A Brief History of Meredith's Grey's Anatomy Love Interests

Ellen Pompeo's character is back in the dating pool for the first time in years.

By Chris Harnick Oct 11, 2018 4:35 PMTags
Grey's Anatomy, Ellen PompeoABC

It's happening. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is going on a date. And it's not just any date, it's a blind date with a very famous face. Josh Radnor, yep Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother, is the latest familiar star to join the world of Grey's Anatomy—and the latest star to romance the leading lady.

Radnor will appear as a suitor Meredith goes on a blind date with. No word on whether he'll stick around more than the Thursday, Oct. 11 episode, but Pompeo has previously said it was time for her character to get back into the dating saddle since the death of her husband, Derek (Patrick Dempsey).

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"Meredith is gonna date, date, date, date, date, just like my friends who are ready to jump back into the dating world do," Pompeo told EW. "What does dating look like today? I think we're almost phasing out the dating apps now. I'm hearing like people are not liking the dating apps anymore. I don't know, I'm just really happy I'm not single in real life. I try to listen to everybody's stories, all my friends and even people that I don't like that much, so we can tell a story that resonates true with people who have been through something like this."

Before she begins to "date, date, date, date, date," let's take a look at Meredith Grey's love interests over the 15 seasons.

Derek Shepherd

The entire series started with Meredith and Derek's first night together, after they met in a bar. Then they got serious, but then it turned out he was married, and then he went back to his wife, and then he went back to Meredith, and then they broke up, and then they got back together, and then they got post-it married, and then they had kids, and then they struggled through his new job in DC, and then he up and died. And then Meredith had a secret baby! 

Whew. 

Finn Dandridge

Meredith and her dog's vet, Finn Dandridge, got serious after Meredith and Derek broke up due to the fact that, ya know, he was married and wanted to try to patch things up with his wife. They attempted to make things work, even after Meredith cheated on Finn with Derek, and she dated both men, but you know how this story ends...McDreamy came out ahead.

George O'Malley

George (RIP) had a crush on Meredith in the beginning of the series and he finally got his wish and they slept together in season two. It was an unmitigated disaster and ruined their friendship for a little while, but eventually they got over it. 

Will Thorpe

Dr. Will Thorpe came in at a rough time for Meredith. Derek was dead, and she was getting her life back together. She avoided his advances for a bit, but they eventually dated—and slept together. Mer freaked, since this was the first guy she dated since Derek's death, and broke it off after screaming at him to get out of her house. Will said he'd wait for her…and we're three seasons later…is he still waiting?

Nathan Riggs

Meredith and Nathan slept together at the end of season 12 (the same season she dated Will), but, since this is Grey's, they decided it was a one-time thing…that happens again. They started dating, but then his thought-to-be-dead fiancee Megan returned from the not-dead, and there was no question about whether Meredith would encourage him to go back to the love of his life. 

John

Meredith went on one blind date with John, played by Josh Radnor, and it went so well...until he complained about dating needy, desperate single moms. Bye, John. 

He barely deserves to be mentioned, but people reacted so strongly to Josh Radnor being cast as Mer's new love interest that it was so, so funny when he was really only there for one ill-fated date at the start of season 15. 

Link

For a hot second, before the show committed to MerLuca, Meredith was in a bit of a love triangle with two fellow hot docs hoping to win her over. Even as we were hoping for DeLuca to prevail, the triangle was pretty entertaining. Link (Chris Carmack) has now found found himself a fling with Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), so it all worked out.

Andrew DeLuca

DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) first drunkenly kissed Meredith at Alex and Jo's not-quite-a-wedding at the end of season 14, and thus began a flirtation and a series of sex dreams that soon grew into something more, with the help of a very sexy broken elevator. By the end of season 15, they had both said "I love you," and DeLuca had even taken the fall for a crime Meredith committed. Hopefully, that means MerLuca is here to stay (even if one of them has to go to jail). 

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays, 8 p.m. on ABC.

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