She has struggled through a difficult childhood being the youngest of six siblings and growing up around strangers.
Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo's childhood was as different as her present is. The multi-million earning highest-paid TV actress has had to show a lot of grit throughout her life to reach the level of success she is at right now. Her husband understands her humble beginnings because he too had a similar childhood, she had revealed. One of the most difficult things she's had to deal with as a child was the loss of her mother.
"My life started out with tragedy," said Pompeo to GoodHouseKeeping. "I was pathetically insecure. I didn't have a mother to tell me how amazing I was," she added, continuing, "I don't try to chase other things that I don't have. I try to enjoy what I do have."
But what is the tragedy she was talking about? She was only four when her mother passed away because of an accidental overdose on painkillers. One of her earliest memories is of her older siblings, of which there are five, trying to revive their mom, according to EOnline. Her mother did not survive.
Afterward, growing up in the Irish-Italian neighborhood with a big family wasn't easy for her either.
"I'm a fiery girl, you know. You can't get out of where I come from if you're a wallflower," she said. There was no mother figure when she was growing up and that left her growing up around a lot of strangers, like babysitters. She dubs her childhood as "chaotic" and she ran away the first chance she got to Miami when she was just 19.
There was no mother figure when she was growing up and that left her growing up around a lot of strangers, like babysitters.
"But because of what happened to me as a child, we had different babysitters. Every day; all these characters in my life would babysit me. I have so many different influences. My mother came from an Irish family of 11 kids and, of course, had a sister who was a nun, so I spent time at a convent and with an aunt and uncle who lived in New York and took me to the theater," she said. She attended a Rockettes performance and knew then what her future career was going to be. "Afterward," she told Allure, "I stood up and said, 'That's what I want to be. They're alive. That's what I want to do.'"
However, there was still a long time until success knocked at her door. Her difficult journey continued until her 30s, but it was especially harder when she was a child.
"It was the 1970s, and all my brothers and sisters were hippies. They were smoking pot and watching The Three Stooges. When I was small it seemed chaotic, but now, as an older woman looking back, I think, My God, it's so much to draw on," she told Playboy.
She ran away the first chance she got to Miami when she was just 19. Before moving out of home, she didn't have any confidence in herself and that was connected to her physical appearance.
"All the other girls had [breasts] and hips. I was always thin, always called the stick or the pencil. I didn't have a boyfriend until I was 16, and he was eight years older. My father was furious about this 24-year-old, and I had to hide the relationship," she told the magazine.
When she eventually moved at 19, she worked as a bartender and more than her skills at making drinks she thinks she was a "good hustler". "I'd abuse the customers, yell and scream at them and make them wait. If they put money down on the bar and it wasn't enough, I'd go wait on someone else who was giving me enough money. If they put another five down and I made them wait longer, pretty soon there would be $20 on the bar. Then I'd come over and give them a drink."
She eventually moved to New York and was spotted by a talent agent. She met Chris Ivery, married him, and the couple has three kids together. They are raising their children in their California-style oasis atop a hill, away from the chaos of downtown Los Angeles.
Her world is no longer the chaos it was and her home "represents [my family] because it's hip but also comfortable."
References:
https://www.allure.com/gallery/ellen-pompeo
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a39802/ellen-pompeo-interview/
https://www.tvfanatic.com/2006/12/sometimes-a-fantasy-is-aired-again.html
