Shonda Rhimes says her kids inspired her to change her health after fearing she’d be ‘dead in 10 years’

Shonda Rhimes says a wake-up call from her kids made her rethink her health and her entire relationship with her body.

Having children can shift your entire world, and for Shonda Rhimes, that shift may have saved her life.

During an “In Conversation” event with Robin Roberts at 92NY on Oct. 14, the powerhouse producer and screenwriter got candid about the moment she realized she had to change her lifestyle and how her three daughters became the driving force behind that transformation.

Roberts brought up a story Rhimes shares in the expanded edition of her book “Year of Yes,” recalling an emotional moment when the producer lifted her daughter onto her shoulders and ran with her—something she once couldn’t do. 

“I did [cry after that]. I have little kids, guys, and I really thought like I might be dead in 10 years,” Rhimes said, according to People magazine. “Like that’s how bad I felt. And I couldn’t, I couldn’t put my 20 pound kid on my shoulders and run around, which I should have been able to do.”

Rhimes, who is mom to Harper, 22, Emerson, 12, and Beckett, 11, said that moment was a turning point. “And so when that moment happened, when I could do that, it was such a moment of both relief and revelation for me that it’s one of those memories I’ll take with me forever,” she said.

“Like that moment of joy and me sort of having done it and feeling like, ‘Oh my God, I feel myself again,’” she added.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal” creator has long been open about her health journey. Back in 2015, she told “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that realizing she couldn’t buckle her airplane seatbelt was one wake-up call, but her children were the ultimate motivation.

“It really was about the fact that I have a 3-year-old, and a 2-year-old, and a 13-year-old, and I kind of wanted to be around for them, to be healthy,” she told DeGeneres. “I’m super feminist, and I’m like, ‘Everybody should be whatever shape they want to be, how dare anybody tell anybody anything!’ – and then I thought like, ‘I’m going to fall over, cause I don’t feel good.’ So it was really about that.”

Fast-forward ten years. Rhimes is still reflecting on her past mindset, admitting she used to think of her body simply as “a container for my brain.”

“At a certain point I started to feel like truly feel terrible—like having a hard time going up the stairs, getting breathless all the time,” Rhimes said. “Feeling like I had, like, I had sleep apnea, I developed sleep apnea and I like woke up all the time, choking in my sleep. I started to feel awful and I was like, I have to do something about this.”

She joked about how food once became her go-to comfort.

“I’d been saying like a happy yes to being out of shape and uncomfortable because food, food works guys,” she joked. “You can put fried chicken on your sadness, you can put cheesecake on your heartbreak.”

Still, Rhimes made it clear that her current approach to wellness isn’t about restriction or denial, but rather feeling good. 

“I’m not a person who’s one of those people who’s like, ‘I now only eat salads,’” she said. “It’s just about using it in the right ways.”