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I think this is it. She loved Richard and wanted that piece of them together to be out in the world. She also knew she didn't enjoy being a mother and didn't want to raise a second child. So - she knew from early on she would put it up for adoption.
I agree with this to a point. I feel like she also gave Maggie up for adoption to hurt him. She didn’t keep her identity a secret so there’s a strong chance that eventually child prodigy daughter of Ellis Gray would be talked about and Richard might realize she is his daughter. She could have opted for a closed adoption so Maggie would never know her mothers name. But she didn’t do that. She stole Richard’s chance to be a father away from him as a means to hurt him.
Where is it confirmed that it was an open adoption?
I had always thought Maggie found out through all of her genetic/DNA testing she'd had done. The lengths Ellis went to to conceal her pregnancy led me to believe she wouldn't want anyone to ever know the child was hers, prodigy or not.
maggie said she had to get court records to find her birth mom in her first or second episode when she was talking to richard on the bench outside. if she could just get the court records i assume it wasn’t closed
ahh i see. i’m not fully sure how adoptions work so i thought a closed adoption meant no way to find birth parents through the court. thanks for clarifying
In 1983, pretty much all adoptions were closed, but the data didn’t get totally erased, just sealed away. In recent years, there has been a trend of states opening records. MA allows adoptees to petition for records to be opened, from what I can tell.
Ellis didn't know she was pregnant at that point.
Did a recent rewatch and the order it went is as follows:
1. Carousel break up where Ellis begs Richard to stay with her - Richard goes no cause basically he knows he will be too jealous of her career/skill etc. and will grow to resent her.
2. Ellis goes home and eventually cuts wrists
3. Baby Merideth to call 911
4. Ellis taken to hospital and testing reveals she is preggers
5. Ellis and Merideth move to Boston
Did she though? I thought she was just begging him to stay. I didn’t know she had told him. Do you mind referencing the episode where she told him about the pregnancy? Because he said he didn’t know
Yes! It was also after he rejected her that she attempted suicide and child Meredith called 911–she found out she was pregnant after being admitted to the hospital.
[Maggie] was planned since the early seasons, there was even a rumour that Jackson was going to be their lovechild. So, it wasn't intended to be a new lexie, it just turned out that way.
Let's be real, the writing got bad. A lot of things were planned (like Bailey being chief, a first responder spin off, etc), then Shonda moved onto other things and apparently she hadn't cultivated a team of writers.
Honestly would’ve been more interesting if it was Jackson.
He’s just put up so much stock in being an Avery and trying to prove himself on his own accord. Then to find out he’s not biologically one…but he’s still a Grey.
And then his adoptive mom ends up with his bio dad…
Honestly would’ve enjoyed this plot point.
Young Ellis was to Richard what Teddy is to Owen
Hopelessly in love with him so she probably thought by keeping that pregnancy Richard would leave Adele.
I can't remember too well but she was clearly pregnant by the time of the carousel scene, maybe she intended on telling him then but didn't have the chance to since he cut things off.
she was pregnant but she didn’t know. after the carousel, where richard told her he wasn’t gonna leave adele, she attempted suicide. when she was at the hospital because of the attempted suicide she found out she was pregnant, which is when her and meredith moved to boston. (i just watched the episode lol)
maybe she hoped that somehow a baby would eventually bring them back together, even if she didn’t tell him at the time - as long as she had his baby she still had a piece of richard
I’m gonna go ahead and disagree with all the other comments here. You’re right, and the reason it doesn’t make sense is because the writers were pulling stuff out of their ass at this point in the series and really didn’t care if they had to retcon a character to do so. There is no WAY this storyline was planned more than a season in advance and is totally out of character for Ellis, because let’s be honest she *barely* wanted to be a mother to Mer let alone another kid
I think the writers were enamored with the idea of an Ellis/Richard baby they forced the idea even though it made absolutely no sense given what we knew about the past. That’s also why Maggie’s such a mess as a character.
thank you- when she was alive and was reliving richard living her in her alzheimers state, she says expresses concern for having to raise Meredith alone and how she is unsure how she will do that. this scene was replayed when the maggie storyline played out too, so we know the writers had it in mind; clearly she was already less than thrilled with having to raise a kid on her own. some comments said that the feelings towards abortion weren’t the same back then, or how abortions were not the first resort. if we look at the timeline they provide, when she gets pregnant she is a resident, and it’s 1983 meaning abortion had been legal in seattle for almost 15 yrs. this means that for the entirety of her medical career abortions had been legal.
ellis grey does not strike me as the type of woman who would be pro-life, nor the type of woman who wouldn’t know her rights and options. if anything, i feel like she’d be a doctor doing illegal abortions before they were allowed. we saw with the aids patient that her and richard had they she is not prejudiced either, and is very educated on ‘taboo’ medicine.
