Owen Hunt

"When the plane crashed, when I heard Cristina's plane had crashed, my first thought was that she was dead. And for a moment... I felt relieved. I felt terrible for feeling it, but it was there. And I always knew on some level she'd leave me, and I wasn't ready to be hurt like that. So if she was dead, we would stay frozen in time forever. And she'd be gone, but it wouldn't be so hard. It wouldn't be a choice, to walk away, to choose something else, to move to Switzerland and start another life. I was relieved that it was over with a minimum of damage, and I hate myself for that. So I am not perfect, Amelia. I can be selfish, and I can be scared, and I make things harder than I need to. I know I do. I make things hard for us."

- Owen Hunt to Amelia Shepherd

Owen Hunt is the Head of Trauma and former Chief of Surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (formerly Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital). He previously served in the army, but was honorably discharged due to the death of his entire platoon, and was later a large factor in George O'Malley's decision to enlist. He was romantically involved with Cristina Yang, but the two ended their relationship, due to their different opinions on having a family. He was later romantically involved with Amelia Shepherd, and eventually married her.

Early Life
Owen grew up in Seattle, living with his parents just 5 miles from Seattle Grace. As a child, he used to play soccer, playing left defender. He attended Harvard. He did his residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and then worked at Maryland Shock Trauma before enlisting in the army and becoming an army trauma surgeon.

First Army Tour
When Richard Webber offered Owen a job, he initially declined because he hadn't finished his army tour in Iraq.

Beginning Relationship with Cristina and PTSD
When Owen first came to Seattle Grace, to care for his patients as a Major, he and Cristina had an instant bond. At the same time, Cristina had slipped and been impaled with an icicle, so she was admitted to the hospital as a patient. Owen was there to pull it out and then later kiss her. He then returned after a short time and Cristina and Owen started dating. Cristina first started seeing signs of Owen's ongoing PTSD when Owen had a terrible nightmare due to the blades of the ceiling fan spinning, which was what he last saw before he feel asleep. In his sleep, Owen was strangling Cristina almost to the point of her death. Callie woke up due to the noise just as Owen woke up. It was later revealed in his nightmare Owen was trying to save himself.

Owen immediately wanted to break up with Cristina, due to his sorrow and fear that he might do something like that again to her. Cristina fought it, saying that she was fine and understood why he did what he did. But later, after they had sex for the first time, Cristina admitted she couldn't take it, causing them to break up.

Hospital Shooting
While Cristina and Jackson were trying to save Derek's life after he was shot, the shooter shot Owen. Cristina told Meredith to take him to another OR and get the bullet out.

Cristina's Abortion and Becoming Chief
When Cristina got pregnant, she stuck to her point of never wanting children and refused to have a proper discussion about with Owen, as she thinks a child should only be welcomed into a family where both parents want it. Thus, she scheduled an appointment for abortion. He got angry about her decision and the fact that she didn't include him in it and threw her out of their house.

Owen teamed up with Derek, who split up with Meredith over her tampering with his trial, and they started working on Derek's dreamhouse while both claiming not to care about their wives anymore. Owen avoided Cristina and her calls, not knowing that she wanted to tell him she hadn't gotten the abortion yet. He heard about this from Meredith, who told him that Cristina couldn't do it because of her love for him. If Cristina were to have a child, she'd almost be killed pretending to love the kid as much as she loves surgery, which would also kill the kid. Meredith pointed out that she knows what it feels like to be raised by a Cristina and she made Owen realize that the guilt of resenting her own kid would eat Cristina, the woman he loves, alive.

Meredith's speech and the fact that Cristina didn't have the abortion yet made Owen stop resenting Cristina. He searched for Cristina and asked her to sit down with him and talk. She asked him to postpone, as she was in the middle of trying to fix Meredith's abduction of Zola. Owen agreed and went to check up on Danny Wilson, who made him realize that sometimes in a marriage, it's best to forget things and move on if the love is strong enough. He realized that that was the case in his marriage too. He and Cristina finally found time to talk and he asked her when the abortion appointment was. It was scheduled right then. "Let's go," he said, making her cry, because she finally felt like he understood her. In the doctor's office, an emotional Cristina assured the doctor she really wanted the abortion. The doctor then started the procedure, during which Owen held her hand.

Relationship Troubles With Cristina and Fallout with Teddy
They didn't talk after the abortion, having them struggle to find normalcy in their relationship again, as they were only able to have some small talk about dinner. Owen got promoted to Chief of Surgery, giving him even more professional duties. He and Cristina ordered Chinese from a bad restaurant, rendering them both sick on the bathroom floor and bringing them a little closer together.

However, just because he showed up for her at the abortion, Owen still was mad at Cristina for doing it. They avoided talking about it by just having sex. At Zola's birthday party, an argument about their work caused all of his frustrations to come. He yelled that she shattered all his hopes and dreams and the kind of life that he envisioned for himself, ultimately yelling in front of all their friends that she killed their baby.

They avoided each other until Valentine's Day, when he saved her from being hit by a van crashing into the ER. She thanked him, but he nodded shortly and left her. Later that day, he told her he'd be moving out. This made her cry and she realized that she did not want him to leave her. She found him in the vent room and begged him (which she had refused to do) not to hate her, finally making physical contact again after weeks of avoiding each other.

They decided to go into couple's therapy, but they only ended up screaming at each other about their flaws and what they had been through, not making actual progress and putting them in a bad place again. This caused Owen to sleep with a woman he met at the hospital, a friend of his patient. He initially didn't tell Cristina, but her intuition told her he was sleeping with someone. After she couldn't find proof, she told him they needed to talk because it was driving her crazy, to the point that she suspected him to be cheating on her with nurse Emily. He said it hurt to love her and that he did not cheat on her with Emily, but that he did cheat on her.

