Patrick Dempsey and his wife Jillian Dempsey recently celebrated their 24th anniversary this year, but it was not always an easy road for their marriage. The pair first met in 1994 when the "Grey's Anatomy" star was a client at Jillian's hair salon. Dempsey spoke about the firs time he saw Jillian during his recent People interview for "Sexiest Man Alive" where he said, "I went in where she was working, and I looked across the room at her and was blown away." The pair started dating in 1997 and tied the knot in 1999. They welcomed their first child in 2002, Talula and welcomed their twin boys, Darby and Sullivan, in 2007. Dempsey recently opened up about what it was like raising children in thee public eye. "They’re all athletic, they like to move. They are all very disciplined on that and you just try to instill the right values. Hopefully, they have the right manners and when they come back in and other parents go, 'Oh your children are very polite,' you’re like, 'That’s nice to hear.' And you know are they grounded," he shared. "I just read something about how important it is when you have children, the environment that they’re in will be the most important thing for them and their development," Dempsey explained. "So trying to keep that a good calm loving safe environment for them."

In January 2015, Jillian filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. In April 2015, Dempsey left his beloved role as Derek Shepard on "Grey's Anatomy," which was a decision he made in order to spend more time with his family. Months later, the pair were spotted holding hands, seemingly working on their marriage. "Our marriage was not something I was prepared to let go of," he told People magazine in September 2016. "I didn’t feel like we had done all the work. And we both wanted to do that work. That’s where it started." In 2022, Dempsey revealed that therapy helped him and Jillian be able to salvage their marriage. "Why not utilize those tools? Have someone give you some perspective. What I have learned is that I will hear things differently in a therapist’s office just because we have a little bit of an emotional detachment," Patrick told Fatherly at the time. "There’s room and space to come in and go, ‘Oh, OK. Now I understand where you’re coming from. OK, that’s what you’re feeling. I don’t want you to feel like that,’ and then you try to work on it."