Sandra Oh responds to fans’ calls for her to return to Grey’s Anatomy as Christina Yang

Oh played the fan-favourite surgeon for 10 seasons before departing the show in 2014

Sandra Oh has admitted she had been “opening up to the idea” of returning to Grey’s Anatomy.

The Golden Globe-winning actor, 53, first rose to fame in 2005 with a leading role on Shonda Rhimes’s hugely popular medical drama, in which she portrayed fan-favourite character Dr Christina Yang, a cut-throat surgeon who is best friends with protagonist Dr Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo).

Oh starred for 10 seasons before exiting in 2014, with fans desperate for her character to return.

“What I have noticed, this is 10 years out from leaving the show, is the deep appreciation that I have for the people who appreciate Cristina,” she recently told The Interview.

“It is that love that has made me go, ‘Oh. The fans really, really, really want it,’ and for the first time, that's when I started opening up the idea.”

However, she concluded: “But for me, I think to really be true to the people who enjoy your work, you have to be true to yourself. So at this point, I don’t think so.”

Oh has previously opened up about the “traumatic” experience that followed the intense fame of the show.

“To be perfectly honest, it was traumatic,” she told Sunday Today With Willie Geist in 2021.

Oh said she had been ‘opening up to the idea’ (Getty Images for Tribeca Festiva)

“The reason why I’m saying that is the circumstances you need to do your work is with a lot of privacy. So when one loses one’s anonymity, you have to build skills to still try and be real.”

She explained: “I went from not being able to go out, hiding in restaurants, to then being able to manage attention, while not losing the sense of self.”

The actor credited a “good therapist” with helping her get through the experience.

Now in its 21st season, Grey’s Anatomy is one of the longest-running TV shows of all time. Its success prompted Pompeo to admit she could never leave it completely as it “would make no sense” for her to quit the show “emotionally or financially”. Pompeo officially left the series as a regular in 2023, after 19 seasons.

“The show was streamed more than a billion times in 2024 – more than a billion times,” she told El País, adding: “The companies that own the show and stream the show make a lot of money from our images and our voices and our faces.”

The series has been renewed for a 22nd season.