Trump Hints He’d Deport Prince Harry From US Over Drug Use

Former US President Donald Trump weighed into the recent scrutiny over Prince Harry’s visa, hinting that if he’s reelected, the Duke of Sussex could face deportation over drug use he admitted to in his 2023 memoir.

Trump, the presumed GOP nominee for president, made the warning in a preview of an interview with British broadcaster GB News that’s set to air on Tuesday evening.

“We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action,” Trump said of the possibility that Harry falsified portions of his visa application that ask about drug use.

In his 2023 memoir, "Spare," Harry admitted to using drugs such as cocaine, marijuana and psilocybin. Trump hinted that Harry could face deportation for his drug use if Trump is reelected.
In his 2023 memoir, “Spare,” Harry admitted to using drugs such as cocaine, marijuana and psilocybin. Trump hinted that Harry could face deportation for his drug use if Trump is reelected.

Since stepping down from official senior royal duties in 2020, the duke’s primary residence has been in California with his two children and his wife, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex.

But last year, a conservative think tank called the Heritage Foundation sued the Department of Homeland Security for access to Harry’s immigration records, citing admissions in his memoir, Spare, that he’s used cocaine, marijuana and psilocybin. It’s unclear if Harry disclosed the drug use in his visa application. A federal judge is currently deciding whether the records should be made public.

When GB News host Nigel Farage asked Trump to clarify whether he was talking about Harry facing deportation, Trump played coy.

“Oh, I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me,” he said. “You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago.”

Other public figures have faced immigration issues over their drug use, including Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona and the late British singer Amy Winehouse.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not immediately return a request for comment on Trump’s remarks.

Harry said last month that he’s considered becoming an American citizen.

“It’s a thought that has crossed my mind, but it’s not a high priority for me right now,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America.

Share Button

Kate Middleton Spotted Looking ‘Happy, Relaxed And Healthy’ With Prince William

TMZ obtained footage of the Princess of Wales and Prince William out and about a mile from their Adelaide Cottage home in Windsor, England, on Saturday.

The brief clip shows the royal couple decked out in casual gear — with William in a baseball cap and Kate in leggings and a light jacket — hauling bags as they leave a local business called the Windsor Farm Shop.

The video seems to corroborate eyewitnesses’ claims made to the UK tabloid newspaper The Sun in a report on Sunday that the princess was spotted out in the wild.

William and Kate walk together in October 2023 in Marlow, England.
William and Kate walk together in October 2023 in Marlow, England.

Chris Jackson via Getty Images

One bystander told The Sun that Kate appeared to be “happy, relaxed and healthy”.

Although the footage of the couple may seem somewhat banal, Kate hasn’t been photographed publicly since Christmas, leading many people to wonder where one of the highest-profile women in the world could possibly be.

In January, Kensington Palace attempted to quell speculation by announcing the princess had undergone planned abdominal surgery and would resume public duties sometime after Easter.

The Princess of Wales was last photographed at a Christmas morning service with her family at Sandringham Church on Dec. 25, 2023.
The Princess of Wales was last photographed at a Christmas morning service with her family at Sandringham Church on Dec. 25, 2023.

Samir Hussein via Getty Images

Then came the release of a photo of Kate with her three children last week, that brought the speculation to a bizarre peak. As it turned out, the photo appeared to be highly edited, and multiple news agencies, including The Associated Press, withdrew it from publication.

This led some to hypothesise about where Kate could possibly be, which spanned from genuine conspiracy theories to Freaky Friday jokes involving King Charles and Kate.

Share Button

MPs Reverse Lords Amendments To Rwanda Deportation Bill

MPs have reversed all 10 amendments to Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda legislation – setting up a showdown with the House of Lords over the controversial plan to send asylum seekers on a one-way trip to the east African country.

Using its comfortable Commons majority, the Tory government unpicked changes made to the Safety of Rwanda Bill by the Lords.

Peers inserted a series of amendments designed to water down the legislation, but all 10 were removed by MPs during votes in the Commons on Monday night.

The bill, which aims to overcome the Supreme Court’s block on deportation flights, will return to the Lords on Wednesday as part of the game of parliamentary “ping-pong”.

