There are so many different relationships on “Grey’s Anatomy” that it’s difficult to keep them all straight. Here’s a rundown - spoilers ahead!:
Meredith Grey
Derek ShepherdMeredith sleeps with Derek before she realizes that he’s her boss. At the beginning of Season 1, she thwarts his advances but finally gives in. For a while, they keep their relationship a secret, but before long the whole hospital knows. At the end of Season 1, Derek’s wife shows up, and the Derek/Meredith thing is over—for now.In Season 2, Meredith takes home a guy whom she meets at Joe’s. The next day, he comes to the hospital because of a constant erection and Derek finds out that Meredith slept with him. Meredith is embarrassed, and Derek is hurt.Finn DandridgeMeredith begins dating the veterinarian of Doc, the dog she shares with Derek. Derek realizes that he doesn’t love Addison and doesn’t want to be with her but allows Meredith time to make her choice between him and Finn.Meredith finally chooses Derek, but then he says he needs time to get over Addison’s relationship with Mark.Derek (again)Meredith and Derek end up back together but then break up when Meredith can’t commit. They continue having sex until Derek starts dating a nurse, Rose. Meredith and Derek realize they belong together after working closely together and finally succeeding with a clinical trial. Meredith reluctantly asks Derek to move in, which he does, but Meredith won’t kick out her roommates, Izzie and Alex.They decide to get married but give up their wedding so that Izzie and Alex can get married. They end up writing promises to each other on a Post-it Note and consider themselves married. Despite some ups and downs, their marriage remains relatively stable and they eventually adopt a daughter, Zola, and a son, Bailey. In Season 11, their marriage comes to an abrupt end when Derek is killed in a car accident; Meredith was unknowingly pregnant with their second daughter, Ellis, at the time
Nathan Riggs
After years of mourning for Derek, Meredith begins opening up again and slowly enters a relationship with Nathan Riggs, a former colleague of Owen’s. What starts out as a casual attraction slowly develops into something more, as they bond over both having lost their “true loves”: her loss of Derek, and his loss of his fiancee, Megan Hunt. Just as they’re starting to work towards something serious, however, Megan is found alive, and Meredith encourages Nathan to take advantage of this miraculous second chance.
Andrew DeLuca
While attending Alex and Jo’s wedding, a drunk and emotional Andrew mistakes friendly sympathy from Meredith as a romantic advance and tries to kiss her. She politely rejects him in the moment, but in the weeks and months following, begins to have dreams about him. She’s briefly torn between his interest in her and the attention of new “ortho god” Link, but winds up deciding to pursue her feelings for Andrew.
Their new relationship hit a snag with the arrival of his famous and unstable father, who Andrew didn’t want to turn out like. After briefly pushing her away, Andrew apologized, and he eventually became the first person Meredith said “I love you” to since Derek. However, his fears over not being “enough” for a surgical legend kept cropping up throughout their cases and through Meredith’s insurance fraud case, which ultimately led to a breakup.
Cristina Yang
Preston BurkeBurke notices Cristina and brings her coffee. She’s surprised by this, but later when she walks in on him while he’s changing, they hook up. Their relationship continues in secret throughout Season 1. Cristina discovers she’s pregnant but doesn’t share this information and schedules a D&C. In Season 2, Cristina loses the baby and Burke finds out about the pregnancy. They get back together, and Burke tells Chief Webber of their relationship.Cristina has trouble coping with the fact that Burke might no longer be a great surgeon after he is shot. She comes up with a scheme so that Burke can operate without anyone knowing he has tremors in his hand. She is extremely upset when he asks her to step away from a surgery and tells the chief what is going on. Derek can fix Burke’s hand.He asks Cristina to marry him, and she says yes, but he leaves her at the altar. Cristina is devastated and doesn’t date throughout Season 4 until Owen Hunt comes to Seattle Grace in Season 5.Owen HuntOwen was an Army major and is a trauma surgeon. He and Cristina begin dating but break up after Owen chokes Cristina in his sleep because of post-traumatic stress disorder, but as he goes through therapy, they get back together. They have a rocky relationship because Owen seems to be in love with both Cristina and Teddy Altman, though he chooses Cristina; they ultimately get married, despite not being on the same page about wanting or not wanting children.
This fundamental difference ends up being the straw that breaks the camel’s back. When Cristina learns that she’s pregnant, she immediately wants to terminate the pregnancy, which Owen begs her not to do but ultimately supports - until his anger boils over and he berates her in front of their friends. Owen eventually cheated on Cristina, and the culmination of all their problems led to the end of their marriage.
Izzie Stevens
Alex KarevIzzie begins to show interest in Alex at the beginning of Season 2. He takes her out on a date, but she has a horrible time. He doesn’t even kiss her good night. She complains to George, and the next day Alex kisses her. Izzie thinks they have a relationship until she catches him in bed with George’s ex-girlfriend, Olivia.
Izzie eventually forgives Alex, and they continue dating until Izzie falls in love with Denny Dequette.
