Ellen Pompeo tells Ellen "it's absolutely not true" that her pay hike led to Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew's exits

TheWrap

“I mean, I’m not involved in these kind of decisions," the Grey's Anatomy star said on Thursday's Ellen show. "However, there’s a few problems that you encounter doing a show for 14 seasons. And one of them is the writers have a really hard time creatively, you know, thinking up new stories for all these characters. I think we have 16 regular cast members and it’s always sad when we lose people for whatever reason, whether they want to go or they don’t wanna go, it doesn’t make it any easier.”