Real Reason For George's Death in Grey's Anatomy? T.R. Knight's Bad Blood With Shonda Rhimes

Grey's Anatomy has plenty of tragic stories that left fans heartbroken, and many of those include sudden dramatic deaths.

Some of them people still cannot forgive up to this day; but as it turns out, some characters don't necessarily die just for the sake of the drama.

However, if you think about it, T.R. Knight's George O'Malley was among such characters: after all, everything about him kind of hinted at the possibility of untimely demise.

From his hopeless love for Meredith Grey to quitting medicine in order to join the US army, George had a tough ride on the show; and we all know that Shondaland series sometimes need even less to quickly kill a character off.

This time, however, it was about real life as well. It turns out that T.R. Knight himself wasn't a big fan of the creative direction Grey's Anatomy was taking at the time; also, he didn't love the working conditions.

The genius of Shonda Rhimes clearly did not impress the actor enough, and at some point, he asked to be released from his contract.

According to Knight, a "breakdown of communication" with Rhimes was the issue. The fact that his character cheated on his wife was among the biggest grievances for Knight, who believed it was completely out of character for George to do something like that.

Besides, the actor even claimed that Rhimes did not want him to come out as gay during his tenure on Grey's Anatomy and tried to discourage him.

Rhimes, however, denies that: according to her, she fully supported Knight, only noting that him coming out will not affect his character, and George would not "suddenly be gay."

Well, all is well that ends well: Knight appeared on Grey's Anatomy a couple of times after being killed off in season 6.

He returned in season 15 in the form of a ghost who visited Meredith, and later appeared in season 17 as one of Meredith's unconscious beach visions while she was battling COVID-19.