Ellen Pompeo breaks silence on gender pay gap in Hollywood: 'I deserved the same'

Ellen Pompeo finally broke her silence on the pay disparity between male and female actors in Hollywood.

During an appearance on the latest episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, the 55-year-old actress expressed frustration over the pay gap between her and male costar Patrick Dempsey in the hit drama Grey's Anatomy.

The TV personality revealed that Patrick was paid more than she was because he was already a known actor when their hit series premiered.

"Back in those days — I don't know if they still do this or not — you had a quote. And with every TV pilot you did, you got your quote," said Ellen.

"So if you've done 13 TV pilots and… nothing personal to him but, just in general, only a man … can have 13 failed TV pilots, and their quote still keeps going up, right?” she added.

Acknowledging that Grey's Anatomy was her first-ever television pilot, Ellen admitted that "no one knew who I was at the time."

"Everybody knew who he was. So he did deserve that money. I'm not saying he didn't deserve that money,” she continued.

"I wasn't salty about him getting what he got," explained Ellen."I was salty that they didn't value me as much as they valued him and they never will."

For those unversed, Grey's Anatomy is currently in its 21st season and airs every Thursday on the ABC network.