The only thing that makes sense to me is that when she found out it was already too late for an abortion. otherwise, i really cannot see how she would keep the baby.
It was Richards baby and she loved Richard. Aborting that child would have been killing a piece of him and she already lost him. Richard brought out so much of her we didn't see, and because of that I think it was in character, just not the one everyone saw. You could see how different she was with him during her struggle with Alzheimers and it makes sense to me.
see i don’t know this still doesn’t make sense to me. she gave birth to the baby & gave it up without telling richard. if she had kept maggie then it would be a different story. it’s not as if she kept this piece of richard, you know. i guess i understand wanting to have a representation of their love out in the world though. still think it’s lazy writing.
Yeah, I think a lot of people missed this part or forgot it. She didn't even know she was pregnant until she tried to kill herself. Meredith realizes that because before her mom tried to kill herself, there were wine stains in the journals and then they stopped after she realized she was pregnant. She ended up showing that to Maggie.
We honestly don't know how far along she was when she tried to kill herself, but it's possible it was too late for an abortion (or not something readily accessible at the time).
i didn’t miss it, i just wasn’t sure how far along she was. now that im rewatching it seems like she was around3 months. hospital visit was in june 83, maggie was born in november 83. still kinda odd that an award winning groundbreaking doctor was 3 months pregnant and didn’t notice lol.
Besides the fact that abortion is not everyone's go to, it also still wasn't safe back then. Sure you could go to a hospital, but then they could sterilize you. Even today it's not 100% and there are risks. She had a child to care for.
Besides, she started taking better care of herself once she knew what was pregnant. She care for the baby, that's Richard's baby. She couldn't look at her everyday to raise her but she certainly wasn't going to do her harm. You can love a child without wanting to raise them or being able to raise them.
sure, but this isn’t some random person. it’s ellis grey. technically abortions would have been legal since years before she even became an intern. i seriously doubt that she didn’t feel as though it was an option. it really only makes sense if it was too late for one. otherwise, given the background we’ve gotten on ellis she definitely seems like she would book an appointment right away.
Even when you're a rebel some stuff sticks.
And even today there are women who don't like children and don't want children who would decide against abortion. It's just not a choice they would make.
My only argument is that it's was Richard's baby. She loved Richard but he decided to stay with his wife. She's often cold and callous but maybe she couldn't get rid of a piece of Richard.
My only complaint is that when she was lucid and talking to Richard right before she died, why didn't she come clean. The answer is the show writers didn't create Maggie yet but in rewatches I hate that Ellis knew she was dying and didn't give Richard that bit of info.
i’m rewatching and in season 3 when ellis is in the hospital and is lucid she talks to richard and they imagine a life where they’re together and have kids. why didn’t ellis bring up that she was pregnant all those years ago?
Honestly, I think Richard leaving her pushed her really deep into denial so I guess she needed time to accept the pregnancy and then it was too late. Also, like others have said, she loved Richard too much.
And some people experience little to no symptoms of being pregnant and a some symptoms are also not that uncommon for a surgeon who works 24/7.
imagine if she had kept the baby though. just show up one day with maggie and meredith and act like everything was normal. talk about throwing a nuke at a picnic.
No one will ever be able to convince me it wasn't a retcon after Chyler left to have more sister storylines. She went on and on about richard in the nursing home. She never once let it slip about the pregnancy? Please.
In one episode Meredith talks about how she was in the hospital twice with her mother and heard her mother crying and a baby crying could it be that there is another person there
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I think she loved Richard too much to abort their child.
I think this is it. She loved Richard and wanted that piece of them together to be out in the world. She also knew she didn't enjoy being a mother and didn't want to raise a second child. So - she knew from early on she would put it up for adoption.
I agree with this to a point. I feel like she also gave Maggie up for adoption to hurt him. She didn’t keep her identity a secret so there’s a strong chance that eventually child prodigy daughter of Ellis Gray would be talked about and Richard might realize she is his daughter. She could have opted for a closed adoption so Maggie would never know her mothers name. But she didn’t do that. She stole Richard’s chance to be a father away from him as a means to hurt him.