A mad Cristina then started ignore him for days, finally communicating again when she outed her anger by throwing her bowl of cereal in his face. They later stayed home, pretending to have the flu, because Cristina wanted to hear about the cheating. He didn't want to talk about it in order not to hurt her, but she forced him to do it anyway. After a day of talking, it turned out that Owen, possibly subconsciously, did it in order to hurt Cristina back for the abortion. Cristina then threw him out of their firehouse, but eventually let him move back in as she was staying at Meredith's to study for the boards.

Plane Crash Lawsuit
After the plane crash survivors decided to not settle and sue instead, the hospital was at fault and originally, the insurance was supposed to pay the survivors, but after it was realized that only two attendings were allowed on a mediplane, the insurance company wouldn't pay, leaving the hospital to declare bankruptcy. Owen wanted Pegasus to buy the hospital, but in the end the plane crash survivors and Callie bought the hospital with the settlement money, plus additional funding from the Harper Avery Foundation.

Desire to Have Children
Owen has always had a desire to have children, but when Cristina got pregnant, she wanted to terminate the pregnancy. This led to relationship troubles because Owen always assumed that Cristina would want to have a family as well, despite having been told that she didn't want kids. Despite their difference of opinions, Owen went with Cristina when she had the abortion. Although it seemed as if Owen forgave Cristina, several months later, he called her out for "killing their baby" in front of all of their friends. To get revenge on Cristina for having an abortion, Owen cheated on her. Their relationship had difficulties after that, even leading to them living in different states, and they ultimately divorced.

Letting Go of Cristina
After Russell quit, Owen contemplated giving Cristina the job of Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery so she wouldn't leave for Zurich. He had her do interviews with other candidates and while they were all fine, she didn't think one stood out. He reminded her they couldn't all be as good as her. At the end of the day, she still hadn't picked anyone and he said the Harper Avery Foundation was looking for a way to mend fences, and he suggested a large infusion of cash into the cardio department. Cristina figured out he wanted to offer her the job and told him not to. He confessed he had wanted to, but he realized she had to go. He only asked not to leave him until she was actually leaving. She agreed to this and they shared a kiss, briefly rekindling their romance once again.

After a few weeks, the day came for Cristina's departure. She slept over that night to have one great night together, but promised to meet him at the hospital for their own big goodbye. Cristina left to get a European charger for her phone at the mall, and later Owen saw on the news that the mall was supposedly bombed. While handling the crisis at the hospital, he feared Cristina got hurt, but she turned out fine at the hospital. However, they never found time to talk as he had to handle the crisis and media attention all the while treating patients who suffered from chemical burns. The big goodbye resulted in Cristina appearing in the gallery as Owen was appearing. They shared a loving look and she waved, disappearing after he turned to the patient for a few seconds.

Owen dove into work to occupy his mind. Unbeknownst to him, April tried to look out for him, thinking Owen was dying inside, and encouraged his male colleagues to be there for him. Owen didn't really appreciate the attention as he just had to deal with Cristina being gone on his own without extra attention.

Maggie, who had replaced Cristina, took on solving the cause of the McNeil's cardiac malfunction and eventually found the cause to be a genetic mutation, which only recently had been discovered, so Cristina couldn't possibly have found it out at the time. Tying up that loose end that Cristina left behind helped Owen to get more closure.

Owen teamed up with Callie to turn her research about robotic limbs into a project to help disabled veterans. He confessed to Callie that since Cristina, who was his family, was living her life happily without him, he needed something to get up in the morning and find new dreams. Cristina helped him get over the darkness that the Army left in him and he needed something to beat it back by doing something good.

Getting Closer to Amelia
Owen eventually grew closer with Amelia, and slept with her in a on-call room. They soon got involved in a romantic relationship.

Derek's Death, Army Tour, and Relationship with Amelia
Owen was one of the first people to hear about Derek's death when Meredith returned to the hospital. He admitted her after she lost consciousness and worried about Amelia's reaction, only to find out no one had told her as she was in surgery. He waited until she was done to deliver the news, with her already deriving from his facial expression that someone died. She claimed she was okay, having gone through it all before, and rejected his attempt to comfort her. Around Easter, a few weeks after Derek's death, Owen got an opportunity to do another Army tour. Owen accepted as he wanted to get away from it all, with Richard taking over his Chief duties at the hospital, and his talks about the Army convinced April to join him. Owen returned in the beginning of the next year, only to find Amelia in the middle of a mental breakdown at the hospital. He found her later at Derek and Meredith's house, where she confessed that she scored oxy from a junkie doctor and that she was seriously considering taking it. Owen got through to her and made her realize that she shouldn't be managing her feelings or run away from them; she should allow herself to feel the pain, as that's the normal and human thing to do. As he pointed out, taking the oxy would cause her to spiral out of control. She handed him the oxy and she broke down in his arms as he comforted her.

Owen shortly resumed his position as Chief of Surgery, only to reveal he was stepping down as he felt it was time for something else. Owen clashed with Jackson over an experimental procedure on a victim of a tunnel collapse and Owen pulled it off. It turned out well in the end, but Jackson still thought Owen got lucky. They talked about April, who changed after returning, and Owen concluded that's what often happens after an Army tour. It's what made him realize he didn't want to be Chief anymore, too.