Denny DequetteDenny is a patient of Burke’s waiting for a new heart. Izzie cuts Denny’s LVAD wire so that he will move up the donor list and get a heart. The surgery is successful, but Denny dies a couple of days after proposing to Izzie.Denny leaves Izzie $8.7 million. Much to George’s distress, she keeps the check under a magnet on the refrigerator, waiting until she thinks of something spectacular to do with it. When Bailey mentions her idea to open a free clinic, Izzie invests in it.Alex (again)Sometime after Denny’s death, Izzie begins dating Alex again, but she starts seeing Denny everywhere and even carries on a relationship with him, though she knows that he’s dead. Once she realizes that cancer is causing her to hallucinate, Izzie looks to Alex, and when she is at her sickest, they get married.When she starts to get better, she distances herself from Alex and leaves for a while. She comes back and wants him back, but he says he deserves to be treated better than how she treats him. She leaves again. It’s revealed in Season 16 that, at some point, she decided to have children with the embryos she and Alex made during her cancer treatment, and they ultimately resume their relationship after he leaves Seattle to be with her and his kids.
Alex Karev
Izzie StevensAfter he and Izzie have dated but before they begin a relationship, Izzie catches him sleeping with a nurse, Olivia. Izzie eventually forgives him, and they begin dating again until Denny enters the picture. After Denny’s death they begin dating yet again and following her recovery from cancer they get married, but it doesn’t last. Eventually, Izzie leaves Seattle altogether and mails Alex divorce papers.
Several years later, Alex reaches out to Izzie while putting together supportive testimony for Meredith’s board hearing. When he calls her, he finds out that she used the embryos they made during her cancer treatment and that they now have a son and a daughter together. He doesn’t want to be an absent father, so he leaves Seattle and his entire life there to go be with Izzie and their kids in Kansas.
Rebecca/“Ava"Alex rescues a pregnant woman from a ferry boat crash, and the two soon form a bond. Since she has no memory of her life and no identification, he helps her pick a name, Ava, to go by temporarily. They begin to develop feelings, but her memories come back and her husband finds her and takes her home. She later returns and begins an affair with Alex, but it quickly becomes apparent that she’s severely mentally ill and, although he tries to help her, he realizes that she needs more help than he can give her.
Jo Wilson
Alex befriends one of the new interns, Jo Wilson, over their terrible childhoods and dark senses of humor. The friendship turns into a romance, although it takes both of them a while to be willing to admit it. After dating for a while, he learns that Jo is actually married (and that Jo isn’t even her real name) and has been hiding from her abusive estranged husband. Alex initially tracks down her husband, Paul, with the intent of violence, but chooses not to do anything. Paul eventually tracks Jo down when she formally files for divorce, but is killed following a hit-and-run.
Jo and Alex decide to get married, although their wedding day doesn’t exactly go smoothly. They both advance to more senior positions at the hospital and have a stable, loving relationship. In season 16, Alex abruptly leaves Jo and mails her an apology letter and divorce papers, explaining what happened with Izzie and their children.
George O’Malley
MeredithAt first, everyone thinks George is gay, but soon everyone but Meredith knows he’s in love with her. George sleeps with Meredith when she is vulnerable despite knowing it is wrong, and he and Meredith have a strained relationship for some time afterward.OliviaGeorge dates nurse Olivia for a short time.CallieDr. Callie Torres begins to show interest in George, but they break up because George puts his friends ahead of her. They get back together and spontaneously get married in Vegas. One night, while drunk, George sleeps with Izzie. He and Callie break up, and George tries to make things work with Izzie, but they have no sexual chemistry.
Callie Torres
GeorgeCallie and George have an on-again-off-again relationship. Callie sleeps with Mark Sloan and feels terrible about it.After helping George through a tough time with his dying father, George asks Callie to marry him, and they run off to Vegas and get married. When he tells her that he slept with Izzie, she forgives him, but they soon break off their marriage.Erica HahnCallie begins dating Erica Hahn, though she’s terrified because she’s never dated a woman before and doesn’t know what to do. When they fight, Hahn leaves the hospital, leaving Callie behind.Arizona RobbinsCallie begins dating Arizona Robbins. They’re well matched and getting along great until Callie finds out that Arizona doesn’t want to have children. After the shoot-out scare, Callie decides she can live without children, but she can’t live without Arizona. Arizona says they can have dozens of kids.
Miranda Bailey
Tucker JonesBailey was married to Tucker Jones for over ten years, but they divorce because she puts more priority on her job. They share one son, Tuck.Ben WarrenBailey reluctantly begins dating anesthesiologist Ben Warren. She gets upset when she sees him flirting with a nurse, but he says he’s doing it just to get in good with the nurses, so they give him a better schedule. Bailey seems fine with that explanation. The couple eventually marry and start a life together. Things get rocky from time to time, especially when Ben quits his surgical residency and becomes a firefighter instead, but they remain in a happy and stable marriage.
