If you’ve tuned in to the hit ABC series “Grey’s Anatomy” season after season then chances are you’re probably rooting for one of the show’s many shippable couples. In fact, you might have even hoped for a romance between two characters that aren’t even dating! Case in point: Merlex.

Over the course of the long-running show, which will return to TV this fall with Season 13, fans have crossed their fingers for Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Alex (Justin Chambers) to take their friendship to the next level. And in Season 12 of the medical drama, audiences got so close when Meredith’s therapist asked the widow if she had feelings for Alex.

“Do I have feelings for Alex? That’s funny. No,” she said before bursting into laughter.

But according to the show’s executive producer Betsy Beers, the thought of Meredith and Alex dating isn’t a joke — at least, not to Merlex fans.

“I think there’s something about them where fans sometimes feel like that might be inevitable, so they’re getting ahead of it. So I don’t think it surprises me because I think it’s a logical place to go,” she told E! News during the 2016 ATX Television Festival.

“From my perspective, I understand the reaction because I think you also just love these two people and you want them both to be happy, and that’s a natural thing too,” she said. But Beers revealed there’s one problem with Meredith and Alex dating — and that’s that Alex and Jo (Camilla Luddington) aren’t currently an item.

“Then there’s so many Alex-Jo fans — like, the Alex-Jo fans are crazyballs!” the executive producer joked about just how strong that particular fan base is. And following the Season 12 finale, Alex-Jo shippers must be going insane after the bomb that got dropped.

In one of the last scenes of the finale, Jo revealed why she had turned down Alex’s marriage proposal: She’s already married! And the reason she’s still legally hitched? Well, that’s because Jo’s husband was abusive, which inspired her to run away. If Jo was to ask for a divorce, then her sadistic spouse would find her — and she doesn’t want that.

Are you a Merlex shipper? Or do you want to see Alex and Jo rekindle their romance? Sound off in the comments section below!​ “Grey’s Anatomy” will return to ABC with Season 13 in the fall.

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