Owen also worked on Keith, the man who got trapped in his crushed car after the tunnel collapse. Afterwards, he talked with Amelia. He misinterpreted what she said about something working out for a patient as if it was about two of them, and awkwardly left. He later found her sitting by herself in Meredith's bedroom. She received Meredith's old phone with Derek's last voice mail message, but couldn't bring herself to hit play. Owen did that for her and wanted to give her privacy, but she preferred him to stay. They listened to the message. Amelia got emotional, but she assured Owen she was okay. They returned to the party and danced it out.

After three months, Owen and Amelia were still doubtful as to in what kind of relationship they were. Owen had concert tickets and wanted to invite Amelia, but he wasn't sure if he should. He asked Callie for advice, and she told him he was overthinking it. In surgery, Owen noticed tension between Meredith and Amelia, because of their fight over whether or not to tear down a wall at the house the three sisters were sharing. At the end of the day, Owen had to give Amelia a ride home as Meredith, with whom Amelia carpooled to work, left without her. As he dropped her off, he told her he didn't mind giving her a ride and kissed her. As Amelia wondered what that meant, Maggie came outside and dragged Amelia inside, leaving Owen outside on the front porch.

The abrupt interruption left Owen to wonder what the kiss meant as he asked her out and Amelia spent the next day ignoring him. He vented his worries to April, but she was concerned about her own marriage and simply told him to go talk to Amelia. Owen ended up on an elevator with Amelia and asked her if she was angry or confused. She told the latter. Owen asked to talk, but she says that would just lead to them kissing again without them even knowing why. They wondered about what it meant, and just ended up kissing again.

Owen was invited to the sisters' dinner party, and Callie suggested they drive there together after her consult was done. He was dressed casually and she reminded him Amelia was there, suggesting to dress up more. They arrived, only to find a quiet and cold dinner party as Meredith just revealed Penny, Callie's girlfriend, was the one who killed Derek. Amelia got angry at Meredith for not informing her before about who Penny was and they yelled at each other. A frustrated Meredith yelled at Owen to get Amelia out of her sight. Owen took Amelia to her room where she calmed down. She wondered how he could always stayed calm, but he pointed out he was far from perfect. He confessed that when he heard Cristina's plane crashed, he was briefly relieved, because he'd always known she was going to leave him one day and if she died, they'd just be frozen in time forever without any painful or messy break-up. He pointed out he always makes things harder than they should be, them included. They agreed it wasn't the worse thing not to be perfect and snuggled on the bed.

Rivalry with Riggs
A few days later, Owen was at work when he encountered Nathan Riggs in the ambulance bay. Nathan informed him he worked with April back in Jordan and that he was here with a kid that required Jackson's expertise. Due to their obviously negative history, Owen made it clear that he didn't want Riggs around and told him to leave immediately after the surgery.

After a night shift, Owen was woken up by Amelia as she laid down with him in the on-call room. They cuddled and talked about her day until he got paged away. In the ER, he found Nathan working on one of Maggie's patient, much to his and Maggie's surprise. They went to Bailey, who revealed she had hired Nathan and simply forgot to tell Maggie. Owen went to Meredith to ask her how she could work with Penny given their horrible history, and he concluded he simply couldn't do what she was doing. Nathan being around triggered Owen's PTSD and intern Isaac found Owen hallucinating and shaking in an on-call room. Owen snapped out of it and told Nathan to leave. At the end of the day, Bailey wanted to introduce everyone to Nathan, but Owen made it clear they already knew each other. Owen stated Bailey made a mistake hiring him and blamed her, saying she should've asked around before hiring a complete stranger. Bailey offered to go talk it out, but he said it was done. He went to the ambulance bay to cool down and refused to talk to Amelia when she came over to try and help him. Meredith tried as well and he told her he didn't want to talk. Meredith revealed she promised Cristina not to let him get all dark and twisty and to be his person if he needed one. Owen said he didn't want to talk, but all Meredith needed to know was if they were hating Nathan. Owen nodded and replied that they were really, really hating him.

A few days and night shifts later, Amelia tried to talk to Owen, but he blocked her off and stated he was fine, yet he still had a hateful look in his eyes every time he saw Nathan. That day, lots of burned firefighters came in, one of which was John, Owen's mother's boyfriend. Owen found out when his mother appeared in the ER, looking for John. Owen checked John's chart and saw Meredith and Nathan were operating on him. He angrily went to the OR and requested that Maggie replace Nathan, but Nathan refused to leave per his request as he didn't work for Owen. Owen was forced to leave as he couldn't give a valid reason. Amelia noticed he was really bothered by Nathan working on John and asked why. Owen said he simply didn't want Nathan around his family and took off. Owen later argued with his mother, who didn't seem to have a problem with Nathan. Amelia chased after him afterwards and again offered his help, but he firmly stated he didn't want her help on this. Owen and Nathan ran into each other in the ICU. Nathan tried to talk to him, mentioning he talked to "ma", Owen's mother. Owen told him to run far away and never come near his family again. Nathan replied they were his family too, which lead to Owen's punching Nathan twice. He said they weren't his family and took off. The news quickly spread. Meredith found Owen outside on a bench and told him Bailey was looking for him. She said he was getting himself in trouble. He replied he knew. Meredith then revealed she talked to his mother, saying she knew about his sister.

Cristina Yang
Owen managed to impress Cristina as soon as they met, having performed an emergency-tracheotomy in the field with a pen, and later closing up the gash in his leg with a staple gun without any kind of anesthesia. Later the same night, Owen found Cristina lying outside the hospital, having been impaled through the abdomen by a falling icicle. He carried her inside and treated her, eventually removing the icicle, and the two bonded. After Owen had taken care of Cristina, Dr. Webber offered him a job, but Owen turned down the offer as he was expected to return to Iraq. He left the hospital that night, but not before surprising Cristina with a passionate kiss that left her completely taken aback.

