On “Grey’s Anatomy,” Meredith Grey juggled the demanding, 24/7 schedule of a surgeon with raising three children. The role of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital’s since-departed, beloved doctor isn’t actually that different from actor Ellen Pompeo‘s real life. Pompeo shares three kids with her husband Chris Ivery, who she married in 2007. They have two daughters, Stella Luna and Sienna May, and a son, Eli Christopher.
Pompeo previously spoke to People about understanding the importance of raising biracial children to understand their roots. “My daughters are Black so it’s very important to me that they see a lot of images of beautiful, powerful, strong Black women,” she said at the time – before expanding her family with Eli. “Every time there is a black woman on a magazine cover, whether it is Kerry Washington or whoever it is, I make sure that magazine is in my house and on my table. For me, that’s super important.” Added Pompeo, “I feel really fortunate that they are growing up in a time [in which] the first president my daughter knows is Barack Obama. That’s an incredible gift.”
In general, Pompeo told People in 2010, “Being a mother is the most fun job I’ve ever had.”
Keep reading for more about Pompeo’s family and her three kids.
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Stella Luna Pompeo Ivery
Stella Luna was born on Sept. 15, 2009. The year after her birth, in 2010, Pomepo appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and said that Ivery was particularly loving matching moments for himself and baby Stella, the couple’s first child. Said Pompeo, “He loves dressing her up like him. He goes out and buys her clothes that look like his clothes,” according to The Huffington Post.
In a 2015 interview on “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” Pompeo said that, at the time, Stella wanted to be an emergency room doctor when she grows up. “She loves coming to set, and every time she comes to set … [she wants] to play with all the medical things, all the fake organs,” recounted Pompeo.
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Sienna May Pompeo Ivery
Sienna May was born via surrogate in fall 2014. That October, Pompeo shared a photo of her newborn daughter on Instagram, writing, “We love you more than words can say.”
She and Ivery did not announce her arrival for some time, which she then explained during a 2014 appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Said Pompeo, “The covert thing is kind of fun. This baby was born via surrogate, so I felt an obligation to keep the surrogate’s privacy. That was of utmost importance to me,” according to the New York Daily News. Pompeo praised her surrogate, calling it “an incredible thing to do with your life, to give the gift of carrying someone’s child.” She added that she was “forever grateful” and felt “very blessed.”
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Eli Christopher Pompeo Ivery
Pompeo and Ivery’s third child and first son, Eli Christopher Pompeo Ivery, was born in December 2016. At the time, Pompeo wrote on Instagram, “Chris Ivery just fell a notch.. I’ve got a new guy.”
It seems like Eli often gets into some antics that bother his older siblings, as revealed in an Instagram video Pompeo posted during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020. In the clip, Sienna said her brother was “so annoying.” “He keeps testing, even when I was four, he was testing me. … Every day, he tests me,” she sweetly lamented.
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Photos of Ellen Pompeo's Family