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Owen Hunt, played by actor Kevin McKidd, is one of the longest running cast members on Grey’s Anatomy

Although the show was already a few years old when Owen came onto the scene, original cast members are fewer and farther between. After more than 10 years on Grey’s Anatomy, Owen Hunt’s character has been through a lot. After multiple failed relationships, fans have started to notice that the writers always seem to blame Owen when things go wrong in his life. According to a recent reddit thread, not all fans are on board. 

First, Owen Hunt married Cristina Yang 

Owen Hunt is famous for jumping into relationships, which usually leads to those relationships crashing and burning. Owen and Cristina Yang, another doctor at Grey Sloan Memorial, met in a romantic way. He saved her life after she was impaled by an icicle. But when he first arrived at Grey Sloan, Owen was in the Army. He never intended to stay on permanently. In fact, he was only written as a side character. Creator Shonda Rhimes changed her mind, and the rest is history. 

The seeds of Owen’s relationship with Cristina were planted in the very beginning of his arc on the show. There were sparks from day one, but Owen was dealing with some serious mental health issues, namely PTSD from his time in Iraq. Still, he and Cristina worked through it. However, they weren’t on the same page about children. When Cristina had an abortion, their relationship was basically over. In general, Owen seems to take most of the blame for his relationship with Cristina ending, but some fans think it was just a bad set of circumstances with no blame to place. As one fan on reddit wrote, “Yep, it’s not all his fault. He’s super broken but deep down not at all a bad person.”

Owen Hunt and Amelia Shepherd was doomed from the beginning 

KEVIN MCKIDD, CATERINA SCORSONE
KEVIN MCKIDD, CATERINA SCORSONE | Christopher Willard via Getty Images

His second marriage was to Derek Shepherd’s sister, Amelia Shepherd. Although Owen and Cristina dated for a long time, Owen and Amelia really jumped into their relationship too soon. Amelia was known for erratic behavior that was later blamed on a brain tumor, and both characters were fresh off of serious traumas. Derek Shepherd was not long in the grave, and Owen was fresh off another tour in Iraq. 

Owen’s relationship with Amelia failed spectacularly, as could have been predicted. Some fans feel that Owen took a lot of the blame for that failure, when really Amelia was a willing participant who shares at least some of the blame for their issues. In fact, one fan thinks that Amelia is almost entirely to blame for the end of their relationship. “He tried to make it work with Amelia, but she’s the one who acted like a child and ghosted him.”

Fans are split on Owen Hunt 

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Although Owen Hunt has his defenders, a lot of fans just downright don’t like him. One fan basically said Owen’s relationship problems are all on him, writing, “Ultimately, he just jumps in, wrecks someone’s life, and then deals with the fallout by finding another woman.”

But other fans think the show is too hard on Owen. Aside from relationship troubles, he also seems to take the blame for things that are entirely out of his control. One fan wrote “I think a lot of his failures in relationships were his fault, but you’re right in that sometimes people blame him for things like George dying or the plane crash and things that are kind of a stretch and weren’t entirely in his control.” Relationships take two, and it can’t be all Owen’s fault when his don’t work out.