Owen returned to Seattle two months later, having been honorably discharged from the army, and took a job as the new Head of Trauma Surgery at Seattle Grace. Cristina first avoided him, but after he had seemingly even forgotten her name, calling her "Christine", she confronted him. Owen then told her about his platoon's demise and explained that while he remembered her name, that belonged to the past, and he was now living in the present. Owen then kept his distance to Cristina and tried to act professionally towards her, but couldn't hide his jealousy as Mark Sloan was constantly trying to hit on her, or his anger when he heard Sloan call her "bad, cheap wine." Owen himself compared her to a single malt scotch.

When Owen questioned Cristina's motives on doing surgery, she opened up to him and told him the story of her father's death, which encouraged Owen to start moving closer. However, after a patient who became special to Owen died, he found himself arguing with her outside Joe's and then kissing her passionately, almost violently. This caused the two to avoid each other again, until Owen showed up outside her house on the doorstep and told her that he thought she was beautiful. A little later Cristina was upset for not getting the solo surgery, so Owen took her to the Vent, which cheered her up and the two kissed.

As Owen's moods continued to swing, Cristina snapped at him and told him to stop his hot and cold act. Owen responded with asking her out, but in the evening he was so nervous that he went to get a drink, ultimately showing up on her doorstep hours late and drunk. Cristina was angry at first, but after Owen, who was standing in her shower fully clothed and shoes on, told her about his best and worst surgery ever, she softened, came to the shower with him and started to take off his wet clothes. Owen then passed out and woke up next morning, naked in Cristina's bed, where Callie then found him. Later that day Callie told him not to give up on her too easily, and he confronted Cristina, asking her to give him another chance, which she did.

After this, their relationship was mostly centered around stolen touches and glances from across the room and although they flirted, it stopped when Owen's secret ex-fiancée Beth appeared at Seattle Grace, where her father was admitted. This caused Owen to have a panic attack and Cristina calmed him down, which resulted in Owen falling asleep on top of her in an on-call room and Cristina smiling happily as she held him in her arms. Though Cristina was wary at first after learning of Beth's identity, she and Owen moved on and he soon confessed that he wanted to be around her for the rest of his life.

Cristina and Owen started spending nights together - though they still hadn't had sex - but were soon confronted by new problems: Owen's PTSD from his time in Iraq started to manifest itself as violent nightmares and hypnagogic hallucinations. Ultimately, one night Owen fell asleep next to Cristina in her bed, and the spinning blades of the ceiling fan above the bed reminded him of helicopter blades, which caused him to have an hallucination and strangle Cristina in the middle of a nightmare. Cristina was rescued by Callie, who was alarmed by the noise coming from the bedroom, and Owen woke up, having no idea what was going on. He then broke down crying and begged for forgiveness, and Cristina - despite Meredith and Callie's resistance - forgave him, saying his PTSD is a war wound and not his fault. Soon after this they made love for the first time in an on-call room, but Cristina realized that she's afraid to fall asleep in his arms, and broke up with him. After this, Owen started to see Dr. Wyatt, who helped him name and express his emotions and recognize the triggers to his PTSD (such as the blades of the ceiling fan). As Owen was further torn apart by his feelings for Cristina which he couldn't express because he thought it would be cruel to do so, Dr. Wyatt taught him to use three word sentences as substitutes to the three words he wanted to say the most (I love you). As Owen continued to avoid her and only spoke to her with brief three word sentences, Cristina became more and more confused and annoyed. When she finally confronted him in front of the hospital, he explained what the speaking in three word sentences meant and told her that he was trying to make things right by letting her go. Cristina then told him to "take care now" (I love you) and left.

As his therapy progressed, Owen started to move closer to Cristina, but she seemed to withdraw, asking him about finally going to visit his mother and telling her that he was back from Iraq. This caused Owen to ponder things and he came to the conclusion that at heart, his problems were caused by his unfinished business in Iraq. He then told Cristina that he was returning to the army, but she gave no support to the idea, later telling him: "I don't want you to die." She then convinced him to abandon the idea of returning to the army and go visit his mother with her instead. After seeing his mother, Owen was able to sleep without nightmares, and with the violent dreams now gone, he and Cristina decided to get back together.

Later, Cristina was missing a cardio attending to teach her, so Owen brought over his fellow army surgeon, Dr. Teddy Altman, as a gift for Cristina. Teddy began to mentor Cristina, and, after a rough start, the two got along well. As it turned out, however, Teddy's presence caused a lot of trouble for Cristina and Owen, as she and Owen had had feelings for each other in the army without the other knowing. After this matter was revealed, Cristina was willing to stand aside, but Owen assured her that he only wanted her. This caused Teddy to think about leaving the hospital, and Cristina, whose workaholic nature had been awoken by the motivation of working with Teddy, offered her an exchange in panic: if Teddy stayed, she could have Owen. Teddy then told Owen about the offer and he confronted Cristina, telling her that their relationship matters and she doesn't get to toss him aside like that. Cristina, however, remained uncertain and eventually broke up with him, telling him that until he had made his choice, the two of them had no business together.

