Patrick Dempsey has been off Grey’s Anatomy for more than five years, after 11 seasons as Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd. Yet, until today, little is known about the circumstances behind his high-profile departure. With the release of How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, that is changing. According to an excerpt from the unauthorized book, Dempsey was fired because of his apparent feuds with both costar Ellen Pompeo and creator Shonda Rhimes.

The book says McDreamy did not spread the McLove on the set of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

From 2005 through 2015, he was a series regular on Dr. Derek, where he played Dr. Derek. His love interest and later wife was played by Ellen Pompeo (Dr. Meredith Grey).

The book is dedicated to the “H.R. problems” that supposedly led to Dempsey’s departure from the show—and the tragic death of Dr. Derek Shepherd. Rice talked with costars and executive producers in attendance at the time.

Former executive producer James D. Parriott told the book’s author, Entertainment Weekly editor at large Lynette Rice, that “there were H.R. issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him.” Parriott continued, “He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people. The network and studio came down and we had sessions with them. I think he was just done with the show. He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and Shonda were at each other’s throats.”

Shonda Rhimes, the creator and previous showrunner of “Grey’s Anatomy,” was allegedly “protective” of Dempsey’s character Dr. Derek Shepherd (who was succeeded by Krista Vernoff as of season 14). Dempsey famously remarked that he was supposed to be “the ideal man.”

“It’s ten months, fifteen hours a day,” Dempsey says about his conduct on set, according to the book. “You never know your schedule, so your kid asks you, ‘What are you doing on Monday?’ And you go, ‘I don’t know,’ because I don’t know my schedule. Doing that for eleven years is challenging. But you have to be grateful because you’re well-compensated, so you can’t really complain because you don’t really have a right. You don’t have control over your schedule. So, you have to just be flexible.”

Producer Jeannine Renshaw addressed the conflict between Dempsey and his co-star Ellen Pompeo in particular. Renshaw told Rice, “There were times where Ellen was frustrated with Patrick and she would get angry that he wasn’t working as much. She was very big on having things be fair. She just didn’t like that Patrick would complain that ‘I’m here too late’ or ‘I’ve been here too long’ when she had twice as many scenes in the episode as he did. When I brought it up to Patrick, I would say, ‘Look around you. These people have been here since 6:30 a.m.’ He would go, ‘Oh, yeah.’”

When the producer reminded Dempsey that everyone had a busy schedule, he “got it,” she said, adding, “It’s just that actors tend to see things from their own perspective. He’s like a kid…. He’s the kid in class who wants to go to recess.”

Not all of Dempsey’s former employees, however, were unhappy about working with him; others said they understood his tough situation on set.

“Poor Patrick. I’m not defending his schtick. I like him, but he was the Lone Ranger. All of these actresses were getting all this power. All the rogue actresses would go running to Shonda and say, ‘Hey, Patrick’s doing this. Patrick’s late for work. He’s a nightmare.’ He was just shut out in the cold. His behavior wasn’t the greatest, but he had nowhere to go. He was so miserable. He had no one to talk to. When Sandra left, I remember him telling me, ‘I should’ve left then, but I stayed on because they showed me all this money. They just were dumping money on me.’”

Renshaw apparently “finally witnessed” the actor’s naughty behavior, which was “the final straw.”

“Shonda had to say to the network, ‘If he doesn’t go, I go.’ Nobody wanted him to leave, because he was the show,” Renshaw claimed. “Him and Ellen [Pompeo]. Patrick is a sweetheart. It messes you up, this business.”

There was no warm send-off, according to Rice’s account of Patrick Dempsey’s final day on the set of Grey’s Anatomy. “Dempsey completed his final hours of shooting on a rainy night,” she writes. “There was no goodbye party, no goodbye cake.”

“I left very quietly,” Dempsey tells her. “It was raining, which was really touching. I got in my Panamera, got in rush-hour traffic, and two hours later I was home.”