She was aghast to know that the viewers assumed “Grey’s Anatomy” “couldn’t possibly go on without the man”.

Ellen Pompeo is not happy with the fans of “Grey’s Anatomy” who believe that the show cannot run without the male protagonist-McDreamy, played by Patrick Dempsey.

Aside from a petition that begged Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes to bring back McDreamy, fans have been eager to see the return of Sandra Oh’s character, Dr. Cristina Yang, return to Grey-Sloan Memorial to pick up the slack, as reported by the Inquisitor.

“When Cristina said that, Meredith realized that she had been taking a back seat to allow this man to get what he wanted”, the executive producer explained. What I loved about season 11 was her saying, ‘That’s not who I am.’ It was so interesting for me to discover that audiences, especially women, are so conditioned to believe that there’s a singular fairy tale that nobody stops to think that that might not be the definition of happiness.

Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Pompeo acknowledged that she received very sexist remarks when her on-screen husband, Dr. Derek Shepard died in the series.

However, some fans aren’t excited to watch Meredith embark on a new, Derek-less journey. She said, “We had a table read last week in which I have never heard the entire room laugh that much – I want to say since season one – the entire room was laughing and everybody broke into applause when we were done reading”.

“It’s like, Annalise Keating carries the show, Olivia Pope carries the show”, she said. “But somehow, Meredith Grey needs someone”.

There were earlier reports that revealed that Meredith might have a new love interest in Season 12, but Pompeo did not confirm it. The site speculated that this may be the season where Meredith can stand on her own and focus on her career and family and prove that she is an independent woman after all. Why can’t I just be the lead of the show the way Annalise and Olivia can?

There are no concrete details as to what she will be up to in the new season, so fans will just have to wait until it premieres on September 24.