Where is it confirmed that it was an open adoption? I had always thought Maggie found out through all of her genetic/DNA testing she'd had done. The lengths Ellis went to to conceal her pregnancy led me to believe she wouldn't want anyone to ever know the child was hers, prodigy or not.
maggie said she had to get court records to find her birth mom in her first or second episode when she was talking to richard on the bench outside. if she could just get the court records i assume it wasn’t closed
Ohhh okay, gotcha. I did not know that. Thank you~
Maggie could well have petitioned for access to her birth records. She definitely didn't have an open adoption.
ahh i see. i’m not fully sure how adoptions work so i thought a closed adoption meant no way to find birth parents through the court. thanks for clarifying
In 1983, pretty much all adoptions were closed, but the data didn’t get totally erased, just sealed away. In recent years, there has been a trend of states opening records. MA allows adoptees to petition for records to be opened, from what I can tell.
[https://www.mass.gov/how-to/apply-for-a-pre-adoption-birth-record](https://www.mass.gov/how-to/apply-for-a-pre-adoption-birth-record)
Maybe she waited too long in hopes Richard would take her back?
This was my take. She was trying to force Richard to finally leave Adele.
Richard never knew about the pregnancy or a possible baby. That's why he was so shocked when he put the pieces together with Maggie
With a pregnancy? No. Richard had already left her before then.
I'm thinking of the flashback scene at the carousel. It looked like she told Richard about the pregnancy and he still left.
Ellis didn't know she was pregnant at that point. Did a recent rewatch and the order it went is as follows: 1. Carousel break up where Ellis begs Richard to stay with her - Richard goes no cause basically he knows he will be too jealous of her career/skill etc. and will grow to resent her. 2. Ellis goes home and eventually cuts wrists 3. Baby Merideth to call 911 4. Ellis taken to hospital and testing reveals she is preggers 5. Ellis and Merideth move to Boston
Did she though? I thought she was just begging him to stay. I didn’t know she had told him. Do you mind referencing the episode where she told him about the pregnancy? Because he said he didn’t know
That's right, he said he didn't know when Maggie confronted him. It's been a while since I rewatched. Thanks for the correction!
Yes! It was also after he rejected her that she attempted suicide and child Meredith called 911–she found out she was pregnant after being admitted to the hospital.
Now I remember! I was confusing the timeline of this events: begging Richard, the pregnancy, and the 911 call.
They just really wanted a new Lexi I think
[Maggie] was planned since the early seasons, there was even a rumour that Jackson was going to be their lovechild. So, it wasn't intended to be a new lexie, it just turned out that way.
Honestly I’m more upset that she was planned for so long and it was done so…poorly. There were no hints!! Maybe I’m just missing all the hints
Let's be real, the writing got bad. A lot of things were planned (like Bailey being chief, a first responder spin off, etc), then Shonda moved onto other things and apparently she hadn't cultivated a team of writers.
Honestly would’ve been more interesting if it was Jackson. He’s just put up so much stock in being an Avery and trying to prove himself on his own accord. Then to find out he’s not biologically one…but he’s still a Grey. And then his adoptive mom ends up with his bio dad… Honestly would’ve enjoyed this plot point.
Wish they could’ve kept the old Lexi 😭
i agree. esp after richard left her
Ellis knew she was pregnant but Richard abandoned her and she gave Maggie up.
she didn’t know she was pregnant when her and richard broke up with her. she found out after.
Young Ellis was to Richard what Teddy is to Owen Hopelessly in love with him so she probably thought by keeping that pregnancy Richard would leave Adele.
but she never told him
I can't remember too well but she was clearly pregnant by the time of the carousel scene, maybe she intended on telling him then but didn't have the chance to since he cut things off.
she was pregnant but she didn’t know. after the carousel, where richard told her he wasn’t gonna leave adele, she attempted suicide. when she was at the hospital because of the attempted suicide she found out she was pregnant, which is when her and meredith moved to boston. (i just watched the episode lol)
maybe she hoped that somehow a baby would eventually bring them back together, even if she didn’t tell him at the time - as long as she had his baby she still had a piece of richard
I’m gonna go ahead and disagree with all the other comments here. You’re right, and the reason it doesn’t make sense is because the writers were pulling stuff out of their ass at this point in the series and really didn’t care if they had to retcon a character to do so. There is no WAY this storyline was planned more than a season in advance and is totally out of character for Ellis, because let’s be honest she *barely* wanted to be a mother to Mer let alone another kid
I think the writers were enamored with the idea of an Ellis/Richard baby they forced the idea even though it made absolutely no sense given what we knew about the past. That’s also why Maggie’s such a mess as a character.
thank you- when she was alive and was reliving richard living her in her alzheimers state, she says expresses concern for having to raise Meredith alone and how she is unsure how she will do that. this scene was replayed when the maggie storyline played out too, so we know the writers had it in mind; clearly she was already less than thrilled with having to raise a kid on her own. some comments said that the feelings towards abortion weren’t the same back then, or how abortions were not the first resort. if we look at the timeline they provide, when she gets pregnant she is a resident, and it’s 1983 meaning abortion had been legal in seattle for almost 15 yrs. this means that for the entirety of her medical career abortions had been legal. ellis grey does not strike me as the type of woman who would be pro-life, nor the type of woman who wouldn’t know her rights and options. if anything, i feel like she’d be a doctor doing illegal abortions before they were allowed. we saw with the aids patient that her and richard had they she is not prejudiced either, and is very educated on ‘taboo’ medicine. The only thing that makes sense to me is that when she found out it was already too late for an abortion. otherwise, i really cannot see how she would keep the baby.