There are so many different relationships on “Grey’s Anatomy” that it’s difficult to keep them all straight. Here’s a rundown - spoilers ahead!:
Meredith Grey
Derek ShepherdMeredith sleeps with Derek before she realizes that he’s her boss. At the beginning of Season 1, she thwarts his advances but finally gives in. For a while, they keep their relationship a secret, but before long the whole hospital knows. At the end of Season 1, Derek’s wife shows up, and the Derek/Meredith thing is over—for now.In Season 2, Meredith takes home a guy whom she meets at Joe’s. The next day, he comes to the hospital because of a constant erection and Derek finds out that Meredith slept with him. Meredith is embarrassed, and Derek is hurt.Finn DandridgeMeredith begins dating the veterinarian of Doc, the dog she shares with Derek. Derek realizes that he doesn’t love Addison and doesn’t want to be with her but allows Meredith time to make her choice between him and Finn.Meredith finally chooses Derek, but then he says he needs time to get over Addison’s relationship with Mark.Derek (again)Meredith and Derek end up back together but then break up when Meredith can’t commit. They continue having sex until Derek starts dating a nurse, Rose. Meredith and Derek realize they belong together after working closely together and finally succeeding with a clinical trial. Meredith reluctantly asks Derek to move in, which he does, but Meredith won’t kick out her roommates, Izzie and Alex.They decide to get married but give up their wedding so that Izzie and Alex can get married. They end up writing promises to each other on a Post-it Note and consider themselves married. Despite some ups and downs, their marriage remains relatively stable and they eventually adopt a daughter, Zola, and a son, Bailey. In Season 11, their marriage comes to an abrupt end when Derek is killed in a car accident; Meredith was unknowingly pregnant with their second daughter, Ellis, at the time
Nathan Riggs
After years of mourning for Derek, Meredith begins opening up again and slowly enters a relationship with Nathan Riggs, a former colleague of Owen’s. What starts out as a casual attraction slowly develops into something more, as they bond over both having lost their “true loves”: her loss of Derek, and his loss of his fiancee, Megan Hunt. Just as they’re starting to work towards something serious, however, Megan is found alive, and Meredith encourages Nathan to take advantage of this miraculous second chance.
Andrew DeLuca
While attending Alex and Jo’s wedding, a drunk and emotional Andrew mistakes friendly sympathy from Meredith as a romantic advance and tries to kiss her. She politely rejects him in the moment, but in the weeks and months following, begins to have dreams about him. She’s briefly torn between his interest in her and the attention of new “ortho god” Link, but winds up deciding to pursue her feelings for Andrew.
Their new relationship hit a snag with the arrival of his famous and unstable father, who Andrew didn’t want to turn out like. After briefly pushing her away, Andrew apologized, and he eventually became the first person Meredith said “I love you” to since Derek. However, his fears over not being “enough” for a surgical legend kept cropping up throughout their cases and through Meredith’s insurance fraud case, which ultimately led to a breakup.
Cristina Yang
Preston BurkeBurke notices Cristina and brings her coffee. She’s surprised by this, but later when she walks in on him while he’s changing, they hook up. Their relationship continues in secret throughout Season 1. Cristina discovers she’s pregnant but doesn’t share this information and schedules a D&C. In Season 2, Cristina loses the baby and Burke finds out about the pregnancy. They get back together, and Burke tells Chief Webber of their relationship.Cristina has trouble coping with the fact that Burke might no longer be a great surgeon after he is shot. She comes up with a scheme so that Burke can operate without anyone knowing he has tremors in his hand. She is extremely upset when he asks her to step away from a surgery and tells the chief what is going on. Derek can fix Burke’s hand.He asks Cristina to marry him, and she says yes, but he leaves her at the altar. Cristina is devastated and doesn’t date throughout Season 4 until Owen Hunt comes to Seattle Grace in Season 5.Owen HuntOwen was an Army major and is a trauma surgeon. He and Cristina begin dating but break up after Owen chokes Cristina in his sleep because of post-traumatic stress disorder, but as he goes through therapy, they get back together. They have a rocky relationship because Owen seems to be in love with both Cristina and Teddy Altman, though he chooses Cristina; they ultimately get married, despite not being on the same page about wanting or not wanting children.
This fundamental difference ends up being the straw that breaks the camel’s back. When Cristina learns that she’s pregnant, she immediately wants to terminate the pregnancy, which Owen begs her not to do but ultimately supports - until his anger boils over and he berates her in front of their friends. Owen eventually cheated on Cristina, and the culmination of all their problems led to the end of their marriage.
Izzie Stevens
Alex KarevIzzie begins to show interest in Alex at the beginning of Season 2. He takes her out on a date, but she has a horrible time. He doesn’t even kiss her good night. She complains to George, and the next day Alex kisses her. Izzie thinks they have a relationship until she catches him in bed with George’s ex-girlfriend, Olivia.
Izzie eventually forgives Alex, and they continue dating until Izzie falls in love with Denny Dequette.
