What Happened to Dr. Charles’ Wife on ‘Chicago Med’? Inside Her Tragic Fate

Caroline “CeCe” Charles was introduced to viewers in Season 4. Played by Paula Newsome, CeCe quickly became a fan-favorite. She and Dr. Charles end up rekindling their relationship and eventually getting married again toward the end of Season 4. Sadly, we also learn that CeCe has cancer. Midway through Season 5, in the episode, “I Can’t Imagine the Future,” CeCe ultimately passes away, due to cancer complications. 

That episode is especially rough, since Dr. Charles takes her on a trip, as they both know she has very little time left. This is after a “goodbye” party that’s thrown for them, where friends and loved ones said their goodbyes to CeCe. This is when Dr. Charles has a total breakdown, which we all felt deep in our bones. 

What hurt even more was when their daughter Robin wanted to come with them, CeCe says no. Dr. Charles tells her later that CeCe wants Robin to remember her mom the way she was before cancer completely consumed her.

The return of Chicago Med after the fall hiatus showed Dr. Charles grieving for CeCe, which was a huge turning point for his character. However, the show decidedly didn’t show Oliver Platt’s character expressing his loss for his wife right when she died. Showrunners Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov talked to CinemaBlend about their decision to wait six weeks to follow up with Dr. Charles.

“Part of it was because it’s following our winter hiatus, and we wanted to make it, in effect, in real time. Ethan is coming back from deployment, it’s been six weeks since Caroline died, so we wanted to actually give a sense of his loss. He hasn’t resolved, it doesn’t really get resolution until closer to the end of the episode, but we wanted to see that he’s been dealing with it for a while,” Andrew said.

Diane added, “And he’s been grieving for these six weeks.” Dr. Charles famously expressed his grief during karaoke night at Molly’s, when he sang Buddy Holly’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.” Diane shared why they chose that song, saying, “Well, it was expressing his grief and letting go of his wife. That was idea behind it, behind that choice of the song. Sort of ironic.”

“There were one or two [other contenders], but this is what we landed on,” Andrew added. While we’re kinda curious what the other song choices were, we’re happy they went with “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.” It’s a classic, and it perfectly captured his sadness and how he’s grappled with the pain of losing someone he lost once, gained back in his life, and then lost again — this time permanently. 

Watch new episodes of Chicago Med every Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.