Among the many characters who have left Grey's Anatomy is Jessica Capshaw's Arizona Robbins, but what happened to her and why did she leave?

Grey’s Anatomy has become known for the way it writes off some of its most popular characters, with its go-to solution being killing them, but what happened to Jessica Capshaw’s character, Arizona Robbins? The genre of medical drama is home to some of the most popular and successful TV shows in history, and one that has been dominating the screen for almost two decades is Grey’s Anatomy. The show’s combination of drama and comedy, as well as how deep it goes into its main character’s stories have been key to its success, but Grey’s Anatomy hasn’t been safe from controversies and bad moments, many of these coming from how some characters have been written off.

Over the course of more than 15 seasons, viewers have met a variety of characters working at Seattle Grace Hospital/Grey Sloane Memorial Hospital through Meredith Grey, who served as the series’ lead through most of its run. Meredith and the audience have seen the departure of a number of characters, of which many were killed while others were given rushed endings that left the audience wondering what truly happened to them in-universe and what happened behind the scenes. Falling into the latter category is Arizona Robbins, who left Grey’s Anatomy in season 14 after going through many ups and downs in her professional and personal life and even going through the traumatic experience of a horrible plane crash – but what truly happened to her?

Arizona Survived Grey’s Anatomy’s Season 8 Plane Crash

Arizona Robbins is the former Head of Fetal Surgery and Attending Pediatric Surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and she made her debut on Grey’s Anatomy season 5. Although Jessica Capshaw was originally contracted to appear in three episodes, she eventually became a series regular and a popular character among Grey’s Anatomy fans. Arizona became Callie Torres’ love interest after her storyline with Erica Hahn was cut short, and they eventually married, raising their daughter (and Mark Sloan’s daughter) Sofia together. Unfortunately, Arizona and Callie’s marriage didn’t last, and one of Grey’s Anatomy’s most traumatic moments played a big part in their marriage coming to an end: the plane crash.

In Grey’s Anatomy season 8, Meredith, Derek Shepherd, Cristina Yang, Mark Sloan, Lexie Grey, and Arizona were on their way to assist the surgery of conjoined twins at a hospital in Boise, but their plane crashed. Lexie was crushed by a piece of the plane and died minutes later, while Mark succumbed to his injuries days later. Cristina, Meredith, and Derek were also injured but they recovered, but Arizona’s leg was crushed, and back in Seattle, Callie attended to her injury but ended up amputating her leg. As Arizona blamed Callie for her amputation, their relationship deteriorated, and after other issues, they divorced.

Arizona Moved To New York With Sofia To Reunite Family

Arizona and Callie got into a custody battle when Callie told Arizona she wanted to move to New York with Penny and take Sofia with her, and as she didn’t want to be separated from her daughter, Arizona hired a lawyer and they went to court. Arizona won sole custody of Sofia, but she ended up sharing Sofia with Callie for everyone’s benefit. Some time later, Sofia moved back to Seattle, but she was unhappy and missed her friends, school, and Callie, and after learning all this, Arizona made the decision to move to New York so Sofia could be close to her and Callie, and so she left Grey’s Anatomy. Behind the scenes, Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew were fired in 2018 for “creative” reasons, and so Arizona Robbins wasn’t seen again.