Denny DequetteDenny is a patient of Burke’s waiting for a new heart. Izzie cuts Denny’s LVAD wire so that he will move up the donor list and get a heart. The surgery is successful, but Denny dies a couple of days after proposing to Izzie.Denny leaves Izzie $8.7 million. Much to George’s distress, she keeps the check under a magnet on the refrigerator, waiting until she thinks of something spectacular to do with it. When Bailey mentions her idea to open a free clinic, Izzie invests in it.Alex (again)Sometime after Denny’s death, Izzie begins dating Alex again, but she starts seeing Denny everywhere and even carries on a relationship with him, though she knows that he’s dead. Once she realizes that cancer is causing her to hallucinate, Izzie looks to Alex, and when she is at her sickest, they get married.When she starts to get better, she distances herself from Alex and leaves for a while. She comes back and wants him back, but he says he deserves to be treated better than how she treats him. She leaves again. It’s revealed in Season 16 that, at some point, she decided to have children with the embryos she and Alex made during her cancer treatment, and they ultimately resume their relationship after he leaves Seattle to be with her and his kids.
Alex Karev
Izzie StevensAfter he and Izzie have dated but before they begin a relationship, Izzie catches him sleeping with a nurse, Olivia. Izzie eventually forgives him, and they begin dating again until Denny enters the picture. After Denny’s death they begin dating yet again and following her recovery from cancer they get married, but it doesn’t last. Eventually, Izzie leaves Seattle altogether and mails Alex divorce papers.
Several years later, Alex reaches out to Izzie while putting together supportive testimony for Meredith’s board hearing. When he calls her, he finds out that she used the embryos they made during her cancer treatment and that they now have a son and a daughter together. He doesn’t want to be an absent father, so he leaves Seattle and his entire life there to go be with Izzie and their kids in Kansas.
Rebecca/“Ava"Alex rescues a pregnant woman from a ferry boat crash, and the two soon form a bond. Since she has no memory of her life and no identification, he helps her pick a name, Ava, to go by temporarily. They begin to develop feelings, but her memories come back and her husband finds her and takes her home. She later returns and begins an affair with Alex, but it quickly becomes apparent that she’s severely mentally ill and, although he tries to help her, he realizes that she needs more help than he can give her.
Jo Wilson
Alex befriends one of the new interns, Jo Wilson, over their terrible childhoods and dark senses of humor. The friendship turns into a romance, although it takes both of them a while to be willing to admit it. After dating for a while, he learns that Jo is actually married (and that Jo isn’t even her real name) and has been hiding from her abusive estranged husband. Alex initially tracks down her husband, Paul, with the intent of violence, but chooses not to do anything. Paul eventually tracks Jo down when she formally files for divorce, but is killed following a hit-and-run.
Jo and Alex decide to get married, although their wedding day doesn’t exactly go smoothly. They both advance to more senior positions at the hospital and have a stable, loving relationship. In season 16, Alex abruptly leaves Jo and mails her an apology letter and divorce papers, explaining what happened with Izzie and their children.
George O’Malley
MeredithAt first, everyone thinks George is gay, but soon everyone but Meredith knows he’s in love with her. George sleeps with Meredith when she is vulnerable despite knowing it is wrong, and he and Meredith have a strained relationship for some time afterward.OliviaGeorge dates nurse Olivia for a short time.CallieDr. Callie Torres begins to show interest in George, but they break up because George puts his friends ahead of her. They get back together and spontaneously get married in Vegas. One night, while drunk, George sleeps with Izzie. He and Callie break up, and George tries to make things work with Izzie, but they have no sexual chemistry.
Callie Torres
GeorgeCallie and George have an on-again-off-again relationship. Callie sleeps with Mark Sloan and feels terrible about it.After helping George through a tough time with his dying father, George asks Callie to marry him, and they run off to Vegas and get married. When he tells her that he slept with Izzie, she forgives him, but they soon break off their marriage.Erica HahnCallie begins dating Erica Hahn, though she’s terrified because she’s never dated a woman before and doesn’t know what to do. When they fight, Hahn leaves the hospital, leaving Callie behind.Arizona RobbinsCallie begins dating Arizona Robbins. They’re well matched and getting along great until Callie finds out that Arizona doesn’t want to have children. After the shoot-out scare, Callie decides she can live without children, but she can’t live without Arizona. Arizona says they can have dozens of kids.
Miranda Bailey
Tucker JonesBailey was married to Tucker Jones for over ten years, but they divorce because she puts more priority on her job. They share one son, Tuck.Ben WarrenBailey reluctantly begins dating anesthesiologist Ben Warren. She gets upset when she sees him flirting with a nurse, but he says he’s doing it just to get in good with the nurses, so they give him a better schedule. Bailey seems fine with that explanation. The couple eventually marry and start a life together. Things get rocky from time to time, especially when Ben quits his surgical residency and becomes a firefighter instead, but they remain in a happy and stable marriage.
