“Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes remembers former cast member Isaiah Washington as nearly derailing the show after using a homophobic slur.

In 2007, the actor, who played Dr. Preston Burke, was dismissed from the long-running hospital drama after using a slur on set towards Patrick Dempsey. In an interview with Shondaland executive producer Betsy Beers for The Hollywood Reporter, Rhimes recalled the moment as a “thorn” that almost ended “Grey’s.”

The media mogul called the experience one that caused the “bubble of joy” to “burst so early.” “I mean, that was the thing we thought was going to kill the show,” Rhimes said. “And it’s funny, every Grey’s actor I talk to who was there during that time is still traumatized by that incident. People still talk about it.”

She continued, “So, that was the thorn. But I also think that there were so many roses that the thorn stopped mattering. I mean, that was the thing we thought was going to kill the show.”

Now 21 seasons in, “Grey’s” success hasn’t reached an end, although Washington made troubling public statements about the incident in its aftermath. In 2007, the actor appeared on “Larry King Live,” where he detailed the confrontation with Dempsey, who he alleged repeatedly arrived late to set.

“I began to say a lot of things I'm not really proud of...I said, ‘There's no way you're going to treat me like a B-word or a P-word or the F-word. You can't treat me this way in front of the crew,’" Washington recounted, per ABC News. “Before this took off in this direction, in terms of sexual orientation, it meant something – it meant, to me, someone who is being weak.”

Washington also used the F-word in the Golden Globes press room that same year, denying that he was referring to “Grey’s” co-star T.R. Knight.