‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Sarah Drew ‘Devastated’ Jackson and April Were Not ‘End Game’

Sarah Drew said goodbye to her Grey’s Anatomy character, April Kepner, during the season 14 finale, but there is one storyline that will haunt her even as she leaves the show behind.

The actress, who was on the longrunning ABC medical drama for nine years and was let go earlier this year, along with co-star Jessica Capshaw, with their storylines wrapping up in the season 14 finale.

April’s journey wrapped up during the finale as she quit Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital to volunteer with communities in need and reuniting with her ex-fiance Matthew Taylor (Justin Bruening). The couple got impromptu married during the final moments of the end.

While Drew found April’s story a “lovely” ending, she did admit to feeling “devastated” by the character not reuniting with Jesse William’s Jackson Avery.

“In the midst of it, I was devastated that Jackson and April wasn’t an end game,” Drew told The Hollywood Reporter in her first interview since she left the series. “I thought Jackson and April were meant to get back together and they were going to get married again and realize they’d been crazy and it was just going to be this long, slow burn.”

“But after thinking about it, there’s a real sweetness to that story of April’s faith,” Drew added. “She ran off with Jackson and loved him and wouldn’t regret a single second of that relationship because it made her heart grow and she got a beautiful daughter out of it. She grew as a woman and as a person of faith. All of that had to happen.”

She said, however, that she loved seeing April redeem herself in Matthew’s, and the audiences’ eyes in the end.

“…there was something beautiful about the redemption story between April and Matthew,” she said. “She hurt him worse than anybody had ever hurt him by walking away from him [at their wedding]. For there to be reconciliation from that scenario? That’s a really beautiful redemption story that there could be forgiveness there. He lost his wife and then find his first love again. It’s lovely.”

Drew also revealed she would have loved to play the Matthew/April relationship on-screen.

“I wish that we had gotten to see more of their journey before they got married,” she told the outlet. “I would’ve liked to play those scenes and I would’ve liked to have told that story in a more full way. I can see the beauty in it.”

“But part of me will always be a little heartbroken that April and Jackson were not end game,” she admitted.

Jackson is currently in a series relationship with Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) and the two are said to still be going strong when the series returns in the fall.

Grey’s Anatomy will return for its 15th season with a two-hour season premiere Thursday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.