Ellen Pompeo Honors Fallen 'Grey's Anatomy' Co-Star After Surprise Exit from Show

Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo honored her co-star Giacomo Gianniotti with a heartwarming Instagram post Saturday. Giannotti starred on the series as Dr. Andrew DeLuca, who surprisingly died during Wednesday's episode. DeLuca died on the operating table after he was stabbed while he tried to pursue a sex trafficker. In her message to Giannotti, Pompeo said he "will be missed" around the set.

"Thank you for showing up and being the consummate professional every time you walked on set," Pompeo wrote, alongside a selfie of the two filming at the beach. "Grey's is a master class in patience and in having to be present no matter how monotonous it may get. You aced it. Now you get to go have some fun and apply all that skill!! I'm excited for your future... and remember wine and pasta with me will always be a part of it!! Tuo amico per sempre." She included a kissing emoji and a heart emoji.

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Giannotti shared the same photo on his Instagram page, adding a tribute to Pompeo and their "everlasting" friendship. "Although our friendship will be everlasting, this ride with you has been incredible and I will deeply miss sharing the screen with you," Giannotti wrote to Pompeo. "Digging deep in scenes, fighting for truth, seeing how much you care about your character and the show after all these years. It's been an honor. Deluca and Meredith won't be seeing each other anymore, but Giacomo and Ellen will be having much more time for pasta and wine now. Well said." In the end, he thanked Pompeo for "making this experience such a memorable one."

The death of DeLuca, who was also the love interest for Pompeo's Meredith Grey, took fans by complete surprise. In a post-show interview with Entertainment Tonight, Giannotti teased a return to the show before the end of the season. After all, this season has already seen the return of deceased characters, who have appeared to Meredith on her dream beach while she battles the coronavirus.

"If you're a Grey's Anatomy fan, you know that we've lost so many people over the years, but no one ever truly dies, whether it's a dream or a flashback or a memory or a text message, we continue to keep all those characters we've lost alive in some way," Giannotti said. "So it's not the last we'll hear of DeLuca. People are always kept alive in the hallways at Grey Sloan and they're talked about."

Grey's Anatomy is in the middle of its 17th season, which may or may night be its last. The next new episode, "It's All Too Much," airs on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. According to the episode synopsis, everyone at Grey Sloan is working hard to move past their traumas and Richard (James Pickens Jr.) questions his faith. Maggie (Kelly McCreary) and Winston (Anthony Hill) try to treat a difficult patient while Jo (Camilla Luddington), Link (Chirs Carmack) and Jackson (Jesse Williams) play a unique drinking game.