“We haven’t spoken since he’s left the show,” Pompeo told Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield-Norris and Willow Smith.
However, despite the years of silence, the actress shared that she has “no hard feelings toward him.”
“He’s a wonderful actor and we’ve made the best TV you can make together,” she continued. “That’s a talented man right there. And he did 11 amazing years.”
Pompeo, who has starred in Grey’s Anatomy since it first premiered in 2005, went on to explain that it’s not unusual for actors to take a little time for themselves after leaving the program in order to “figure out who you are without the show.”
“Typically when people leave the show they need to refind themselves,” she explained, adding that “the show takes up so much of your life.”
“So we have not spoken but I will always have a place in my heart for Patrick,” she added.
Pompeo last discussed her former costar to The Hollywood Reporter when revealing that his exit from the series in 2015 “was a defining moment, deal-wise” in her career.
She said Dempsey was “never interested” in joining her to negotiate for a higher salary on the show. In late 2017, she signed a deal that made her the highest-earning actress on a TV drama.
During the episode, which centered around the topic of interracial marriage, Pompeo — who shares three children with husband Chris Ivery, who is black — also opened up about fighting racism and getting backlash for it.
The television star recalled how A&E Network pulled a series focusing on the lives of family members within the KKK before it aired due to her vocalization against it.
“So I was like black fist emoji, black power,” she said. Although her tweet brought on backlash for the black emojis she used, Pompeo added, “I’m not appropriating culture. I’m just joining the fight.”
Pompeo, explained she felt as though the backlash she received was reverse racism, saying, “If you call me a white bitch then isn’t that judging me on the color of my skin? Why can’t I help a victory for black people because I’m white?”
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This article originally appeared in PEOPLE.
