Uh, Shonda Rhimes Just Revealed One Unexpected Side Effect Of Writing Grey’s Anatomy, And What?

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As a total TV fan, I always find it fascinating to hear behind-the-scenes stories, and Shonda Rhimes‘ fight to get Grey’s Anatomy off the ground is a great one. Apparently, 20 years ago, she really had to battle to get the show made – everything from the title to ensuring a diverse cast was a struggle. She even stood firm on a risky storyline in the very first episode, believing it wouldn’t kill the show. And wow, look at it now – Season 29 is still coming in 2026! She recently shared that all that hard work had one surprising – and apparently hilarious – consequence she hadn’t anticipated.

Since Grey’s Anatomy premiered in 2005, the show has depicted countless dramatic medical cases and unusual illnesses. Apparently, all that research into diseases for the fictional hospital has made creator Shonda Rhimes a bit of a hypochondriac. She admitted this during an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, explaining that:

During the first four seasons of the show, I felt incredibly capable, even to the point of being delusional. I was a frequent visitor to my doctor, who repeatedly assured me I was perfectly healthy. She eventually told me to stop coming unless it was a real emergency, like if I collapsed! I genuinely believed I had every possible disease and that I could even perform surgeries myself – I thought I’d learned enough to remove someone’s appendix, for example.

Just a moment – figuring out you might have a rare disease and trying to treat it yourself are totally different things.

On top of constantly worrying she had a rare illness, Shonda Rhimes also felt overly confident in her medical knowledge and thought she knew how to fix any problem. It’s easy to understand why her doctor might have been reluctant to see her name on the schedule! She went on to say:

I used to jokingly tell the pregnant writers on my team that they could go into labor anytime, even right there in the writers room, and that I could handle it.

People who’ve worked with Shonda Rhimes often say she was incredibly supportive during pregnancies, and it seems that now includes actually helping to deliver babies!

Honestly, considering the cast of Grey’s Anatomy actually practices on real surgeries to get ready for their roles, I’d be more worried about getting medical help from some people than from Shonda Rhimes in a crisis.

The surgeons on the show clearly do a lot of preparation and research, and the lengthy surgery scenes apparently take days to film. While I wouldn’t want them operating on me personally, they’re likely much more skilled than the average person you’d meet outside of a hospital setting.

This season of Grey Sloan Memorial has been particularly dangerous for the doctors. So far, they’ve faced a major loss with one character’s death, a close call with Atticus Lincoln during the hospital explosion, and a recent emergency C-section for Jo’s twins that put all their lives at risk. It makes you wonder where the show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes, is when things get so intense!

You can watch Grey’s Anatomy on ABC Thursdays at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, or stream it on Hulu starting the next day.

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2026-01-14 03:39