Ellen Pompeo is best known as love-lorn medic Meredith Grey in the long-running ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy.

The 55-year-old star will be appearing in first screen role since Grey’s Anatomy this week when she stars in the Hulu limited drama series Good American Family.

Good American Family will premiere on the American streaming platform on March 19 and comes to Disney+ in the UK as a boxset on May 7.

The eight-part series recounts the bizarre real-life story of the adoption of Natalia Grace (played by Imogen Faith Reid), a seven-year-old Ukrainian orphan born with dwarfism.

Pompeo not only stars in Good American Family but also serves as an executive producer on the series.

However, many fans may be interested to know about the American star’s life when the cameras aren’t rolling with the actress facing much heartbreak and tragedy in her personal life.

Ellen Pompeo has been on Grey’s Anatomy since 2005 (Image:

GETTY)

Ellen Pompeo’s painful family loss

Pompeo’s mother Kathleen tragically died aged 39 from an accidental painkiller overdose when the actress just four.

She previously opened up about the loss of her mother and how it affected her throughout her childhood and teenage years.

Kathleen became addicted to pain medication after she was involved in a car accident aged 16.

“She was hit by a drunk driver and thrown 90 feet in the air and pretty much broke every bone in her body,” Pompeo explained back in 2020 during an appearance on Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert Podcast.

“She was coming from church to go meet my dad and she was crossing the street and got hit by this drunk driver and was in the hospital for almost a year. She was put on morphine.”

This fateful hospital stay was the beginning of Kathleen’s addiction with her mother requiring further pain relief after being discharged due to chronic back pain and slipped discs.

Reflecting on her feelings about the death, Pompeo admitted there was some resentment towards Kathleen’s passing.

Ellen Pompeo has faced much personal tragedy with the death of her mother (

“When I was a teenager, also coming from an Italian-Irish Catholic family, no one talks about anything, right?” she explained, saying she was only told about Kathleen when she “asked” and it was “very painful for everybody involved”.

“When I was a teenager, yeah, I was super angry at her for leaving. Not understanding addiction, not understand pain, not understanding any of that and coming from a completely ignorant place. Just anger,” Pompeo said.

But over time, her feelings towards her mother changed: “And then once you get older and you understand… there was actually no help for addiction because no one back then talked about addiction. So she probably had zero help.”

She continued: “Then it turns to compassion and feeling really bad that she had nowhere, probably, to go for help when having five children and probably being not able to care for the kids all the time.”

Pompeo said her own milestones and turning 41, outliving Kathleen had an impact on her.

“What would she have been able to accomplish had her circumstances in life been different?” she asked.

Powered by

The actress is married to Chris Ivery and the couple have three children, however, Pompeo admitted Kathleen’s death had heightened her own fears mortality.

She confessed to being scared of dying when her own children turned four: “I’m obsessed with death, I think about it all the time. I think about my own death all the time. I always think something bad is going to happen.”

“My first memory of life is seeing my mother dead,” she stated. Nonetheless, Pompeo said she was “working” on these fears and trying to move forward.

Ellen Pompeo admitted she was deeply affected by her mother’s passing (Image:

GETTY)

Ellen Pompeo’s Grey’s Anatomy heartbreak

Moving away from her personal loss, Pompeo has already had some professional losses.

She has been a firm fixture on Grey’s anatomy for the past two decades with many of her cast members coming and going over this time.

The star previously shared her heartbreak when co-star Justin Chambers announced in 2020 that he would be departing from the show after 15 years as Dr Alex Karev.

At the time, Pompeo posted on X (formerly Twitter) under a post about the news of Chambers exit, which said: “#GreysAnatomy is about to feel one of its biggest losses yet.’

Pompeo responded: ‘Truer words have never been spoken,’ along with a broken heart emoji.

She and Chambers shared the screen from the very first episode of Grey’s Anatomy, making his exit all the more poignant.

Ellen Pompeo’s future on Grey’s Anatomy

Pompeo is still part of the show but has taken a step back from her full-time role.

Season 21 will only see her appear in seven episodes as she scales back on her commitment to the global Shondaland hit with the series now focusing on other characters.

Powered by

Speaking to Extra about her new role as Kristine Barnett, the adoptive mother of Natalia in Good American Family, Pompeo said her agent had convinced her to take on the project with the part allowing her to “disappear into this character” and leave Meredith Grey behind.

She added: “It was an opportunity to step into something completely different, because I worked with the hair and makeup team and the brilliant costumer. We had so much fun.”