Grey’s Anatomy: 10 Of The Worst Things Richard Webber Has Ever Done

Richard is responsible for a lot of personal pain in Grey’s Anatomy. Here are the 10 worst things he’s done over the course of the show

There’s no lack of bad things in Grey’s Anatomy over its characters’ actions, with all of them having some sort of dark side that leads them to go through with some not-so-nice decisions. Out of these characters, Richard has quite a hefty list of mess-ups.

In the grand scale of things, he’s been responsible for directly hurting major characters like Meredith, Izzie, Derek, Adele, and Ellis Grey. Sure, he’s made up for some of these things along the way, but that doesn’t cloud what he’s done wrong in the past. To bring you up to speed, here are 10 of the worst things Richard Webber has done on Grey’s Anatomy.

Choosing His Career Over His Marriage

After receiving many chances to straighten his act up and after being forgiven for so many things he did wrong by Adele, she gave Richard an ultimatum retire early from his career or kiss their marriage goodbye.

While Richard didn’t outright say it to her, his inaction was confirmation for Adele that Richard really did value his career over her all these years. It appeared that he simply didn’t care for her as much as he did for himself. It took Adele moving out and starting a relationship with another man that Richard realized how selfish he’d been.

Having An Affair With Ellis

Of course, Richard had done his wife wrong decades back when he’d had an affair with the also-married Ellis Grey. During this time, Richard was happy to be unfaithful to Adele and even started thinking of ditching her to run off with his new flame. 

It’s only because we’ve seen the older Richard Webber for the most part on the show that we give him some benefit, otherwise he totally acted like an antagonistic person here who had no problems destroying little Meredith’s family life.

Not Abiding By Izzie’s DNR

This isn’t something that was morally wrong or anything, and it is actually remembered as one of Richard’s top moments, but it was a display of Richard picking and choosing what he wanted to do rather than be a professional.

As it happened, Izzie had requested not to be resuscitated should she succumb to her cancer. While she had flatlined, Richard took it upon himself to decide that she should be brought back. It ended up working, but legally this was a serious offense from such a high ranking doctor who knew that ethically it wasn’t the right thing to do.

Abandoning His Wife When She Had Alzheimer’s

It seems every woman this guy falls in love with has to get Alzheimer’s at some point, and it was Adele’s turn to be riddled with it when Richard saw she eventually became too far gone. In one instance, he walked in on her being intimate with another man, which was due to Adele almost completely forgetting who Richard was.

Thinking that he would just be putting a strain on her, Richard started a physical relationship with Catherine Avery and decided to let Adele believe her new truth. However, the fact of the matter was that Richard was still married to Adele at the time and this just seemed like him taking the easy way out.

Favoring Meredith Over Everybody Else

When it came to being biased, you could easily bet that Richard would let Meredith slide away with anything. In one storyline, Meredith tampered with procedure to ensure Adele received the actual treatment drug instead of a placebo, but Richard took the fall for it to protect her.

Due in part of his guilt for ruining her childhood, Richard generally overlooks anything wrong Meredith might do. Richard even chastised Miranda Bailey for not being a feminist when she decided not to coddle Meredith like he always does.

Ending His Affair With Ellis Because Of Jealousy

It turned out Richard wasn’t genuine about the whole affair at all. When he learned that Ellis would be winning a prestigious award he’d been after, Richard decided not to go through with their plans of ending their marriages because he realized he was jealous of Ellis and didn’t want to live in perpetual jealousy if they got married.

He wasn’t sympathetic even after she became cuckoo and started pulling stunts to gain his attention. It’s remarkable how Richard’s bad side makes him comparable to characters from gritty shows like The Walking Dead, especially since Grey’s Anatomy is supposed to be a rather grounded drama in a hospital.

Being Heavily Reliant On The Bottle

When his job as the chief started taking its toll on him, along with his strained relationships with Derek, Meredith, Izzie, and Adele, Richard couldn’t keep his years of sobriety anymore and took to visiting the bar to go on a drinking binge.

The result was disastrous for him, as he spiraled deep into his worst days, losing credibility at work, destroying his relationships almost to the brink, and all because he couldn’t say no to another glass that was guaranteed to make things sink even lower than they already had.

Making George His Personal Assistant

George’s own problems with Callie and Izzie had meant he had failed his intern exams, but his efficiency was noticed by Richard, who created a new job for George where he was exclusively his intern. This worked at first, but George later realized he was basically Richard’s assistant and wasn’t doing anything noteworthy.

George was miffed further when he came to find out he had only failed his exam by one point, and Richard had the power to set up another exam so George could become a resident. Even then, it took quite a bit of convincing for Richard to let go of George as his personal intern.

Firing Izzie

Sure, Izzie had made some questionable faults during her time at the hospital, but it was here where she should’ve been given some space even though her mistake almost cost the hospital a patient. After all, it was straight after she’d been cleared of her cancer, so it wasn’t like she was completely fine.

However, Richard rather coldly fired Izzie without having any care for her pitiful attempts at convincing him otherwise. All he did was repeat generic words an employer says to a dismissed worker, and then had Izzie removed from the hospital.

Having An Emotional Affair With Ellis

One has to understand why Adele had had enough of Richard, seeing as this guy still didn’t let go of Ellis even in his middle-age. Once Richard found out Ellis was suffering from Alzheimer’s, he took to visiting her frequently, to the point that he was with Ellis more and with his wife less.

Richard even got called out for this by others, with it being pointed out that Richard was again having an affair with Ellis, albeit an emotional one this time. Since he’d had more than two decades to make amends for what he’d done, getting involved Ellis again was something that was hard to defend.