The triangle between Owen, Cristina, and Teddy wasn't settled until the hospital was invaded by the murderous gunman Gary Clark. Owen and Teddy made it out of the hospital with a patient, but after realizing that Cristina was still inside, Owen made his decision and ran back to the hospital to find her. He then found Cristina in an OR where she was operating on Derek, who had been shot earlier, with Jackson, Meredith, and April - and with Gary Clark holding his gun against her head, ordering her to stop operating. Owen then tried to distract the gunman from Cristina, even yelling to him as he was about to shoot her: "That is the woman that I love. You shoot her, you touch her, and I will kill you!" The situation became even more dangerous when Meredith stood up, ordering the gunman to kill her instead of Derek. As the barrel of the gun moved to Meredith, Owen jumped towards Clark, forcing the shooter to shoot him instead of Meredith. After the gunman had gone, Cristina, not knowing the extent of his injuries, urged Meredith to save Owen. Luckily, it turned out the bullet had only pierced his shoulder, and in the wake of the disaster, Owen and Cristina got back together.

After the shooting, Cristina suffered from PTSD and Owen took care of her, eventually proposing to her. Not long after, they got married in front of all their friends in a ceremony held at Meredith's and moved in together, purchasing an old firehouse that they decorated. Cristina later found out that she was pregnant with their child. Owen was thrilled, but Cristina, not wanting to become a mother, told him that she was going to have an abortion. Owen tried unsuccessfully to talk her out of it, and ultimately kicked her out of their home for failing to give him a voice in the matter. However, Cristina found herself unable to go through with the abortion without Owen's support, which alarmed Meredith, who, after telling him what sort of miserable future would await both Cristina and the child if she kept it, convinced Owen to let Cristina have the abortion. Owen held Cristina's hand during the procedure, but the moment seemed bittersweet and involuntary.

It soon became clear that Owen was not okay with it. He and Cristina grew apart, he became more and more distant and silent, until the situation finally exploded during Zola's birthday party. Owen and Cristina got into a huge argument in front of all of their friends, which ended with Owen accusing Cristina of killing their baby. After this, the situation only grew worse, and during a session with a marriage counselor, it became clear that they both failed to understand each other's point of view on the baby issue.

Owen's discomfort and anxiety eventually led him to getting drunk and having a one night stand with a patient's friend. He confessed his infidelity to Cristina, who had earlier suspected him of having an affair with nurse Emily Kovach, which completely devastated her. Owen moved out of the firehouse and Cristina started to plan to move to Minnesota and accept the fellowship offer at Mayo Clinic. However, before leaving, she slept with Owen one last time, forgiving his infidelity.

After Cristina and the others had been rescued from the forest in the wake of the plane crash, Owen promised to take care of Cristina, who was in a psychosis. He took her to the firehouse and managed to get her to speak. After she had fully recovered, she left for Minnesota to pursue her fellowship, while Owen stayed back in Seattle to continue his role as Chief of Surgery. After Cristina's mentor, Dr Thomas died, she returned to Seattle and tried to make efforts to reconcile with Owen. Due to a lawsuit against the plane company, Owen asked Cristina for a divorce, which would help the surgeons with their trial. Cristina then told Owen she wanted to try again and he agreed, but they still went through with the divorce for the sake of the lawsuit. Their newfound happiness was short-lived, however, as the arrival of 10-year-old Ethan Dawson, with whom Owen bonded, made it very clear that Owen still wanted children. Cristina then realized that she would never be able to give Owen what he desires, so she left him during the super storm that hit Seattle.

After the storm, Owen and Cristina faced the tough challenge of staying apart, and even though they ended up having sex - more than once - Cristina was determined to stick to her decision. Upon realizing that they could never detach themselves from one another as long as they let things stay the way they were, Cristina suggested that they'd start seeing other people in order to let go of each other, and Owen reluctantly agreed. Later, during GSMH's fundraiser gala, Owen met Dr. Emma Marling, with whom he started flirting. Cristina, witnessing the situation, left the scene with a downhearted expression on her face, leaving Owen with the other woman. Emma and Owen's relationship becomes quite serious and they even consider moving in together. However, after another emotional encounter with Cristina, Owen breaks up with Emma realizing that he wants to have a future with a woman who shares an equal passion for surgery as she does for children. After he breaks up with Emma, Cristina tries to help him find someone else.

Teddy Altman
Owen and Teddy met while they both were army surgeons. Both developed hidden feelings for one another. Owen brought her to Seattle Grace-Mercy West as a present for Cristina, claiming her to be the "cardio goddess", and Teddy later works out that Owen brought her as a present for his girlfriend, appearing more surprised by the fact Cristina was his girlfriend. She later would admit that she believed that if Owen broke up with his (ex) fiancée, Beth, he would have called her. Upon finding out, Owen became conflicted and almost kissed Teddy in a closet, but realized that he loved Cristina.

Beth Whitman
Owen was engaged to a woman named Beth, but in the army, he broke it off in a two line email. She was always too emotional and attached to everything & everyone for him to handle. When he visited Seattle Grace, he kissed Cristina, but left (though he was single at the time).

Emma Marling
Owen met Emma during GSMH's fundraiser gala and began flirting with her after seeing Cristina flirt with another possible donor. During the evening, he found out that she is actually an attending perinatologist from Seattle Pres trying to gain some money for her hospital by taking advantage of GSMH's gala, but he didn't seem to mind. At the end of the evening, she came to see Owen at the hospital.

Owen and Emma kept in touch after the evening, and she even baked him banana bread for work, which caused Callie to begin teasing him by calling Emma his girlfriend. At first Owen denied being in a relationship with her, but after it became clear to all that the two had something going on, he admitted dating her to a couple people. He didn't tell Emma about his history with Cristina, and she later found out about their past from her while visiting the hospital. Emma then realized that Owen wasn't ready to date just yet and said goodbye to him, telling him to call her when he's ready to move on. After talking with Callie and April and receiving some advice from Cristina, Owen eventually called her and told her he was ready to move on. They continued dating, and later Emma was offered a job at GSMH. Though Owen was excited about the idea, Emma turned down the offer, not wanting to work at the same hospital with Owen in case something bad were to happen between them.

