'Grey's Anatomy': Camilla Luddington Teases Winter Finale and Jo & Link Drama (Exclusive)

The star of ABC's medical drama guest co-hosts Thursday's ET.

Is Jo ready to take a leap of faith with Link?

Grey's Anatomy wraps up the first half of season 18 with Thursday's winter finale, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," and Jo is seeing her BFF in a new light. The question is: Will he? As Christmas fever hits Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, the doctors gear up for another festive season. But a new awkwardness between Jo and Link, which surfaced after Link admitted to once having a crush on her, may have shifted things between the two friends forever. In the latest episode, the awkwardness gets ramped up to a new level.

"It was awkward and honestly after every take I was like, 'No!' It got a little embarrassing!" Grey's star and guest co-host Camilla Luddington told ET's Nischelle Turner on Thursday's show after a clip of Jo indirectly telling Link about her feelings played from the episode.

While it's unclear where Jo and Link will land by the end of the winter finale, one thing's for sure: Jo has a lot on her plate raising a baby as a single mother. Luddington recalled the "art imitates life" aspect of Jo's storyline this year, as she's mother to two children -- her youngest being 1-year-old son, Lucas, with husband Matthew Alan.

"I'm half asleep most days, [it] actually works this season because Jo is really exhausted all the time," she said. "In an episode where her kid was teething, I was rolling out of bed those mornings [because my son] was teething. This is my life."

Liliane Lathan/ABC

With speculation constantly swirling around the end of Grey's, the actress confessed she and the cast genuinely do not know what the future holds for the show. But she did share her own thoughts on how she'd like Jo's story to wrap up when the time comes.

"It's funny 'cause I think at some point Jo said that she doesn’t like the beach, but I feel like she needs to head to California. I think sunny weather for her with a man by her side and her kid...," Luddington theorized, seemingly shutting down the thought of Link being that "man by her side." "I would just like to see her see sunnier skies in the end."

But ET didn't first meet Luddington when she was introduced on Grey's nearly 10 years ago. It was her role as Kate Middleton in Lifetime's William & Kate: The Movie in 2011 that marked her debut on the show.

"This was filmed in about two-and-a-half weeks or something crazy like that. And we had the best time," she recalled after watching a clip from the ET vault. "Like the whole crew, the cast, we had so much fun. We got to go to England, got to go home and promote it and it was just exciting. It was around the time of the wedding and it was very celebratory. It was just really fun."

Luddington admitted she wasn't following the royal family's every move when she was cast as Kate. "I wasn’t all the way in. I think maybe when Princess Diana was alive I remember my parents really loving Diana," she shared. "I was a little bit younger and then paying more attention to the realness of everything. But not so much around the time, not until they got engaged and then the fanfare started and then like I was watching everything, watching the wedding. It was amazing."

The Grey's Anatomy winter finale airs Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. For more, watch below.

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