The government is almost certain to prevail because the unelected Lords can’t overrule elected MPs, and the bill could be passed into law within days.

The prime minister hopes that the first deportation flights will take off in the spring.

Britain and Rwanda signed a deal almost two years ago that would see migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats sent to the East African country, where they would remain permanently. So far, no migrant has been sent to Rwanda under the agreement.

The plan is key to Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” bringing unauthorised migrants to the UK. He argues that deporting asylum seekers will deter people from making risky journeys and break the business model of people-smuggling gangs.

Just under 30,000 people arrived in Britain in small boats in 2023.

“We need to make it clear that if you come here illegally, you won’t be able to stay and we will be able to remove you. That is the only way to properly solve the issue of illegal migration,” Sunak told reporters on Monday.

Share Button

Famine ‘Imminent’ In North Gaza As Palestinians Continue To Starve: IPC Report

A harrowing food insecurity report has concluded that famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza, as millions of starving Palestinians face “catastrophic” food conditions in the territory amid Israel’s continued blockade of humanitarian aid.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report was released on Monday by the World Food Program. The IPC is an international process for estimating the scale of hunger crises, and serves as one of the international community’s primary sources for food insecurity data around the world.

According to the report, North Gaza and area governorates are projected to meet the definition of famine ― the IPC’s fifth and most severe phase of acute food insecurity ― anytime between now and May. In North Gaza, food security and malnutrition have become crises at the most dire level of the IPC’s scale.

Gaza’s southern governorates of Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah are presently classified as IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) situations in the report. These governorates, however, face a risk of famine through July in a worst-case scenario, according to the data.

Per the ICP, Gaza’s entire population of 2.23 million people are enduring high levels of acute food insecurity. About half of those people are expected to suffer “catastrophic conditions” if Israeli forces launch their planned ground offensive into the packed southern city of Rafah.

“The upward trend in non-trauma mortality is also expected to accelerate, resulting in all famine thresholds likely to be passed imminently,” the group’s report said.

In December, the IPC warned that there needed to be an immediate reduction of hostilities and an increase in humanitarian access in order to prevent a “realistic chance” of starvation in Gaza. The agency’s analysis at the time said that Gaza’s crisis is “the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified”.

“If no steps are taken to cease hostilities and to provide more humanitarian access, famine is imminent,” Beth Bechdol, deputy director-general of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, said Monday. “It could already be occurring. Immediate access is needed to facilitate delivery of urgent and critical assistance at scale.”

Gaza’s current crisis stems from Israel’s ongoing military campaign launched after Hamas militants attacked that country on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking roughly another 250 hostage. More than five months later, the Gaza Health Ministry ― which has a record of providing casualty figures that closely reflect the UN’s own ― reports that Israeli forces have killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, wounded nearly 73,400, displaced almost the entire population and blocked civilians from accessing most aid deliveries of food, water, fuel and medicine.

The dire situation in Gaza is “simply unbearable” and “unjustifiable”, according to Hiba Tibi, country director for aid group CARE International in Gaza and the West Bank. “Our earlier fears that more would die in Gaza from hunger, dehydration and disease than from bombs, were well-founded, sadly. Starvation is cruel. It is a slow and painful death.”

“Our partners who run health centres in Northern Gaza have reported that the number of children categorized as having moderate or severe malnutrition nearly doubled in February, compared to January. Their staff report watching children get thinner and thinner as the days go by and of kids who can barely speak and walk due to starvation,” she continued. “We also hear of kids being born and dying in shelters without even being registered in the hospitals. It’s like they don’t exist.”

Boys wait while holding empty pots with other displaced Palestinians queueing for meals provided by a charity organization ahead of the fast-breaking "iftar" meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 16.
Boys wait while holding empty pots with other displaced Palestinians queueing for meals provided by a charity organization ahead of the fast-breaking “iftar” meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 16.

Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

The UN Children’s Fund recently warned that life-threatening malnutrition was “spreading fast”, supported by the IPC’s report detailing how adults in Gaza have reduced their meals so their children can eat. The FAO said that at least 10 times in the last month, almost two-thirds of northern Gaza households went “entire days and nights” without eating.