As their relationship became more serious, Owen and Emma discussed getting a place together and the possibility of marriage. Emma told Owen of her plans to become a stay-at-home mom and raise her children. However, later that same day, Cristina came to the trailer drunk and she and Owen slept together. Owen broke up with Emma the next day, saying they wanted different things, but leaving out that he had cheated on her. Emma was devastated.

Cristina and Owen continued a deep friendship with each other until Cristina left for Switzerland.

Amelia Shepherd
Following Cristina's departure, Owen focused on his work and was skeptical about getting back to the dating game, despite him and Callie constantly encouraging each other to do so. However, he soon began to bond with Amelia, of whom he felt protective after a distraught patient revealed her past drug-addiction to the entire hospital, upsetting and humiliating her. When Jackson and April's baby died, he held her hand as she opened up to him about her own deceased baby, and the two developed feelings for each other.

Having been out of the dating game for so long, Owen was hesitant about making a move on her. He was constantly cautious and nervous around her, stammering his way through discussions with her. It wasn't until Amelia - just as helpless as him - came to visit him with a bottle of water that he finally took action and kissed her. A little later, after some failed attempts, they slept together for the first time.

Problems soon arose, however, as Amelia began to fear that mixing professional and personal lives together would eventually result in a disaster. After a risky procedure to which Owen had given his consent went wrong, Amelia freaked out, believing that he only sided with her because of his personal feelings, and ended the relationship. The two then spent the following year apart, due to Owen going on another tour in Iraq after Derek's death. He returned to find Amelia, to whom he had had to break the news of her brother's demise a year before, completely shut down, refusing to deal with her grief. Upon learning that she was on the verge of relapsing again, he helped her open up and deal with her emotions.

The two continued to grow very close, to the point where Amelia decided to propose to Owen, telling him that despite the fact that marriage may be too soon, she was sure that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

Evelyn Hunt
Evelyn is Owen's mother, with whom he has a close relationship. After returning from Iraq as a changed man, he initially refused to see his mother, instead calling her once a week as if he were still in Iraq. The reason for this was that he feared that she would look at him like a ghost, as he was no longer the son she sent to war. Cristina, however, finally convinced him to meet her, and in the end, Evelyn still loved him as before.

Owen is also fiercely protective of his mother, as proven when he learned that she was dating a man young enough to be his brother. He also told Nathan Riggs to stay away from her, even punching him when he claimed that she was his family as well.

Nathan Riggs
Owen and his sister met Nathan in med school, where the two men became the best of friends, almost brothers to each other. This also lead to Nathan becoming romantically involved with Megan, enough to make him think of the Hunts as his family. He and Owen had a falling out, however, caused by Owen blaming Nathan for allowing Megan on a helicopter that disappeared, and hadn't seen each other for years until Nathan began to work at Grey Sloan Memorial. Whatever the specific connection and circumstances, Owen hates him with a fiery passion, enough to interfere with his work.

Megan Hunt
Megan is Owen's sister, whose existence none of his co-workers and friends knew of until his feud with Nathan became apparent. He barely speaks of her, but has revealed to Amelia that she was three years younger than him, smarter, funnier, and a better person than him. The two were apparently very close, as Megan was described as doing everything her older brother did, even following in his footsteps to med school.

Derek Shepherd
Owen and Derek were at odds as soon as they met: Derek was telling the wife of one of the men Owen had rescued from the limousine accident that her husband would never walk again, when Owen walks in, trashes Derek's prognosis and suggests therapeutic hypothermia, which could possibly make the man walk again. Derek wasn't too happy about the new guy's interference, so when Owen was given a job at Seattle Grace, Derek was very dubious about his new colleague. The two eventually bonded, however, as Derek gave Owen advice on how to deal with the unique relationship between Meredith and Cristina, and eventually Derek, Owen and Mark became friends. Owen even asked Derek to be his best man in his wedding. Derek was honored, but couldn't make it to the wedding because he spent the night in jail after speeding, but Owen didn't seem to mind that he wasn't able to attend the ceremony.

After the plane crash and the death of Mark Sloan, Derek held a grudge against Owen, as he blamed him for putting them on a poor plane that crashed. Cristina urged Derek to forgive him, but he was unable to do so, which eventually lead to Owen quitting. It was only after Cristina's interference that Derek realized the source of his anger. He went to apologize to Owen and told him that it wasn't him that he was mad at; it was Mark. Owen accepted his apology and advised him to let go of his anger.

When Owen began dating Amelia, Derek was very supportive of them. When he died, Owen, having lost yet another friend, left Seattle and joined another tour in Iraq in order to escape the feeling of loss. When he returned, he and Amelia mourned Derek together.

Mark Sloan
Mark took an instant dislike to Owen after Owen refused to allow him to do a consult on a burn patient. Shortly after, Mark was angered with him because he let Karev use skin glue, and was complaining (with Derek) that the patient could have lost half of his face. Despite this initial argument, Owen and Mark later bonded and were quite good friends until Mark's death.

Callie Torres
Owen and Callie were on good terms since the beginning, and Callie was one of the first people to notice the spark between him and Cristina. After an awkward encounter, when Callie found Owen standing naked in Cristina's bedroom after their failed first date, she and Owen bonded as they operated on Mark's penile fracture, and Callie even gave Owen advice on how to appease Cristina after the date fiasco.

