Shonda Rhimes Revealed Her Daughter Started Watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ & Fans Have One Big Question
Two years after Shonda Rhimes told The Wall Street Journal that her daughters were “far too young to watch [Grey’s Anatomy] or even care,” it finally happened: she caught one of her girls watching the multi-Emmy-winning medical drama. The Shondaland showrunner posted a photo of one of her daughters watching the 20-season-long show on Tuesday, and it was such a proud full-circle moment for the mom of three.
“My not so tiny human started watching @greysabc for the first time yesterday,” Rhimes, who is mom to Harper, 21, Emerson Pearl, 11, and Beckett, 10, wrote on Instagram. “My brain is breaking. ???? I am dead. DEAD. But so glad she’s getting to see the women her mom created. #GreysAnatomy”
In the photo, one of her daughters is sitting at the kitchen island. She’s wearing a white t-shirt and tons of friendship bracelets, as she eats pasta with her hair up in a ponytail. She is just casually watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy on an iPad, featuring a scene with Meredith Gray, played by Ellen Pompeo. That would be a pretty shocking thing to see — but at least she wasn’t watching Bridgerton, right?
Fans loved this picture, but they did have one big questions for Rhimes: “Did you prepare her for the emotional roller coaster that you put us through all those years ????????????????????????” one person asked, referring to all the ups and downs and deaths of lead characters in the long-running series.
“There’s about to be so many arguments in that house ???????????? imagine your mama killing off some of your favourites,” someone else said. Ohh, this pre-teen is going to be mad mad!
“BAAAABY!! Get her therapist ready cause honey, I still ain’t the same. Just THINKING about certain episodes sends me slam into the floor,” another said.
Celebs commented on this photo as well. Reese Witherspoon said, “This is Everything ! ❤” Venus Williams wrote, “Amazing. Full circle ❤️.” Mindy Kaling commented, “I just love this so much.”
Rhimes previously told ESSENCE that she bases her empowering female characters on real people. “Most of these characters are women I know,” she told the outlet. “I have three other sisters who work, all my friends are women who work and are competitive. I don’t know anyone who went the other way. Even the women who stay home and take care of the kids are hardworking and sometimes competitive and I never saw them on TV. And, that was weird to me. The women I saw [on TV] were always unequivocally nice and well-behaved, I don’t know any women like that. I really don’t.”
The Scandal creator is one of those awesome women role models herself, who does her best to balance working and raising her daughters. But she is the first to admit when she fails.
“If you are a working mother you are often not there as much as you’d like to be,” she told Business Insider. “I said this once somewhere, that if I’m standing on set watching some amazing thing being shot, then I am missing my daughter’s science fair. Or if I’m at my daughter’s dance recital, then I miss Sandra Oh’s very last day, and very last scene being shot on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ That’s what happens. Those are the trade-offs.”
She added, “You have to make a decision that you’re going to miss one thing and be good at another. I’ve always said if I’m winning at one thing, I’m failing at another. And a lot of people say, ‘failure?’ And I say, ‘yes!’ I like to call it failure because it makes me feel better.”
Rhimes is keeping it real in her home life and in her amazing tv shows, and her daughters will be all the better for it!
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