Medical drama Grey’s Anatomy aired season 16 in September and now we wait until 2020 to find out what’s going to happen next in the series. Actress Sandra Oh played Dr Cristina Yang for the show’s entirety up until 2014 when she left the series. So why did the actress make her exit from the ABC series?
Why did actress Sandra Oh leave Grey’s Anatomy?
Oh was one of the show’s breakout stars, where she played Cristina Yang, a researcher, Chief Medical Officer, and Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Klausman Institute for Medical Research.
During her time on the show, she was engaged to Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington), had a tumultuous relationship and marriage with Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) and a good friend of the head of general surgery Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo).
In her very last episode, Cristina hopped in a cab, headed to the airport and left Seattle to start her new life as a director of cardiothoracic surgery in Switzerland.
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The actress told The Hollywood Reporter in 2013 the reason behind leaving the show for good was because she had played Cristina Yang for long enough.
She said: “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.”
Will Sandra Oh ever make a comeback to Grey’s Anatomy?
From the sounds of it, it looks very unlikely Oh will return to Grey’s Anatomy anytime soon.
Speaking to Extra in April during the premiere of Killing Eve season two, she said: “I just got to tell you, creatively you have moved on and while I know, and I deeply appreciate it, because I can feel it from the fans how much they love Cristina and that the show also still keeps Cristina alive, for me, [Killing Eve] is my home now.
“This is where I am. I am Eve and that’s where I plan to stay as long as the show will have me.
“And that’s really where I want to be.”