After Callie had stopped Owen from strangling Cristina to death in his sleep, Callie and Meredith didn't allow Owen to approach Cristina for a while, but after the incident had been forgiven, Callie and Owen stayed on good terms. After the plane crash, they became friends as they relied on each other during the bad times of their relationships.

Ethan Dawson
Ethan, a 10-year-old boy, came to the hospital after a car accident that had left both of his parents in critical condition. He almost instantly bonded with Owen, who took care of him while his parents were in surgery. After his father Paul fell into a coma and mother Rachel died of a seizure, Owen comforted Ethan, and when he was rushed to the ER after overdozing on his grandmother Nancy's sleeping pills, Owen expressed deep, almost paternal concern of his wellbeing. When Nancy told Owen that she was considering giving Ethan into custody because she was not capable of taking care of him, he found himself considering whether he should adopt him. After asking (and receiving) advice from Meredith, Owen decided to go for it, but before he could proceed, Cristina managed to wake Paul, reuniting Ethan with his father. Owen then ordered them to be transferred to Seattle Press to safety from a super storm that was approaching Seattle.

Meredith Grey
Meredith and Owen share a turbulent relationship and they often clash, mainly because of their different views on Cristina and what's best for her. After the strangling incident, Meredith was very protective of Cristina and had a lukewarm demeanor toward Owen for a long time. With time, however, she began to soften to Owen, and at his and Cristina's wedding, she finally accepted Owen and told Cristina that he was "perfect".

After Owen allowed Cristina to quit being a surgeon in the wake of the hospital shooting, Meredith was furious at Owen for letting Cristina "completely fall apart". This lead to a huge argument, with Meredith claiming to know what Cristina needs better than Owen, and Owen reminding Meredith that Cristina isn't her. After the argument, the two were on very cold terms.

When Owen and Cristina had a fight over the abortion of their baby, Meredith said to Owen that she was raised herself by a Cristina and that the guilt of resenting her own kid would almost kill Cristina. Owen then decided to support his wife in her decision, although he didn't completely deal with it. In the wake of the abortion, Owen and Cristina were very distant, which eventually lead Cristina to fear that Owen was cheating on her. When she mentioned it to Meredith, she reassured her friend that it was highly unlikely that Owen was cheating. In the end, however, Cristina's fears became real, and Meredith advised Cristina to leave Owen, calling him "a pig".

After the plane crash and Cristina's move to Minnesota, Meredith and Owen became closer again, as they both missed Cristina. After her return, Owen and Meredith were on good terms. Owen even turned to Meredith for advice during his inner struggle on wheather he should adopt Ethan or not, and Meredith kindly listened to him and, surprisingly, encouraged him to proceed with the matter, even though she knew Cristina would never like the idea.

After Cristina's departure, Owen and Meredith became friends, Meredith having promised to Cristina to look out for him. When he became moody following Nathan Riggs' arrival at the hospital, she was the only person he allowed near him, shutting even Amelia out. Meredith then became the first person to find out about Owen's secret sister.

April Kepner
When Kepner showed potential as a trauma surgeon, Owen became her teacher, and when she had hard time being the Chief Resident, he gave her advice on how to stop being an administrator and start being the leader. When April failed her boards, Owen had to fire her, though he later realized what a mistake that was and flew all the way to Ohio to re-hire April. Since that, Owen and April have made a good team in trauma and have become friends, with Owen consoling and supporting her during her second pregnancy, and April being his best man at his wedding to Amelia.

George O'Malley


When George and Alex were on his service, he discovered that George got calmer under pressure and told him that trauma should be his specialty. He assigned George to his service for a month. George took a shine to Owen and vice-versa and Owen hugged him, upon hearing that he was enlisting in the army.

Alex Karev
When Owen came to work at Seattle Grace, Alex admired him but did not know whether to be on his side or Mark and Derek's. For a short while he stayed on Owen's service but after discovering George's raw talent, Owen paid more attention to George and his relationship with Alex did not advance.

Izzie Stevens
Izzie took an instant dislike to Owen, after he stabbed six pigs for the residents to save, in order to learn to work with "live tissue." She was not put on his service after that and neither really spoke to or about the other.

Miranda Bailey
Following Meredith and Cristina's fight, Owen bonded with Derek and people began to warm-up to him. When Derek started to suffer from depression, Bailey sent Callie and Owen to the woods to bring Derek. Owen initially refused but when she started to stare him down he said, "People don't usually say no to you, do they?"

After Owen became the Chief of Surgery, Bailey gave him a hard time, but eventually, Owen won her over. When Owen talked about his infidelity with Meredith, Bailey overheard the conversation and later showed compassion towards Owen, telling him that "You did a terrible thing. It doesn't mean you're a terrible person."

Richard Webber
The Chief took a liking to him when Owen first appeared, and now they are close friends.

Arizona Robbins
Arizona and Owen are on good terms. When Arizona was suffering from phantom limb pain, Owen started to help her defeat the pain. When nothing else worked, he ordered Alex Karev to stab her in the prosthesis with a scalpel in the OR, which drove the pain away.

Career
Owen is a very skillful and innovative doctor, hardworking, quick-witted and relentless. He has respect for his patients and demands the same from his residents and colleagues. His training as an army trauma surgeon allows him to use even the most simple household objects (e.g. a ballpoint pen) as surgical tools, and he is known to improvise when facing a lack of proper equipment. As a surgeon he works hard, even working three days straight, and in addition to taking care of the ER he also takes some general surgery cases every now and then. According to him, he became a doctor because he wanted to help people, and because no one could read his handwriting.

