Ellen Pompeo doesn’t believe her 10-year-old daughter is ready to watch her perform as Meredith Grey in “Grey’s Anatomy.”
The “Catch Me If You Can” actress, 55, discussed the popular ABC medical drama during a Thursday night appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
While Pompeo was happy to celebrate the show one year after kicking off its historic 20th season, she was clear that it was still too soon for her youngest daughter, Sienna, to tune in.
“My 15-year-old [Stella] has seen it, and now my 10-year-old wants to see it,” Pompeo told Jimmy Kimmel. “She’s not ready, but a lot of kids in her class have seen it.”
“No judgment on other parents,” the “Good American Family” actress continued. “But I don’t want my daughter to see me in my underwear on television just yet.”
“But all her classmates have so… That makes for great conversation at pick-up.”
Pompeo married Chris Ivery in 2007. The actress and her music producer husband share two daughters and a son, Eli, 6.
The “Grey’s Anatomy” star stepped back from the Shonda Rhimes-created hit during the show’s 19th season. Her last episode as a series regular premiered in February 2023, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Pompeo said she was “super happy” about her decision to step back from “Grey’s” after nearly 20 seasons because it gave her more time to spend with her three kids.
“I have three kids and so I take care of them,” she told Drew Barrymore in December 2022, “and it’s really important for me to be around for them and be more present for them.”
Pompeo’s exit marked the latest departure of a fan favorite, with some viewers asking if it’s time to pull the plug on the beloved medical drama.
“Grey’s Anatomy isn’t the powerhouse it used to be,” Lynette Rice, who wrote the book “How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy,” exclusively told The Post ahead of the show’s Season 21 premiere in September. “But that doesn’t make it any less valuable to ABC.”
“It makes me a little sad that ABC is squeezing every last whipple out of this aging franchise, but the alternative is seeing the death of broadcast TV,” she continued. “And that’s not good for any of us.”
Even the show’s creator admitted she wasn’t sure how “Grey’s” might end.
“I knew how that story will end when we were in Season 6, in Season 7 and maybe Season 10, and after that I just gave up because I would write those endings and the show just kept going,” Rhimes said in 2023.
“I’ll have a feeling the same way I knew Scandal [was going to end],” she added. “I’ll have a feeling of like, ‘We’ve done what we needed to do here.’”
While “Grey’s” has been renewed by ABC, the drama’s current showrunner – Meg Marinis – suggested Pompeo might return should another season be announced.
“She is the essence of the show,” Marinis said, adding that the actress is welcome to return “as much as she can and she wants.”
“Those conversations haven’t quite started yet,” Marinis continued during an interview with the LA Times earlier this month. “I believe that there’s something in place for her already, but I’m not completely aware of it.”
“My feeling is that it would probably be around the same amount as this season, and it also just depends on her schedule.”
