened to be the owner.

Their encounter is described in a 2002 People magazine article.

Dempsey contacted the salon to schedule an appointment, and when Fink saw his name in the book, she assumed it was a joke by an employee.

Dempsey rose to celebrity status with his parts in Can’t Buy Me Love and Loverboy (1989), so she was astonished when he went into the salon for a haircut.

“I was shocked,” Fink says of the incident. “But at the same time, I was happy because he was so cute.”

However, just as in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama (2002), where he co-stars alongside Reese Witherspoon, another partner complicated their relationship. Dempsey and Jillian were both in relationships, and after three years of haircuts and conversations, they eventually got together.

The pair married in 1999 at his family’s farmhouse in Maine, in an intimate ceremony during which Kristen Mason, the bride’s sister and business partner, stated, “He saw her and started crying.”

The 2000s were hopeful for the couple, as they both achieved personal and professional success. After a string of movie office failures, Dempsey’s slump ended with appearances in Scream 3 (2000), Grey’s Anatomy (2005-2015), Made of Honor (2008), Valentine’s Day (2010), and Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016).

Jillian, who spent six years as Avon’s worldwide creative color director, is now a renowned makeup artist with a clientele that includes many Hollywood superstars.

The couple has a daughter, Talula, who was born in 2002, and in 2007, their family of three expanded to five with twins Sullivan and Darby. He has stopped racing, which he began in 2004, in order to focus on his family, although he remains involved with Dempsey Racing.

“Everybody has their own path,” explains Dempsey, aged 57. “Jill and I agreed it was time to address our concerns and improve. We wanted to be role models for our children, showing them that even if you have issues, you can work them out.

“You can only do one thing at a time and do it well,” he continues. “I learned to prioritize.” Our unity must be the first priority. I wasn’t ready to give up on her, and she wasn’t either. “We both wanted to fight for it.”

They called off their divorce in 2016, and they will celebrate their 24th wedding anniversary in 2023. On February 4, Dempsey sent a lovely and amusing birthday greeting on Instagram, saying, “Happy birthday to my amazing, beautiful, talented, and crazy funny wife.” Happy birthday! You’re like a superb wine; you only improve with age. Have a wonderful birthday.” I love you always.”