Why Richard Flood Decided to Leave Grey’s Anatomy

Richard Flood has officially removed his lab coat.

On March 3, Flood said goodbye to his role as series regular Dr. Cormac Hayes on Grey’s Anatomy. During the episode, his character resigned as Head of Pediatric Surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial. And now, the actor is opening up about his decision to step away from ABC’s popular medical drama.

“Having three years on the show felt right for me,” he told Deadline. “And I think that the arc of the character with all the developments in the story was probably coming to its natural end, which was great. I was very happy that everybody felt the same, and they just got to it.”

Flood explained that the writers of the show ultimately decided how his departure would unfold.

“They came up with the exit,” he said. “I didn’t know until closer to when we were shooting how it would actually happen but there’d been a few conversations during the summer as far as how the season would unfold, and then during the season there were more conversations about what might be good [for the show] and what might be good for me.”