Isaiah Washington reignites feud with former ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ co-star Katherine Heigl over his use of homophobic slur 13 years ago

Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington is reigniting an old feud with former co-star, Katherine Heigl.

In a tweet on Monday, Washington (who played Dr. Preston Burke on the show) shared a message alongside a photo of Heigl (who played Dr. Izzie Stevens).

“This woman once proclaimed that I should ‘never’ be allowed to speak publicly again,” he wrote. “The world agreed with her proclamation back then and protested for my job and my head in 65 languages. I wish I was on Twitter in 2007, because I will NEVER stop exercising my free speech.”

Washington appeared on the popular medical drama from 2005 to 2007, exiting the series  after an on-set clash the year before, in which an anti-gay epithet was directed at another cast member at the time, T.R. Knight.

Katherine had come to the defense of her friend which was brought up by writer Elizabeth Denton in reaction to Washington’s tweet.

Washington was on the defense as he replied: “Your opinions are your own, but you are a fool, a liberal and misguided feminist to even try and defend this woman. You weren’t there, so die on this hill, whoever you are. She could have cared less about her gay friend. Chandra Wilson knows all about that too.”

He was then asked by another social media user why he would bring this up after 10 years to which he replied, “Because it’s the TRUTH. The End.”

It is unclear what prompted Washington’s tweets about Heigl, but the beef between the former co-stars dates back to 2006 when Heigl alleged that Washington had used a homophobic slur which left her “furious and frustrated.”

Washington apologized for the incident in a statement to People in October 2006 as he said: “I sincerely regret my actions and the unfortunate use of words during the recent incident on-set. Both are beneath my own personal standards. I have nothing but respect for my coworkers and have apologized personally to everyone involved.”

Months later, at the 2007 Golden Globes, a reporter asked about the alleged incident in which he reportedly used the word “faggot” toward co-star Knight, and Washington not only denied ever using that word but also repeated the slur.

Weeks after this, Heigl criticized him publicly as she told Access Hollywood at the time, “I’m going to be really honest right now, he needs to just not speak in public. Period. I’m sorry, that did not need to be said, I’m not OK with it.”

Following the Grey’s drama, Washington said it was nearly impossible for him to continue in Hollywood.

“After the incident at the Golden Globes, everything just fell apart,” he told HuffPost Live in 2013. “I lost everything. I couldn’t afford to have an agent. … I couldn’t afford to have a publicist. … I couldn’t afford to continue.”

Then, more recently, he talked again about it during an episode of his Fox Nation series, Isaiah Washington: Kitchen Talk.

He said: “The story was a lie and misconstrued. But as a family guy, a father, I thought I was helping the family.”

The actor went on to say that he would never apologize for anything again. “That’s why I’ll never apologize again – to this day,” he said. “That’s why [Donald] Trump doesn’t apologize, because when you apologize for something, then that it is admitted to wrong – doing something wrong. I did nothing wrong.”