He attended Harvard and completed his residency in general surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He then worked at Maryland Shock Trauma, making quite a name for himself there, according to Richard Webber. Shortly after 9/11, he enlisted in the army and became an army trauma surgeon. During his time in Iraq, he saw and experienced terrible things that would haunt him for a long time, such as seeing many of his friends and colleagues get shot or blown to pieces. He stayed in Iraq until one day his entire platoon of 19 was killed in an RPG ambush, leaving him as the sole survivor, and he was honorably discharged from the army. He then returned to Seattle and took up the post of Head of Trauma Surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital, restoring it to a level one trauma center.

At first, Owen had some trouble with making a transition from Army field medicine to civilian traumas, and his aggressive course of treatment and unwillingness to ask help from the other attendings was frowned upon by Derek Shepherd and Mark Sloan, who quickly started calling him names, such as "Rambo" and "Meatballer". However, Owen quickly adjusted to working in a civilian hospital and learned to page help instead of doing everything himself. His surgical skills soon impressed his colleagues, and George described them as "amazing", while Callie described Owen as "meticulous."

Over the next few months, Owen also started teaching residents in trauma and how to work quickly and efficiently in hard circumstances. His teaching methods were rather unusual and slightly unorthodox, for example, teaching his residents how to work with "live tissue" by stabbing six pigs and asking his residents to save them. He also taught his residents to respect their patients and trust more on their own evaluation instead of always relying on attendings.

During Derek's depressed period, Hunt revealed as a second year resident, he lost the parents of three children, and it haunts him everyday. When Derek commented that he expected a story about Iraq, Owen stated that he doesn't talk about Iraq. He did, however, tell Cristina one story about Iraq: how he had once laid still on top of a severely mangled bomb victim for two hours, preventing him from bleeding to death, something that he described as his "best and worst" surgery.

Owen's level-headedness and professionalism caught the eye of Chief Webber, and Owen soon became his right hand man, Webber putting him in charge of selecting both the winner of the resident solo-surgery and the chief resident. He also placed Owen in charge whenever the hospital faced crisis or emergency, given his training in working under pressure.

After Webber stepped down as Chief of Surgery after taking the blame for Meredith's tampering of the drug trial, he asked Owen to take over his position. Owen accepted the offer and became the new Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Mercy West, much to the surprise of his colleagues. At first Owen was struggling with his new position, feeling deskbound, and it didn't take him long to start drinking, so Derek took him to his construction site and adviced him to improvise. The next day Owen gave up his office, saying that from now on, his office would be wherever he was. Using a tablet-like device to manage the hospital, he was able to carry his office with him and free himself to work in the Pit and do surgeries.

Owen's position as the Chief of Surgery was threatened, however, during the aftermath of the lawsuit. After doing everything in his power to prevent the hospital from going under, he and the plane crash survivors were able to buy the hospital with the help of the Harper Avery Foundation, and the doctors were nominated as the new Board of Directors. In their first meeting, Jackson Avery brought up the Foundation's recommendation to replace Owen Hunt as Chief of Surgery in order to "increase the morale". This recommendation was met with utter disgust by the other board members, but when Owen heard of the recommendation from Cristina, he was enraged and after an argument between him, Avery and Shepherd decided to quit, leaving the hospital in chaos. Cristina then made Derek go apologize to him, and he agreed to return as Chief of Surgery if the ER would be reopened, a condition to which everyone agreed.

Notes and Trivia

 * Owen holds a rank of Major in the U.S. Army.
 * Cristina took down her ceiling fan because Owen told her it's one of the triggers to his PTSD.
 * Owen went to Harvard before he enlisted in the army.
 * Owen is left-handed.
 * Owen has broken up all but two of the fights among the men since his first appearance. First, between Derek & Mark. Then, Alex & Avery (twice). The other two fights were between Alex and his brother which was broken up by Miranda and then Alex and Shane which was broken up by Meredith and Cristina.
 * Along with Derek, Mark told Owen that he likes him and Cristina together.
 * Oddly enough, Owen knows how to sing and play the guitar, but Cristina was not aware of that, when Meredith asked her if she knew if Owen played the guitar.
 * Owen is the only character to appear in both webisode series.
 * Owen played left defender in soccer when he was younger.
 * Owen wears a personalized scrub cap that is green and military themed.
 * He was almost ten when his father died.

Notable Episodes
These episodes are Owen-centric or are otherwise very informative about his life.
 * Dream a Little Dream of Me, Part 1
 * Dream a Little Dream of Me, Part 2
 * Life During Wartime
 * Elevator Love Letter
 * Now or Never
 * Holidaze
 * Suicide is Painless
 * Death and All His Friends
 * With You I'm Born Again
 * Take the Lead
 * Support System
 * Transplant Wasteland
 * Can't Fight This Feeling
 * Do You Believe in Magic
 * Readiness is All
 * With or Without You

Memorable Quotes

 * Owen: You’re gonna spy on him? But that’s cheating!
 * Cristina: You’re adorable when you’re slow.


 * Cristina: This list is life!
 * Owen: Schindler's List?! You're actually comparing the merger to the Holocaust?
 * Cristina: I’m Jewish; I’m allowed!


 * Derek: Get out from my patient's room!
 * Owen: I don't take orders from civilians!


 * Owen: I learned in the Army that a leader is only as good as the people around him.


 * Owen: I'm trying to love you. Why won't you let me?


 * Owen: So I'd have to say something to you instead of the three words that are... That are killing me. The three words that you know I feel, but I can't say them, because it would be cruel to say them, because I am no good for you.


 * Owen: I am the chief of surgery and this is an order. Stab Dr. Robbins in the foot right now!

Appearances
Owen Hunt Owen Hunt Owen Hunt