There are so many different relationships on “Grey’s Anatomy” that it’s difficult to keep them all straight. Here’s a rundown - spoilers ahead!:
Meredith Grey
Derek ShepherdMeredith sleeps with Derek before she realizes that he’s her boss. At the beginning of Season 1, she thwarts his advances but finally gives in. For a while, they keep their relationship a secret, but before long the whole hospital knows. At the end of Season 1, Derek’s wife shows up, and the Derek/Meredith thing is over—for now.In Season 2, Meredith takes home a guy whom she meets at Joe’s. The next day, he comes to the hospital because of a constant erection and Derek finds out that Meredith slept with him. Meredith is embarrassed, and Derek is hurt.Finn DandridgeMeredith begins dating the veterinarian of Doc, the dog she shares with Derek. Derek realizes that he doesn’t love Addison and doesn’t want to be with her but allows Meredith time to make her choice between him and Finn.Meredith finally chooses Derek, but then he says he needs time to get over Addison’s relationship with Mark.Derek (again)Meredith and Derek end up back together but then break up when Meredith can’t commit. They continue having sex until Derek starts dating a nurse, Rose. Meredith and Derek realize they belong together after working closely together and finally succeeding with a clinical trial. Meredith reluctantly asks Derek to move in, which he does, but Meredith won’t kick out her roommates, Izzie and Alex.They decide to get married but give up their wedding so that Izzie and Alex can get married. They end up writing promises to each other on a Post-it Note and consider themselves married. Despite some ups and downs, their marriage remains relatively stable and they eventually adopt a daughter, Zola, and a son, Bailey. In Season 11, their marriage comes to an abrupt end when Derek is killed in a car accident; Meredith was unknowingly pregnant with their second daughter, Ellis, at the time
Nathan Riggs
After years of mourning for Derek, Meredith begins opening up again and slowly enters a relationship with Nathan Riggs, a former colleague of Owen’s. What starts out as a casual attraction slowly develops into something more, as they bond over both having lost their “true loves”: her loss of Derek, and his loss of his fiancee, Megan Hunt. Just as they’re starting to work towards something serious, however, Megan is found alive, and Meredith encourages Nathan to take advantage of this miraculous second chance.
Andrew DeLuca
While attending Alex and Jo’s wedding, a drunk and emotional Andrew mistakes friendly sympathy from Meredith as a romantic advance and tries to kiss her. She politely rejects him in the moment, but in the weeks and months following, begins to have dreams about him. She’s briefly torn between his interest in her and the attention of new “ortho god” Link, but winds up deciding to pursue her feelings for Andrew.
Their new relationship hit a snag with the arrival of his famous and unstable father, who Andrew didn’t want to turn out like. After briefly pushing her away, Andrew apologized, and he eventually became the first person Meredith said “I love you” to since Derek. However, his fears over not being “enough” for a surgical legend kept cropping up throughout their cases and through Meredith’s insurance fraud case, which ultimately led to a breakup.
Cristina Yang
Preston BurkeBurke notices Cristina and brings her coffee. She’s surprised by this, but later when she walks in on him while he’s changing, they hook up. Their relationship continues in secret throughout Season 1. Cristina discovers she’s pregnant but doesn’t share this information and schedules a D&C. In Season 2, Cristina loses the baby and Burke finds out about the pregnancy. They get back together, and Burke tells Chief Webber of their relationship.Cristina has trouble coping with the fact that Burke might no longer be a great surgeon after he is shot. She comes up with a scheme so that Burke can operate without anyone knowing he has tremors in his hand. She is extremely upset when he asks her to step away from a surgery and tells the chief what is going on. Derek can fix Burke’s hand.He asks Cristina to marry him, and she says yes, but he leaves her at the altar. Cristina is devastated and doesn’t date throughout Season 4 until Owen Hunt comes to Seattle Grace in Season 5.Owen HuntOwen was an Army major and is a trauma surgeon. He and Cristina begin dating but break up after Owen chokes Cristina in his sleep because of post-traumatic stress disorder, but as he goes through therapy, they get back together. They have a rocky relationship because Owen seems to be in love with both Cristina and Teddy Altman, though he chooses Cristina; they ultimately get married, despite not being on the same page about wanting or not wanting children.
This fundamental difference ends up being the straw that breaks the camel’s back. When Cristina learns that she’s pregnant, she immediately wants to terminate the pregnancy, which Owen begs her not to do but ultimately supports - until his anger boils over and he berates her in front of their friends. Owen eventually cheated on Cristina, and the culmination of all their problems led to the end of their marriage.
Izzie Stevens
Alex KarevIzzie begins to show interest in Alex at the beginning of Season 2. He takes her out on a date, but she has a horrible time. He doesn’t even kiss her good night. She complains to George, and the next day Alex kisses her. Izzie thinks they have a relationship until she catches him in bed with George’s ex-girlfriend, Olivia.
Izzie eventually forgives Alex, and they continue dating until Izzie falls in love with Denny Dequette.