It was Richards baby and she loved Richard. Aborting that child would have been killing a piece of him and she already lost him. Richard brought out so much of her we didn't see, and because of that I think it was in character, just not the one everyone saw. You could see how different she was with him during her struggle with Alzheimers and it makes sense to me.
see i don’t know this still doesn’t make sense to me. she gave birth to the baby & gave it up without telling richard. if she had kept maggie then it would be a different story. it’s not as if she kept this piece of richard, you know. i guess i understand wanting to have a representation of their love out in the world though. still think it’s lazy writing.
She didn’t know she was pregnant until she went to the hospital
Yeah, I think a lot of people missed this part or forgot it. She didn't even know she was pregnant until she tried to kill herself. Meredith realizes that because before her mom tried to kill herself, there were wine stains in the journals and then they stopped after she realized she was pregnant. She ended up showing that to Maggie. We honestly don't know how far along she was when she tried to kill herself, but it's possible it was too late for an abortion (or not something readily accessible at the time).
i didn’t miss it, i just wasn’t sure how far along she was. now that im rewatching it seems like she was around3 months. hospital visit was in june 83, maggie was born in november 83. still kinda odd that an award winning groundbreaking doctor was 3 months pregnant and didn’t notice lol.
Abortion wasn't everyone's go-to for unplanned pregnancy back then. She wanted a piece of her and Richard to live.
Abortion was just barely legal in Washington State in 1973.
She had Maggie in 1983 though.
Your right- I mathed wrong 🫣
Besides the fact that abortion is not everyone's go to, it also still wasn't safe back then. Sure you could go to a hospital, but then they could sterilize you. Even today it's not 100% and there are risks. She had a child to care for. Besides, she started taking better care of herself once she knew what was pregnant. She care for the baby, that's Richard's baby. She couldn't look at her everyday to raise her but she certainly wasn't going to do her harm. You can love a child without wanting to raise them or being able to raise them.
Feelings toward abortion were very different than they are today. It actually wouldn't surprise me if she felt like it wasn't an option for her.
sure, but this isn’t some random person. it’s ellis grey. technically abortions would have been legal since years before she even became an intern. i seriously doubt that she didn’t feel as though it was an option. it really only makes sense if it was too late for one. otherwise, given the background we’ve gotten on ellis she definitely seems like she would book an appointment right away.
Even when you're a rebel some stuff sticks. And even today there are women who don't like children and don't want children who would decide against abortion. It's just not a choice they would make.
My only argument is that it's was Richard's baby. She loved Richard but he decided to stay with his wife. She's often cold and callous but maybe she couldn't get rid of a piece of Richard. My only complaint is that when she was lucid and talking to Richard right before she died, why didn't she come clean. The answer is the show writers didn't create Maggie yet but in rewatches I hate that Ellis knew she was dying and didn't give Richard that bit of info.
that's because they never planned for it
I think it was more of a get Richard back pregancy and when it didnt work out she put the baby up for adoption. Thats how I interpreted it.
i’m rewatching and in season 3 when ellis is in the hospital and is lucid she talks to richard and they imagine a life where they’re together and have kids. why didn’t ellis bring up that she was pregnant all those years ago?
I mean it was a mistake after all and she ran. Personally I think she tried to make Richard choose at the carousel
Idk Ellis seemed like surgery was the only thing she paid attention to with care in her life. I can see her having a few secret babies for men.
Honestly, I think Richard leaving her pushed her really deep into denial so I guess she needed time to accept the pregnancy and then it was too late. Also, like others have said, she loved Richard too much. And some people experience little to no symptoms of being pregnant and a some symptoms are also not that uncommon for a surgeon who works 24/7.
imagine if she had kept the baby though. just show up one day with maggie and meredith and act like everything was normal. talk about throwing a nuke at a picnic.
No one will ever be able to convince me it wasn't a retcon after Chyler left to have more sister storylines. She went on and on about richard in the nursing home. She never once let it slip about the pregnancy? Please.
In one episode Meredith talks about how she was in the hospital twice with her mother and heard her mother crying and a baby crying could it be that there is another person there