Northern Gaza was the first target of Israel’s invasion, and has become the centre of the territory’s humanitarian crisis, with much of the region completely destroyed. A third of children under two years of age in the north are acutely malnourished, according to the FAO, and the Gaza Health Ministry said last week that 27 Palestinians, mostly children, had died of malnutrition in the north.

Monday’s report confirms what aid groups have been trying to convey to the world about the starvation crisis facing Palestinians in the territory. The international community has continued to call for a permanent cease-fire, the release of all remaining hostages, accountability for civilian casualties and the safe passage and distribution of more aid to Palestinians.

“From the destruction of farms, flour mills and food processing sites, to ongoing fighting preventing the safe movement of humanitarian actors, to the blocking of aid, the people of Gaza are being starved to death. What’s worse, they have all too often been killed in attacks when seeking out food to keep their children alive,” Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, CEO of the aid group Mercy Corps, said in a statement, stressing that the denial of humanitarian access violates international law.

“We cannot wait for an official famine declaration in Gaza to act when it is abundantly clear that people are and will continue dying from hunger and malnutrition,” she continued. “Today’s report must be a wake-up call for all parties with leverage over Israel to dramatically change course. Gazans cannot wait any longer.”

Share Button

Rwanda Scheme Will End Up Costing Taxpayers Billions Of Pounds, Claims Think Tank

The government’s Rwanda scheme will end up costing taxpayers billions of pounds, according to a leading think-tank.

A new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says the UK will have to pay up to £230,000 for every asylum seeker deported to the east African country.

That is around five times as much as it currently costs to house an asylum seeker in the UK.

In total, the IPPR estimates that the Rwanda policy will cost the government between £1.1 and £3.9 billion to deport the 20,000 asylum seekers who have entered the UK via so-called “irregular routes” since last year.

The findings come as MPs prepare to once again debate Rishi Sunak’s flagship Safety of Rwanda Bill.

The prime minister hopes that the first deportation flights will take off in the spring – although transport secretary Mark Harper yesterday refused to guarantee that any deportations will happen before the election.

Marley Morris, the IPPR’s associate director for migration, trade and communities, said: “Aside from the ethical, legal and practical objections, the Rwanda scheme is exceptionally poor value for money.

“For it to break even, it will need to show a strong deterrent effect, for which there is no compelling evidence.

“Under the government’s plans, billions could be sent to Rwanda to remove people who have already arrived irregularly since the Illegal Migration Act was passed.

The only winner from this scheme appears to be the Rwandan government itself, which has already secured hundreds of millions without doing much at all.”

As part of the Rwanda deal agreed by home secretary James Cleverly in December, the UK has to pay £370m up front to the Rwandan government, followed by a further £120m once 300 people are sent there.

The UK also has to pay £20,000 for each person deported, plus up to £150,874 per asylum seeker to cover the costs of asylum processing and integration.

For each person who leaves Rwanda, the UK is also expected to pay an extra £10,000 to facilitate their departure.

According to the IPPR, the total cost of sending one asylum seeker to Rwanda could be as much as £228,000.

But a Home Office spokesperson said: “The report makes a number of assumptions and modelling calculations that we do not recognise.

“Without innovative solutions, the cost of housing asylum seekers could reach up to £11 billion per year by 2026.

“Illegal migration costs lives and perpetuates human trafficking, and it is therefore right that we fund solutions to break this unsustainable cycle.

“The best way of saving taxpayer money is by deterring people from coming here illegally in the first place, and our partnership with Rwanda intends to do just that.”

Share Button

In The Least Surprising News Ever, Vladimir Putin Has Won The Russian Election

Vladimir Putin has been re-elected Russian president after winning a landslide victory in the country’s election.

In a result that was a surprise to absolutely no one, he won another six-year term in charge after receiving nearly 88% of the vote.

The three other candidates – Nikolai Kharitonov, Vladislav Davankov and Leonid Slutsky – were predictably miles behind, with none of them managing to poll more than 4%.