Denny DequetteDenny is a patient of Burke’s waiting for a new heart. Izzie cuts Denny’s LVAD wire so that he will move up the donor list and get a heart. The surgery is successful, but Denny dies a couple of days after proposing to Izzie.Denny leaves Izzie $8.7 million. Much to George’s distress, she keeps the check under a magnet on the refrigerator, waiting until she thinks of something spectacular to do with it. When Bailey mentions her idea to open a free clinic, Izzie invests in it.Alex (again)Sometime after Denny’s death, Izzie begins dating Alex again, but she starts seeing Denny everywhere and even carries on a relationship with him, though she knows that he’s dead. Once she realizes that cancer is causing her to hallucinate, Izzie looks to Alex, and when she is at her sickest, they get married.When she starts to get better, she distances herself from Alex and leaves for a while. She comes back and wants him back, but he says he deserves to be treated better than how she treats him. She leaves again. It’s revealed in Season 16 that, at some point, she decided to have children with the embryos she and Alex made during her cancer treatment, and they ultimately resume their relationship after he leaves Seattle to be with her and his kids.
Alex Karev
Izzie StevensAfter he and Izzie have dated but before they begin a relationship, Izzie catches him sleeping with a nurse, Olivia. Izzie eventually forgives him, and they begin dating again until Denny enters the picture. After Denny’s death they begin dating yet again and following her recovery from cancer they get married, but it doesn’t last. Eventually, Izzie leaves Seattle altogether and mails Alex divorce papers.
Several years later, Alex reaches out to Izzie while putting together supportive testimony for Meredith’s board hearing. When he calls her, he finds out that she used the embryos they made during her cancer treatment and that they now have a son and a daughter together. He doesn’t want to be an absent father, so he leaves Seattle and his entire life there to go be with Izzie and their kids in Kansas.
Rebecca/“Ava"Alex rescues a pregnant woman from a ferry boat crash, and the two soon form a bond. Since she has no memory of her life and no identification, he helps her pick a name, Ava, to go by temporarily. They begin to develop feelings, but her memories come back and her husband finds her and takes her home. She later returns and begins an affair with Alex, but it quickly becomes apparent that she’s severely mentally ill and, although he tries to help her, he realizes that she needs more help than he can give her.
Jo Wilson
Alex befriends one of the new interns, Jo Wilson, over their terrible childhoods and dark senses of humor. The friendship turns into a romance, although it takes both of them a while to be willing to admit it. After dating for a while, he learns that Jo is actually married (and that Jo isn’t even her real name) and has been hiding from her abusive estranged husband. Alex initially tracks down her husband, Paul, with the intent of violence, but chooses not to do anything. Paul eventually tracks Jo down when she formally files for divorce, but is killed following a hit-and-run.
Jo and Alex decide to get married, although their wedding day doesn’t exactly go smoothly. They both advance to more senior positions at the hospital and have a stable, loving relationship. In season 16, Alex abruptly leaves Jo and mails her an apology letter and divorce papers, explaining what happened with Izzie and their children.
George O’Malley
MeredithAt first, everyone thinks George is gay, but soon everyone but Meredith knows he’s in love with her. George sleeps with Meredith when she is vulnerable despite knowing it is wrong, and he and Meredith have a strained relationship for some time afterward.OliviaGeorge dates nurse Olivia for a short time.CallieDr. Callie Torres begins to show interest in George, but they break up because George puts his friends ahead of her. They get back together and spontaneously get married in Vegas. One night, while drunk, George sleeps with Izzie. He and Callie break up, and George tries to make things work with Izzie, but they have no sexual chemistry.
Callie Torres
GeorgeCallie and George have an on-again-off-again relationship. Callie sleeps with Mark Sloan and feels terrible about it.After helping George through a tough time with his dying father, George asks Callie to marry him, and they run off to Vegas and get married. When he tells her that he slept with Izzie, she forgives him, but they soon break off their marriage.Erica HahnCallie begins dating Erica Hahn, though she’s terrified because she’s never dated a woman before and doesn’t know what to do. When they fight, Hahn leaves the hospital, leaving Callie behind.Arizona RobbinsCallie begins dating Arizona Robbins. They’re well matched and getting along great until Callie finds out that Arizona doesn’t want to have children. After the shoot-out scare, Callie decides she can live without children, but she can’t live without Arizona. Arizona says they can have dozens of kids.
Miranda Bailey
Tucker JonesBailey was married to Tucker Jones for over ten years, but they divorce because she puts more priority on her job. They share one son, Tuck.Ben WarrenBailey reluctantly begins dating anesthesiologist Ben Warren. She gets upset when she sees him flirting with a nurse, but he says he’s doing it just to get in good with the nurses, so they give him a better schedule. Bailey seems fine with that explanation. The couple eventually marry and start a life together. Things get rocky from time to time, especially when Ben quits his surgical residency and becomes a firefighter instead, but they remain in a happy and stable marriage.
