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Ellen Pompeo rose to household name status on Grey’s Anatomy. She finally stepped back from the series, with her last episode airing on the 19th season premiere in February of 2023. But on January 15, 2024, she’s set to reunite with the cast in order to present at the Emmy Awards.
After leaving the wildly popular series, Ellen then turned her attention to a limited series for Hulu. In September of 2022, she spoke out about leaving Greys and the future ahead. “I’m so excited,” Ellen exclusively told HollywoodLife at the D23 Expo, where she was named a Disney Legend along with her former co-star Patrick Dempsey. “I feel really happy and grateful that the company gave me an opportunity to do something different with my new limited series.”
She also has likely found some extra time to spend with her family, including her adorable husband Chris Ivery. The couple might just have the sweetest meet cute story of all time. Two years before her star-making turn on the hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, Ellen met her future husband in a Los Angeles grocery store. Throughout the interaction in 2003, the pair discovered they grew up just 10 miles away from each other in Boston, Massachusetts, and marveled at the coincidence. “We were six degrees our whole lives, so I feel like we were sort of meant to be,” Ellen later told people. The future couple were friends for six months, before their relationship took a romantic turn, and they’ve gone from strength to strength ever since.
Here’s everything you need to know about Chris!
Who Is Ellen Pompeo’s Husband?
Chris Ivery met his future wife in 2003. Despite her status as one of the biggest names in Hollywood, he has maintained a relative amount of anonymity, and doesn’t have any social media. He was a record producer and song writer for almost three decades, notably earning a co-writing credit on “Cheers (Drink to that)” by Rihanna in 2011. However, in 2019, he made a career change and set his sights on the fashion industry. One of his favorite brands, Sergio Tacchini, was difficult to locate in the United States, so he reached out to the brand directly. Chris discussed relaunching the Sergio Tacchini label in Los Angeles, and thus, the STLA Collection was born. Ellen was super proud of her husband following his passion, no matter his age. “He’s been in the music business for 25 years and he changed careers at 50. And he killed it,” she told Us Weekly. “I mean, knocked it out of the park. It’s amazing! So for anybody who feels they’re stuck, you can change your career at any age.”
How Long Have They Been Married?
Chris popped the question in November 2006, three years after their fateful meeting in a grocery store, with a 3.5-carat diamond ring. They officially said their ‘I do’s on November 9, 2007 at New York City Hall. The NYC mayor at the time, Michael Bloomberg, officiated the wedding. “We flew out on a redeye Thursday night. Friday morning, we woke up, went to City Hall, had the wedding really quick, and then we went to Lupa for lunch after,” Ellen told Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest in 2017. “We had the whole weekend and no one knew, so we had that to ourselves.” As for the actress’ marriage tips, Ellen said in 2018, “Just don’t try to change people. They are who they are, and they were fine when you married them, so don’t expect them to change.”
Do They Have Children?
Chris and Ellen have three children: daughters Stella Luna and Sienna May and son Eli Christopher. Stella was born in 2009, and Ellen hid her pregnancy under her scrubs for as long as she could while playing Meredith Grey. Although her character was temporarily written out of the show when she went on maternity leave to be with baby Stella, the youngster eventually began visiting the set. “Yesterday I went in to find her [and] she was with Linda with a bone drill, drilling a fake femur bone with a real bone drill. She was supervised, but they have her doing advanced procedures,” Ellen told Ellen DeGeneres in 2020. Perhaps she’ll follow in her mom’s fictional characters’ footsteps.
“She needs to decide whether she wants to be an orthopedic surgeon or an emergency room doctor,” Ellen continued, jokingly adding, “She needs to nail it down. I mean, seriously, she’s confusing me.” The couple then welcomed Sienna, who was born in 2014 via surrogate, followed by baby Eli who arrived in 2016.
In 2018, Ellen opened up about what her children had taught her. “That every mistake and every moment is a teaching moment,” she told InStyle at the time. “I make a lot of mistakes. You just learn. Kids are just so open and honest, and you could get down on yourself a lot as a parent, like ‘Oh I’m not there enough.’ It’s easier to beat yourself up and feel guilty. But you can’t adopt a sort of victim’s attitude, you have to adopt an optimistic, can do, ‘how do I fix it?’ attitude with kids. You can’t sort of wallow in your own self-pity. ‘I should have done this, I should have done that,’ there’s no time to do that if someone’s life is in your hands.”