'Grey's Anatomy' star Eric Dane shares surprising reason he was 'let go' from hit series amid addiction battle

There's a "McSteamy" answer to why Eric Dane left the hit series "Grey's Anatomy" in dramatic fashion in 2012.

The actor, who played the beloved plastic surgeon Dr. Mark "McSteamy" Sloan, says when he booked the hit ABC show fronted by Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo, he'd been "sober for three or four years."

"So I had my wits about me and I sort of knew what reality was and what reality wasn't," he shared on the "Armchair Expert" podcast with actor Dax Shepard. "And I was able to differentiate between the two.