There are so many different relationships on “Grey’s Anatomy” that it’s difficult to keep them all straight. Here’s a rundown - spoilers ahead!:
Meredith Grey
Derek ShepherdMeredith sleeps with Derek before she realizes that he’s her boss. At the beginning of Season 1, she thwarts his advances but finally gives in. For a while, they keep their relationship a secret, but before long the whole hospital knows. At the end of Season 1, Derek’s wife shows up, and the Derek/Meredith thing is over—for now.In Season 2, Meredith takes home a guy whom she meets at Joe’s. The next day, he comes to the hospital because of a constant erection and Derek finds out that Meredith slept with him. Meredith is embarrassed, and Derek is hurt.Finn DandridgeMeredith begins dating the veterinarian of Doc, the dog she shares with Derek. Derek realizes that he doesn’t love Addison and doesn’t want to be with her but allows Meredith time to make her choice between him and Finn.Meredith finally chooses Derek, but then he says he needs time to get over Addison’s relationship with Mark.Derek (again)Meredith and Derek end up back together but then break up when Meredith can’t commit. They continue having sex until Derek starts dating a nurse, Rose. Meredith and Derek realize they belong together after working closely together and finally succeeding with a clinical trial. Meredith reluctantly asks Derek to move in, which he does, but Meredith won’t kick out her roommates, Izzie and Alex.They decide to get married but give up their wedding so that Izzie and Alex can get married. They end up writing promises to each other on a Post-it Note and consider themselves married. Despite some ups and downs, their marriage remains relatively stable and they eventually adopt a daughter, Zola, and a son, Bailey. In Season 11, their marriage comes to an abrupt end when Derek is killed in a car accident; Meredith was unknowingly pregnant with their second daughter, Ellis, at the time
Nathan Riggs
After years of mourning for Derek, Meredith begins opening up again and slowly enters a relationship with Nathan Riggs, a former colleague of Owen’s. What starts out as a casual attraction slowly develops into something more, as they bond over both having lost their “true loves”: her loss of Derek, and his loss of his fiancee, Megan Hunt. Just as they’re starting to work towards something serious, however, Megan is found alive, and Meredith encourages Nathan to take advantage of this miraculous second chance.
Andrew DeLuca
While attending Alex and Jo’s wedding, a drunk and emotional Andrew mistakes friendly sympathy from Meredith as a romantic advance and tries to kiss her. She politely rejects him in the moment, but in the weeks and months following, begins to have dreams about him. She’s briefly torn between his interest in her and the attention of new “ortho god” Link, but winds up deciding to pursue her feelings for Andrew.
Their new relationship hit a snag with the arrival of his famous and unstable father, who Andrew didn’t want to turn out like. After briefly pushing her away, Andrew apologized, and he eventually became the first person Meredith said “I love you” to since Derek. However, his fears over not being “enough” for a surgical legend kept cropping up throughout their cases and through Meredith’s insurance fraud case, which ultimately led to a breakup.
Cristina Yang
Preston BurkeBurke notices Cristina and brings her coffee. She’s surprised by this, but later when she walks in on him while he’s changing, they hook up. Their relationship continues in secret throughout Season 1. Cristina discovers she’s pregnant but doesn’t share this information and schedules a D&C. In Season 2, Cristina loses the baby and Burke finds out about the pregnancy. They get back together, and Burke tells Chief Webber of their relationship.Cristina has trouble coping with the fact that Burke might no longer be a great surgeon after he is shot. She comes up with a scheme so that Burke can operate without anyone knowing he has tremors in his hand. She is extremely upset when he asks her to step away from a surgery and tells the chief what is going on. Derek can fix Burke’s hand.He asks Cristina to marry him, and she says yes, but he leaves her at the altar. Cristina is devastated and doesn’t date throughout Season 4 until Owen Hunt comes to Seattle Grace in Season 5.Owen HuntOwen was an Army major and is a trauma surgeon. He and Cristina begin dating but break up after Owen chokes Cristina in his sleep because of post-traumatic stress disorder, but as he goes through therapy, they get back together. They have a rocky relationship because Owen seems to be in love with both Cristina and Teddy Altman, though he chooses Cristina; they ultimately get married, despite not being on the same page about wanting or not wanting children.
This fundamental difference ends up being the straw that breaks the camel’s back. When Cristina learns that she’s pregnant, she immediately wants to terminate the pregnancy, which Owen begs her not to do but ultimately supports - until his anger boils over and he berates her in front of their friends. Owen eventually cheated on Cristina, and the culmination of all their problems led to the end of their marriage.
Izzie Stevens
Alex KarevIzzie begins to show interest in Alex at the beginning of Season 2. He takes her out on a date, but she has a horrible time. He doesn’t even kiss her good night. She complains to George, and the next day Alex kisses her. Izzie thinks they have a relationship until she catches him in bed with George’s ex-girlfriend, Olivia.
Izzie eventually forgives Alex, and they continue dating until Izzie falls in love with Denny Dequette.
