Isaiah Washington Claims Ellen Pompeo Was Paid To Be Silent About Patrick Dempsey’s Behavior
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Isaiah Washington alleged that his ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ co-star ‘took $5 million dollars under the table’ to not let the world know about how allegedly ‘toxic’ Patrick Dempsey was on set, in a new radio interview.
Isaiah Washington, 58, is making some shocking claims about his time on the Grey’s Anatomy set and what was allegedly done to make outside people unaware of the “toxicity” on set. The actor revealed that his former co-star Ellen Pompeo, 51, had allegedly known about the supposed “terrorizing” behavior from their other co-star Patrick Dempsey, 55, and was paid to keep quiet about it, in a new interview.
He claimed the actress “took $5 million dollars under the table” in the midst of the Me Too era “to not tell the world how toxic and nasty Patrick Dempsey really was” during his Oct. 21 appearance on KBLA Talk 1580 radio, which can be heard HERE. Despite the big claim, Isaiah didn’t offer any evidence to support it during the interview and we’ve reached out to Ellen’s rep for comment but have yet to receive a response.
In addition to the news of Ellen getting allegedly paid to stay silent about Patrick, Isaiah, who played the role of Dr. Preston Burke on Grey’s Anatomy from 2005-2007 and again in 2014, opened up about the alleged mistreatment toward him when he was on the show. “Every single day I was a problem that was being reminded, ‘You’re No. 4 on the call sheet. You’re not the star of this show,”‘ he told radio host Tavis Smiley.
He also claimed his time on the show was just a “prelude” to being used as a “scapegoat” to help cover up the other alleged problems on set. He said that his 2007 firing, in which he allegedly used a homophobic slur, was part of the show’s supposed “agenda.”
“It was easy. I didn’t know that it would stick to me so hard. But I found out why,” he explained. “It was an agenda to cover up for the toxic and bad behavior of many of my former castmates on that show. And the top of that would be Patrick Dempsey.”
Isaiah went on to claim that he thought many of the issues regarding him and Patrick had to do with money, since they were allegedly the highest paid actors on the show. “At this point, I was the highest paid person on that show, next to Patrick Dempsey. Apparently, it got out, so there was a lot of resentment. I understand that but it was based on my roles and my resume. I can’t help that,” he said. “He was called Pilot Poison. No one wanted him on the show. They wanted Rob Lowe.”
Before Isaiah’s latest claims, a book titled How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, made its own accusations, including that Patrick, whose character was killed off the show in 2011, allegedly had “HR issues” that were “not sexual in any way” and involved him “terrorizing the set” at the time of his exit. Executive producer James D. Parriott told Lynette Rice, the author of the unauthorized book, that Grey’s creator Shonda Rhimes “needed an OG to come in as sort of a showrunner for fourteen episodes,” which is what brought him back to the series to help with Patrick’s final days on set. “There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him,” an excerpt from the book read.
How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy was published on Sept. 21, 2021.