This Is Why Ellen Pompeo Doesn't Want Her Daughter To Watch Grey's Anatomy

"Grey's Anatomy" had just been renewed for Season 19, further cementing its status as the longest-running medical drama in primetime television. While the show continues to rake in impressive ratings despite approaching almost two decades on the air, Meredith Grey herself has expressed interest in pulling the plug on the show. According to actor Ellen Pompeo, she's trying to persuade everyone to put an end to it once and for all.

"I've been trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end," she told Insider. "​I feel like I'm the super naive one who keeps saying, 'But what's the story going to be, what story are we going to tell?' And everyone's like, 'Who cares, Ellen? It makes a gazillion dollars.'"

It's understandable why many of the cast and crew don't want to hang their scrubs just yet. Executive producer and current showrunner Krista Vernoff said that the show continues to make an impact on people globally. "'Grey's Anatomy' has a global impact that can't be overstated," she shared with Variety. "'Grey's' touches, and sometimes changes, hearts and minds worldwide through the depth of connection people feel with these characters." But while this is the case, Pompeo refuses to let her own daughter watch the show.

It's normal for a mother to be protective over their children, and that's exactly what Ellen Pompeo is doing to her kids, even if that means not letting them watch the show that made her a star. On her "Tell Me With Ellen" podcast, the actor admitted that "Grey's Anatomy" can at times be raunchy. After all, it's the kind of show that had people tuning in to doctors getting down and dirty in on-call rooms and ORs. "Even though network TV, there was a lot of stuff happening," she said. "It was [a] pretty racy network show for the time."

The show's risque nature is what makes her "terrified" to one day sit down with her kids, particularly her daughter Stella Ivery," and watch it. She also said that there's one specific scene on the "Grey's" that she doesn't want Stella to see. "Listen, there's one scene, for sure, where a character — not me — had sex with a ghost," she said. "Had oral sex with a ghost."

Pompeo is referring to a plot where Katherine Heigl's Izzie Stevens thought she was having sex with her dead lover. It turned out to be hallucinations brought about by a tumor. "I'm pretty sure I just don't feel like having that conversation with my 12-year-old, you know?" she explained.

While Ellen Pompeo refuses her kids to watch "Grey's Anatomy" (or at least not now, anyway) and has expressed interest in retiring Meredith Grey's scrubs, her sole motivator for continuing the show is her children. In a guesting on the "Jemele Hill Is Unbothered" podcast, the actor admitted that she's staying on to give her children a great life.

"I made choices to stay on the show," she said. "For me, personally, a healthy home life was more important than career. I didn't grow up with a particularly happy childhood, so to have a happy home life was really something I needed to complete, to close the hole in my heart."

She also added that she's no longer in a position to try and find creative fulfillment elsewhere. "I made a decision to make money, and not chase creative acting roles," she said, telling it like it is. "I don't like chasing anything ever, and acting to me, in my experience, was a lot of chasing. You've got to chase roles, you've got to beg for roles, you've got to convince people, and although I produce and it's the same kind of thing, I think I still do it from a place of, 'I'm never that thirsty because I'm financially set.'"