Warning: This article contains spoilers for Grey's Anatomy
When much-loved Grey's Anatomy character Dr Mark Sloan was left on life-support following a cataclysmic plane crash during the show's penultimate series, fans hoped the whole fiasco was nothing but a fever dream.
Sadly, however, their nightmare was quickly realised after the hunky medic sadly succumbed to his injuries and died peacefully with his friends by his side.
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While viewers found it hard to let go of one of the show's most iconic stars, they were later blindsided to discover that Dr Sloan actor Eric Dane hadn't actually wanted to say goodbye when he did.
Instead, he now claims he was 'probably fired' from the show by producers in 2012, speaking out on his exit in a bombshell interview.
Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast this week, Dane, 51, - who played 'Dr McSteamy' on the show for six seasons from 2006 to 2012 - began his argument by claiming: "I didn’t leave so much as I think I was let go."
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Podcast host Dax Shepard then went on to ask the actor about his prior struggles with both drugs and alcohol addiction, and whether or not they affected his exit.
"I was struggling," Dane replied, adding, however: "They didn’t let me go because of that, although it definitely didn’t help."
In fact, he eluded to the possibility that, having become one of Grey's Anatomy's most in-demand actors, he'd simply become 'too expensive'.
"I was starting to become - as most of these actors who have spent significant time on the show - you start to become very expensive for the network," he explained.
"And the network knows that the show is going to do what it’s going to do irrespective of who they keep on it - as long as they have their Grey they were fine."
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During the series 8 finale, Dane's character Dr Sloan - joined by co-stars Chyler Leigh (Lexie), Patrick Dempsey (Derek), Ellen Pompeo (Meredith), Sandra Oh (Cristina), and Jessica Capshaw - is involved in a major aviation incident whilst on the way to perform surgery on conjoined twins.
Whilst his on-screen love interest Lexie is killed by debris, Dr Sloan survives but is placed on life support due to the extensive injuries he sustained.
The 9th series subsequently sees him reappear in flashbacks, but his machine is turned off as per his own wishes after 30 days.
Despite his premature departure, Dane now says that the show's producer Shonda Rhimes had his back during the behind-the-scenes awkwardness.
"She protected us fiercely," he claimed. "She protected us publicly, she protected us privately. I love Shonda Rhimes and she protected me but I was probably fired.
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"It wasn’t ceremoniously like, ‘You’re fired,’ it was just like, ‘You’re not coming back’."
After he left the show, Dane says he endured a dry-spell when it comes to work, claiming his career went 'sideways'.
"If you take the whole eight years I was on Grey’s Anatomy, I was f***ked up longer than I was sober and that was when things started going sideways for me," he explained.
Since then, however, the actor has gone on to land roles as Cal Jacobs in gritty coming-of-age hit series Euphoria, as well as in horror-comedy film American Carnage.
Topics: Grey's Anatomy, Celebrity, TV And Film, US News
Rhianna Benson