Brooke Smith, who played Dr Erica Hahn on 'Grey's Anatomy', has been written out of the show.
Warning: Spoiler Alert.
Entertainment Weekly reports that the move to let Smith go was not made by 'Grey's Anatomy' creator Shonda Rhimes, but came instead from bosses at American network ABC.
It is reported that executives "had issues" with the direction of the relationship between Hahn and colleague Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and the Hahn character in general.
Hahn's final appearance will be screened on US television on Thursday.
In a statement, Rhimes said: "Brooke Smith was obviously not fired for playing a lesbian. Clearly it's not an issue as we have a lesbian character on the show - Calliope Torres.
"Sara Ramirez is an incredible comedic and dramatic actress and we wanted to be able to play up her magic. Unfortunately, we did not find that the magic and chemistry with Brooke's character would sustain in the long run.
"The impact of the Callie/Erica relationship will be felt and played out in a story for Callie. I believe it belittles the relationship to simply replace Erica with 'another lesbian'. If you'll remember, Cristina [Yang, played by Sandra Oh] mourned the loss of Burke [Preston Burke, played by Isaiah Washington] for a full season."
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Smith said: "I was very excited when they told me that Erica and Callie were going to have this relationship. And I really hoped we were going to show what happens when two women fall in love and that they were going to treat it like any heterosexual couple on TV. And so I was surprised and disappointed when they just suddenly told me that they couldn't write for my character anymore."
Asked how she was coping with being let go, Smith said: "It's actually never happened to me before. But I never had a moment where I thought I did something wrong. I was just really surprised. I just moved my entire family to LA, so it was kind of like, 'What?' But for some reason I feel like I'm fine. I feel like I'm going to be okay."
In other 'Grey's Anatomy' news, former 'Home & Away' star Melissa George was set to play a bisexual character and love interest for Callie on the show, but this has now been changed.
Newcomer George plays Meredith's (Ellen Pompeo) best friend, a new intern at Seattle Grace hospital.