It will be his fifth term as president of Russia, having first been elected to the post in 2000. He was also the country’s prime minister between 2008 and 2012.

Foreign secretary David Cameron dismissed the result by insisting the elections had not been “free and fair”.

He said: “The polls have have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE [Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe] monitoring.

“This is not what free and fair elections look like.”

But former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Putin, took to X (formerly Twitter) shortly after the result was announced.

In a bizarre post, he said: “Congratulations to all Russia’s enemies on Vladimir Putin’s brilliant victory in the election of the President of the Russian Federation. And a thank you to friends for the support.”

The result was never in doubt because no candidates opposed to the war in Ukraine were allowed to stand.

One potential opposition candidate who did attract some popular support, Boris Nadezhdin, was barred from running a month ago.

Some voters did register their opposition to Putin’s regime by vandalising voting booths during the three-day election.

Footage emerged online of one woman pouring ink into a ballot box after voting, while there were also arson attacks at some polling stations.

Thousands of voters also took part in a “noon against Putin” protest at polling stations across the country and at Russian embassies around the world.

Share Button

A Video Of Penny Mordaunt Endorsing Liz Truss Has Left People Questioning Her Judgement

A video has re-emerged of Penny Mordaunt backing Liz Truss amid mounting speculation she could be the next prime minister.

The clip, which has been watched more than half a million times in the last 24 hours, shows Mordaunt praising Truss’s “bold economic plan”.

She also claims Truss “embodies the vision and values the British public”.

The video was filmed during the first Tory leadership contest of 2022, after Mordaunt had left the race.

In a speech to Tory members, she says: “Who can lead? Who can build that team and deliver for pour country? Who does have that bold economic plan that our nation needs?

“Who’s got reach, who can relate to people, who understands that people need help with the cost of living now? And who is going to rightly clobber our opponents?

“Who is going to hold seats and win back councils, and who most embodies the vision and values the British public had in their heads and their hearts when they voted in 2016 and 2019?

“At the start of this final phase of the contest I didn’t know the answer to those questions, but I’ve seen enough to know who the person that I’m going to put my faith in is. And that is Liz Truss.”

Truss went on to last just 49 days in No.10 after her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget triggered an economic crisis.

Tory rebels are reportedly planning to oust Rishi Sunak and replace him with with Mordaunt as the opinion polls continue to suggest the party is heading for catastrophe at the general election.

But the video of Mordaunt endorsing Truss has led social media users to question her suitability to lead the country.

Share Button

The 1 Thing We Get Wrong When Making Iced Coffee At Home

Warmer days are nearing and for me, at least, this can only mean one thing: time for my daily iced coffee fix.

However, we’re in a cost of living crisis and as much as I would LOVE to treat myself to one every single day from my local coffee shop, I do have to *attempt* to be sensible at the moment.

This seemed simple enough. Add coffee, add ice, add milk, and yes, of course, a hint of syrup. It just didn’t taste like I expected it would. I wanted that delicious hit, that sweet slurp of caffeine to get my veins pumping but instead I just felt a bit more buzzed and my coffee was, well, watery.

It turns out that there is a right way to make iced coffee and according to the coffee masters at Matthew Algie, I’d actually missed a good few steps.

The best way to make iced coffee at home

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Frank Ubsdell, National Training & Innovation Manager, and Gosia Lendzioszek, Account Development Manager at Matthew Algie shared their tips for making a successful iced coffee at home.

The experts said that the order you add your ingredients in can make or break your drink.

“If you’re looking for that layered effect, you may want to add espresso last. However, while this can look beautiful, it might not mix well and become milky at the bottom but very strong at the first sip.”

Additionally, they said that hot espresso onto ice is a “common mistake” and yes, you guessed it, that was mine. They recommend making an espresso first and then making everything else, allowing it to cool. Add it after milk and ice so that it isn’t directly interacting with the ice and instead rests on top of your chosen milk.

They also warned against batch-making jugs of coffee the night before drinking it saying: “Many people batch make a jug of coffee the day before and let it cool in their fridge. This isn’t a good idea, as coffee is a product that is enjoyed best when freshly brewed.”