Denny DequetteDenny is a patient of Burke’s waiting for a new heart. Izzie cuts Denny’s LVAD wire so that he will move up the donor list and get a heart. The surgery is successful, but Denny dies a couple of days after proposing to Izzie.Denny leaves Izzie $8.7 million. Much to George’s distress, she keeps the check under a magnet on the refrigerator, waiting until she thinks of something spectacular to do with it. When Bailey mentions her idea to open a free clinic, Izzie invests in it.Alex (again)Sometime after Denny’s death, Izzie begins dating Alex again, but she starts seeing Denny everywhere and even carries on a relationship with him, though she knows that he’s dead. Once she realizes that cancer is causing her to hallucinate, Izzie looks to Alex, and when she is at her sickest, they get married.When she starts to get better, she distances herself from Alex and leaves for a while. She comes back and wants him back, but he says he deserves to be treated better than how she treats him. She leaves again. It’s revealed in Season 16 that, at some point, she decided to have children with the embryos she and Alex made during her cancer treatment, and they ultimately resume their relationship after he leaves Seattle to be with her and his kids.
Alex Karev
Izzie StevensAfter he and Izzie have dated but before they begin a relationship, Izzie catches him sleeping with a nurse, Olivia. Izzie eventually forgives him, and they begin dating again until Denny enters the picture. After Denny’s death they begin dating yet again and following her recovery from cancer they get married, but it doesn’t last. Eventually, Izzie leaves Seattle altogether and mails Alex divorce papers.
Several years later, Alex reaches out to Izzie while putting together supportive testimony for Meredith’s board hearing. When he calls her, he finds out that she used the embryos they made during her cancer treatment and that they now have a son and a daughter together. He doesn’t want to be an absent father, so he leaves Seattle and his entire life there to go be with Izzie and their kids in Kansas.
Rebecca/“Ava"Alex rescues a pregnant woman from a ferry boat crash, and the two soon form a bond. Since she has no memory of her life and no identification, he helps her pick a name, Ava, to go by temporarily. They begin to develop feelings, but her memories come back and her husband finds her and takes her home. She later returns and begins an affair with Alex, but it quickly becomes apparent that she’s severely mentally ill and, although he tries to help her, he realizes that she needs more help than he can give her.
Jo Wilson
Alex befriends one of the new interns, Jo Wilson, over their terrible childhoods and dark senses of humor. The friendship turns into a romance, although it takes both of them a while to be willing to admit it. After dating for a while, he learns that Jo is actually married (and that Jo isn’t even her real name) and has been hiding from her abusive estranged husband. Alex initially tracks down her husband, Paul, with the intent of violence, but chooses not to do anything. Paul eventually tracks Jo down when she formally files for divorce, but is killed following a hit-and-run.
Jo and Alex decide to get married, although their wedding day doesn’t exactly go smoothly. They both advance to more senior positions at the hospital and have a stable, loving relationship. In season 16, Alex abruptly leaves Jo and mails her an apology letter and divorce papers, explaining what happened with Izzie and their children.
George O’Malley
MeredithAt first, everyone thinks George is gay, but soon everyone but Meredith knows he’s in love with her. George sleeps with Meredith when she is vulnerable despite knowing it is wrong, and he and Meredith have a strained relationship for some time afterward.OliviaGeorge dates nurse Olivia for a short time.CallieDr. Callie Torres begins to show interest in George, but they break up because George puts his friends ahead of her. They get back together and spontaneously get married in Vegas. One night, while drunk, George sleeps with Izzie. He and Callie break up, and George tries to make things work with Izzie, but they have no sexual chemistry.
Callie Torres
GeorgeCallie and George have an on-again-off-again relationship. Callie sleeps with Mark Sloan and feels terrible about it.After helping George through a tough time with his dying father, George asks Callie to marry him, and they run off to Vegas and get married. When he tells her that he slept with Izzie, she forgives him, but they soon break off their marriage.Erica HahnCallie begins dating Erica Hahn, though she’s terrified because she’s never dated a woman before and doesn’t know what to do. When they fight, Hahn leaves the hospital, leaving Callie behind.Arizona RobbinsCallie begins dating Arizona Robbins. They’re well matched and getting along great until Callie finds out that Arizona doesn’t want to have children. After the shoot-out scare, Callie decides she can live without children, but she can’t live without Arizona. Arizona says they can have dozens of kids.
Miranda Bailey
Tucker JonesBailey was married to Tucker Jones for over ten years, but they divorce because she puts more priority on her job. They share one son, Tuck.Ben WarrenBailey reluctantly begins dating anesthesiologist Ben Warren. She gets upset when she sees him flirting with a nurse, but he says he’s doing it just to get in good with the nurses, so they give him a better schedule. Bailey seems fine with that explanation. The couple eventually marry and start a life together. Things get rocky from time to time, especially when Ben quits his surgical residency and becomes a firefighter instead, but they remain in a happy and stable marriage.
