Grey’s Anatomy stars defend Meredith and DeLuca's relationship after backlash from fans

8 March 2019, 21:15

By Katie Louise Smith

Ellen Pompeo and Giacomo Gianniotti have defended their characters' new relationship following a divided response on social media.

Grey's Anatomy cemented itself as the longest running medical drama with a whopping 333 episodes to its name (so far) last week and all these years later, it's still one of the best - and most important - shows on TV.

Season 15 is in full swing, there's drama, there's tragedy, there's laughs and there's also been a lot of new romances. It was teased by show-runner Krista Vernoff back in 2018 that the fifteenth season would be billed as the "season of love" and that Meredith Grey would finally get another real love interest following the death of Derek Shepherd in season 11.

Well, she has. In fact, she's kind of got two of them. Meredith has found herself in the middle of what I guess you could call a 'love triangle' with intern-bae-turned-resident-bae Andrew DeLuca and new hot doc Atticus "Link" Lincoln.

But the recent developments in Mer's love life have created a huge online debate and the backlash has been so loud, Ellen Pompeo and Giacomo Gianniotti have had to defend Meredith and DeLuca's new found relationship.

Here's what's going on: While both men have made their feelings known to Meredith, she's found herself gravitating toward DeLuca more and more. Their relationship has been bubbling since the season 14 finale, when they kissed at Alex and Jo's wedding, and has steadily been getting more and more serious. But now they're official(ish), half the fandom is absolutely up in arms about it.

While most fans are happy to see Meredith get her groove back after the darkness she found herself in following Derek's death, others are still not quite ready for her to move on with her life and start dating again. People are complaining about the age difference between Meredith and DeLuca (Derek was a fair bit older than Meredith...), that she's his boss (Derek was Meredith's boss...), that the show is trying to replace McDreamy (Derek is literally irreplaceable to Meredith, they're not even attempting to do that.)

Basically, people are loving it...

But also, people are haaaaating it.

Speaking to TV Guide about the backlash, Vernoff said: "For me, that is not even a valid debate. I am shocked that anyone could simultaneously love a character and wish that she remain without romantic love for the rest of her life no matter how long her life is."

SHE 👏 HAS 👏 A 👏 POINT!

Pompeo also pointed out the double standard in complaining about their age gap in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying: "There's still plenty of older guys that are with much younger women and no one says anything. But hopefully we're past people saying that about an older woman with a younger man. Hopefully people don't even clock that because men have been doing it forever and continue to do it and no one bats an eye."

Gianniotti added: "I get a lot of people asking if I feel like I'm filling Derek's shoes or in his shadow, and I can't say I feel any of that. The biggest thing that Ellen and I have fought for most is that this romance and the unfolding of it be as different by design, so the audience doesn't feel like they're reliving someone else going through the same falling in love steps."

Of course, it's difficult for day one fans of the show who lived and breathed MerDer for 11 whole years (you're looking at one of them) but surely if you loved Meredith so much, you'd want her to be happy, right?! The impact that Derek had on Meredith's life can never and will never be forgotten by the fans, the writers, the actors and most importantly the character herself. And no one is trying to replace him, either.

Let Meredith get hers! Let Merluca thrive! She deserves! SHE! IS! THE! SUN!