15 little-known facts about Meredith Grey even die-hard 'Grey's Anatomy' fans may not know
- For 17 seasons of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," Meredith Grey faces family drama and heartbreak.
- Throughout the show, fans got a glimpse of her personal life but may have forgotten some details.
- She has seemingly committed the most crimes out of the crew, on top of nearly dying several times.
Meredith's birth year is mentioned, but her actual birthday is never revealed.
From comments about her age to the timeline given throughout the show, Meredith was definitely born in 1978.
Though her birth year is mentioned, her actual birthday is never revealed.
This seems like an odd detail to never come up considering just how many birthday parties are shown throughout the show for other characters.
Her interest in medicine started as a child when she went to work with her mother.
Meredith's mother, Ellis Grey (Kate Burton), worked at Seattle Grace when Meredith was a child.
Flashbacks show Meredith walking around the hospital with an Anatomy Jane doll (a toy with detachable organs) that she used to play with.
These moments show that Meredith's interest in medicine started when she was a toddler.
Meredith originally planned on selling the childhood home she now lives in.
When Meredith first moves to Seattle as an intern, she plans on selling her mother's house and moving.
Instead, she rents it out to her fellow interns and lives there on and off throughout the series.
She now lives there with her children, and after seeing the home every season, it's difficult to imagine the Grey family living anywhere else.
Meredith has seemingly committed more crimes at Grey-Sloan than any of her coworkers.
An alarming number of surgeons at Grey-Sloan have committed various crimes during their career, including breaking laws on patient confidentiality and assaulting other doctors.
Meredith has committed the most crimes at the hospital out of the other doctors.
This has included manipulating a clinical trial, kidnapping Zola from her social worker, and committing insurance fraud.
The last act was such a serious felony that Meredith was fired and almost lost her medical license.
She has been a bridesmaid to her fellow surgeons five times.
Meredith has only gotten married once, but she's been a bridesmaid many times.
She was a bridesmaid for the following couples' weddings: Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) and Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) and Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), April Kepner (Sarah Drew) and Matthew Taylor (Justin Bruening), and Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Ben Warren (Jason Winston George).
Only three of those five weddings actually happened, as Burke never showed up for his wedding with Cristina and April left with Jackson instead of marrying Matthew.
She is frequently shown carpooling to work throughout the series, but rarely drives herself.
Though Meredith has been shown driving a car a handful of times on the show, she is almost always shown in the passenger's seat.
Meredith is seen sitting in cars her roommates drive as early as the first season. Later, she's shown next to her husband, Derek (Patrick Dempsey), as he operates the vehicle.
There's no clear reason why she is rarely behind the wheel.
Meredith struggled to choose a specialty for a while.
Meredith originally considered neurology as her surgical specialty when she worked under Derek.
After she ruined his clinical trial, she was banned from Derek's service and had to explore other specialties. This led to her choosing general surgery, just as her mother did.
She holds the record for the longest surgery at Grey-Sloan.
During season 15, episode 14, doctors applaud Meredith during surgery.
Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) explains that Meredith has reached the record for the longest single surgery at Grey-Sloan after operating for more than 24 hours straight.
Viewers are never shown anyone breaking this record after this, so it is likely Meredith still holds this record.
She carried on her mother's work.
Meredith read her mother's old journals to learn more about her life and career.
She found notes about a research project her mother wanted to begin and ended up starting it herself at the hospital.
Meredith eventually needed to step back from the project, but she did carry on her mother's research for a period of time.
Meredith has had the most near-death experiences out of every doctor on the show.
The staff at Grey-Sloan are frequently put in mortal danger, though Meredith has been closer to death more often than the other surgeons.
She has held a live bomb, nearly drowned, almost been shot, survived a plane crash, given birth in a dangerous storm, been severely beaten by a patient, and survived COVID-19.
She once held a reputation as the meanest attending.
At the start of season nine, Meredith was the most-feared attending by the new group of interns.
At the time, Bailey was kinder to the interns as she was happily getting back together with Ben, and Meredith treated the interns with a coldness that terrified them.
Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington) and Stephanie Edwards (Jerrika Hinton) both called her "Medusa."
Meredith and Cristina still stay in touch.
Cristina leaves Grey-Sloan to take over Burke's practice in Switzerland.
Immediately after she leaves, Cristina can still be seen video-chatting with Meredith.
In the most recent seasons, she isn't shown on screen but it's still mentioned she checks in on Meredith.
Only one of her children was born at Grey-Sloan.
Meredith has three children: Zola, Derek Bailey, and Ellis.
Zola was adopted by Meredith and Derek after coming to Seattle Grace (later known as Grey-Sloan) for surgery when she was 6-months-old.
Meredith gave birth to Bailey during a superstorm at Grey-Sloan, but her youngest child, Ellis, was born elsewhere when she was in Boston after Derek's death.
Meredith donated part of her liver.
Meredith's father Thatcher (Jeff Perry) needed a liver transplant due to the damage his alcoholism caused his liver.
After finding out that her half-sister Lexie (Chyler Leigh) was not a match, Meredith donated part of her liver instead.
This is rarely mentioned after the episode, though Meredith would have needed a longer recovery time than is shown.
Ellis didn't want Meredith to be a surgeon.
When Meredith was an intern, Ellis was brought into the hospital.
She had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and was rarely lucid during her hospital stay.
During one of her few communicative moments, Ellis revealed she never wanted Meredith to become a surgeon as she did. Clearly, Meredith pursued the career anyway despite her mother's objections.
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