Finally, they crushed (get it?) my dreams when they said: “although crushed ice looks good, you should always opt for cubed ice as crushed dilutes the drink faster.”

That makes sense but what about the AESTHETIC?!

Share Button

The Cold Remedies Doctors Say You Shouldn’t Bother With

The average person catches two to four colds a year, which means most of us will suffer through roughly 200 colds in our lifetime.

With so many snotty struggles ahead of us each year, what remedies can we rely on to help us feel better fast? And do any of those viral cold cures we’ve seen online actually work?

That’s what we — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, the co-hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast — recently asked Dr. Natasha Bhuyan, a family physician and medical director of OneMedical.

“I have patients ask me all the time about [unusual] cold cures because they want to get better fast,” Dr. Bhuyan said. “One of the things I’ve heard about recently is garlic cloves up the nose. I think it’s this idea of garlic cloves acting as a decongestant. Garlic cloves up the nose can actually be really dangerous and can really irritate your nasal passages.”

Other unorthodox remedies she’s encountered involve an unexpected article of clothing.

“The other things I’ve heard about have always been related to socks,” she revealed. “One [“remedy”] is go to bed wearing wet socks. The other is put sliced up potatoes inside your socks and go to bed. It’s this thought that it’ll pull the cold virus into your feet and out of your body.”

Despite how popular these so-called “treatments” may be, there’s no evidence that any of them work.

“Some of these ‘remedies,’ at best, you laugh at them, but at worst, they can really be dangerous for people,” Dr. Bhuyan noted.

So how can we safely find some relief if we’ve been struck down by a nasty cold?

“The studies on vitamin C are pretty mixed,” Dr. Bhuyan said. “They’ve found that if you take vitamin C regularly, you might be able to reduce the duration of a cold by half a day. Does that mean that everybody should go out and start taking a vitamin C supplement? Not exactly, because even within those studies, they found there were differences on the optimal dose. Reaching for vitamin C at the first sign of a cold likely won’t help. Taking vitamin C regularly might help shorten a cold’s duration if you get a cold, but you see that’s couched in a lot of ‘ifs,’ and it might not be worth the bang for your buck.”

What about taking zinc?

“The zinc trials are not that great and the reason why is because zinc actually tastes pretty terrible,” Dr. Bhuyan said. “So, if you’re trying to do a trial and giving half the people zinc and half the people a placebo, the placebo group knows they have a placebo because we can’t make a compound that tastes as terrible as zinc.”

Zinc also comes with a lot of side effects.

“People can get nausea from taking zinc on an empty stomach. People can get upset stomachs. All of those things point to zinc coming with its own risks.”

However, it might actually help shorten a cold, even if only by a day or two.

“There are trials that show that if you take zinc at the first sign of a cough or a cold or you’re feeling a scratchy throat, [taking] 10 to 15 milligrams of zinc might reduce the duration of a cold,” Dr. Bhuyan said.

Dr. Bhuyan told us that if we want to try a particular remedy, it’s always a good idea to chat with our doctor first, and, ultimately, our best weapons to feel better when we have a cold are the simplest ones — and they’re both free.

“Water is helpful because it can help break up your mucus. Staying hydrated and giving yourself water is a good idea,” Dr. Bhuyan advised. “It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to stave off the cold or prevent the cold, but I tell people rest and fluids is really the key.”

We also chatted about what happens if we eat dairy when we have a cold, why a hot toddy might not be the best drink choice if we’re feeling under the weather, and much more.

After you’ve had a listen to the full episode above or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe to “Am I Doing It Wrong?” so you don’t miss a single episode, including our investigations of the ins and outs of tipping, how to score the best deals on airline tickets, how to apologise or vanquish your credit card debt, how to find love online or overcome anxiety, online shopping, tips for taking care of your teeth, pooping like a pro, secrets to booking and staying in a hotel, how to deal with an angry person, cooking tips from celebrity chef Jet Tila, shocking laundry secrets. and more.

Need some help with something you’ve been doing wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com, and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.

Share Button

20 Seasons In, Here’s What Grey’s Anatomy Has Meant To Longtime Fans

When Grey’s Anatomy fan Seyward Darby says she keeps up with new episodes of the long-running medical drama, “people look at me sideways,” she said.

