According to Entertainment Weekly, Knight left the show after having significantly less screen time than his co-stars this past season. Knight also cites a “breakdown of communication” between him and  Rhimes, who he claims is among those who discouraged him to come out.

“I think she was concerned about having my statement come out so close to the [initial] event,” said Knight.

Rhimes denies this claim, saying “I said, ‘If you want to come out, that’s awesome. We’ll totally support that.’”

The issue goes on stand Friday, July 24. Read a preview of the Entertainment Weekly article here.

A person with knowledge of contract negotiations with T.R. Knight, who plays George on the ABC drama and is openly gay, said Thursday the actor is leaving the show. The person, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly, asked not to be identified.

But the person said that negotiations with Katherine Heigl  were more successful and she’s expected to return as Izzie.

The season finale in May left the fate of George and Izzie unclear, with both characters at death’s door – or possibly beyond it.

A publicist for Knight declined comment. Heigl’s representative did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.

During the annual Television Critics Association press tour last week, Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes was questioned by reporters about various aspects of the show and its upcoming season, including the potential romantic relationship between Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith).

Her answers, while vague on plot details, nonetheless confirm that there will be a romantic relationship of some sort between Callie and Erica.

“We have a really interesting, wonderful, funny way of laying out the story of Callie and Erica that I’m pretty excited about, that I feel like is not necessarily your typical — if there can be a typical— your typical way of dealing with the storyline,” Rhimes told reporters.

While developing the story, Rhimes consulted GLAAD, who brought in openly gay writer-producers Nikki Weiss and Trish Doolan to answer questions about how they identified themselves (as lebian or bi), when were they first aware of their attraction to another woman, and whether they ever slept with a man to prove to themselves that they weren’t gay.

“What I love is we sat down with GLAAD and talked about women who figure out that they’re lesbians later in life and what that means,” Rhimes said, “and we really were able to find some really great, humorous and serious emotional stuff to play that’s going to feel really interesting and also affect their lives in the hospital.”

According to Rhimes, the new season will pick up with Callie pondering “what does it mean that she’s kissed a girl? Is she excited it about it?”

We’ll also finally get to see the experience from Erica’s point of view, as well. “We don’t really know Erica’s side of the story yet, in terms of what’s going on with the two of them,” Rhimes explained.

“We’re going to watch that play out and then we’re going to watch the larger world of what happens when the two of them come out in the hospital, and what happens when Callie’s dad finds out and that sort of thing, which I think is going to be really, really interesting.”