As a fellow fan, I often hear a similar sense of disbelief: “I can’t believe you still watch that show.”

But we’re not alone. Grey’s Anatomy is still one of the most-watched dramas on network television, and Thursday marks the beginning of its 20th season (seriously…seriously… seriously!).

After 420 episodes and almost two decades on the air, the legacy of Grey’s Anatomy and its effect on pop culture has been long discussed. It diversified casts. It attracted people to the medical field. It celebrated women for being ambitious and complicated — and for having good sex. It drew attention to social and political issues, such as gay rights and gun violence (sometimes imperfectly) that other shows often avoided completely. It launched the careers of creator Shonda Rhimes and original cast members Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, Katherine Heigl and Sandra Oh (and many other actors, writers and producers affiliated with the show).

It also became the longest-running prime-time medical drama on television, outlasting more characters than I can name, both of its spinoffs (Private Practice and now Station 19, which was just cancelled), multiple showrunners (Meg Marinis is succeeding Krista Vernoff) and its titular lead character (Pompeo departed the show as a series regular last season).

Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) on an episode of Grey's Anatomy last year, during her last appearance as a main cast member. The show begins a staggering 20th season on Thursday.
Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy last year, during her last appearance as a main cast member. The show begins a staggering 20th season on Thursday.

Though all these accomplishments are noteworthy, what’s less obvious and less talked about is how, for almost 20 years, Grey’s Anatomy has reached fans across the world, touching their lives, shaping their choices and making them feel seen.

In honor of the 20th season, I spoke to several fans about what the show has meant to them, why they’re still watching and what they’re looking forward to this season. The origin story of each fan makes it clear that it’s impossible to separate what they love about Grey’s Anatomy from how they fell in love with it in the first place.

Some, like mother-daughter duo Melanie French and Judy Lamb, have truly been watching since the show’s inception in the spring of 2005. French, who was in college at the time, remembers watching episodes at her sorority house on Sunday nights. Across the state, her mom, Lamb, was tuning in at home. Now they live states apart, and they’re both still watching, albeit on different timelines. With two kids and delayed streaming options, French is often behind her mom. “I tell her to get the Kleenexes ready,” Lamb said.

Darby was also in college when the show premiered, and she remembers it being on in the background of her college newspaper’s office. But she didn’t become a regular viewer until she moved to Europe after graduation and was visiting a friend in Paris during the worst weather imaginable. She couldn’t walk around the city, so she ended up hanging out in his apartment, and he had the first few seasons of Grey’s Anatomy on DVD. She binged all of them and became deeply connected to the show when Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) died at the end of Season 2, shattering Izzie Stevens.

Sandra Oh, T.R. Knight, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Katherine Heigl in the Season 2 finale of "Grey's Anatomy."
Sandra Oh, T.R. Knight, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Katherine Heigl in the Season 2 finale of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Scott Garfield/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Darby could personally relate to Izzie’s story, especially the iconic scene of her lying on the bathroom floor in her pink, strapless prom dress, because her boyfriend had died suddenly the year before. “I remember when it happened that, if I just lay on the floor, the floor will hold me because I just felt like I was falling all the time,” Darby said. She still thinks often of Izzie’s scene.

Fani Mari, who lives in Greece, also discovered the show via DVD around that same time. She’d either rent them or borrow them from another girl she knew. That girl quickly became a friend.

“Our love for ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ connected us,” Mari said.

In November 2020, she was watching the show’s depiction of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it portrayed its effect on health care workers. The episodes made her curious about what life was like for people around the world during that time. The show inspired her so much that she ended up interviewing people and writing the book Hindsight 2020: Tribulations and Silver Linings During a Global Pandemic.”

Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) watches over Dr. Meredith Grey during Season 17 of "Grey's Anatomy," which depicted the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care workers.
Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) watches over Dr. Meredith Grey during Season 17 of “Grey’s Anatomy,” which depicted the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care workers.

Gen-Zer and college junior Miriam Gardner is one of the show’s younger fans. She discovered it via Netflix, binging the show over winter break during her first year of high school. It was a coming-of-age moment: Grey’s Anatomy was the first TV show she watched that had adult characters. She loved the medical aspect of the show and related to George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) always being the underdog. Also, she was, of course, drawn to the love triangle between Meredith, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh).

After catching up on Netflix, she started watching either live or the next day on Hulu. “I just always remember making sure I wouldn’t look at any Instagram spoilers or anything because I feel like everyone would always be talking about what happened on the episode on social media,” Gardner said.

For all these fans, Grey’s Anatomy has become a touchstone in their lives, and the characters feel like family. It’s why they’re still watching.

“When they killed off Patrick Dempsey, I was furious, and I was like, ‘I’m never watching that show again!’ And I really meant it,” French said. “And then a couple months go by, and it comes back on, and I just want to see what happens with Meredith.”

Now there’s far less Meredith. Pompeo appeared in only eight of the 20 episodes in Season 19, and she’s slated to appear in four of the 10 episodes this season. However, even the main character’s departure isn’t deterring these fans. “I definitely was skeptical at first and surprised by that [departure] because I thought they would kind of end the show whenever she left,” Gardner said. “But I definitely will still watch it to see what it’s like.”

These fans’ devotion is a testament to the world Grey’s Anatomy has created, a world that feels so real it can outlast its eras, becoming more than the intern classes, residents and (many) chiefs of surgery who propel it forward, more than its melodramatic plot arcs and enviable friendships and messy romantic entanglements.

T.R. Knight, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers, Sandra Oh and Ellen Pompeo during Season 3 of "Grey's Anatomy."
T.R. Knight, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers, Sandra Oh and Ellen Pompeo during Season 3 of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Michael Desmond/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Image

Over 20 seasons, Grey’s Anatomy has become so much more than a television show.

“It’s its own extended universe, and it’s just moved so far from what it was initially and become part of our cultural discourse in a way that I just kind of imagine it going on for forever because it’s not like I’m hungering for some conclusion or eager to see where does this all wrap up,” Darby said.

She’s looking forward to the new season, to waking up on Friday mornings and streaming the show while she drinks her coffee and gives herself over to the world of Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital and the big feelings and thoughts it inspires.

The flexibility viewers have in how they watch the show has also kept so many fans in its fold. Fans can watch weekly on ABC or the next day on Hulu. They can wait for the new season to drop on Netflix (and now Hulu) in the late summer and binge-watch the entire thing. They can even step away for a while and return, which is what Gardner is currently doing. She has been rewatching the show from its beginning and plans to continue with new episodes when she’s finished.

Niko Terho, Alexis Floyd and Harry Shum Jr. as three of the newest "Grey's Anatomy" class of interns.
Niko Terho, Alexis Floyd and Harry Shum Jr. as three of the newest “Grey’s Anatomy” class of interns.

Liliane Lathan via Getty Images

For those gearing up for the new season this week, they’re hoping to see the relationship between Meredith and Nick Marsh (Scott Speedman) develop, looking forward to the return of Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) and wondering what’s going to happen to the new intern class after Simone Griffith’s (Alexis Floyd) wedding that didn’t happen, Jules Millin’s (Adelaide Kane) declaration of love and the medical drama that could ensnare them all. They’re also still celebrating Miranda Bailey’s Catherine Fox Award for her contributions to and advocacy of reproductive health care and waiting to see what social issues the show engages with this season.

Ultimately, what becomes clear from these conversations with fans, who are at all stages of life and living all over the world, is that Grey’s Anatomy — as imperfect as it can be when social issues are handled too didactically, or the plot is dragging or a beloved character leaves — has been a gift in their lives.

I understand the feeling. I’ve grown up with the show. Its influence is evident when I “dance it out,” or call my Cristina or watch an old episode because I miss my mom (we watched our last Thursday night episode together in November of 2018 before she died).

At the end of Season 19, I began to question why I “still watched that show.” I questioned if I had the stamina to keep going, to invest in another class of interns. But I’m planning to tune in live Thursday night. I want to see what happens, and it feels fitting to mark the 20th season premiere of the show the way I first began watching it, commercials and all.

Share Button