Shonda Rhimes, the powerhouse producer and writer behind ABC's hit Thursday night lineup of "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," and "How To Get Away With Murder" opened up on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" about how one simple word helped her overcome her fear. During an interview promoting her new memoir "Year of Yes," Rhimes revealed that saying yes is what led to her dramatic 127-pound weight loss, Us Weekly reported.
Rhimes sat down with DeGeneres on the stage of her daytime talk show, a feat that Rhimes admitted would not have been possible before she found her new mantra.
"I said 'yes' to everything that scared me," Rhimes explained of her year-long journey to conquering her fears. "Everything that made me feel like I was gonna have a heart attack and pass out, I was just gonna say 'yes' to doing it."
Saying yes and the excitement of conquering her fears led to Rhimes' decision to lose weight, and she lost more than 100 pounds in the past year. But she told DeGeneres that her weight loss journey wasn't about vanity, but about her health and making sure she would be present in her children's lives.
"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, like be healthy," Rhimes told DeGeneres.
She opened up about one specific instance where she felt that her weight had prohibited her. Rhimes was on a flight from Los Angeles to New York when she realized that the seat belt in her first-class seat wouldn't buckle because of her size.
"I thought 'Well, I could ask the airline attendant to give me a seat belt extender or I could die," Rhimes said, "and I decided I would risk it and just fly out of my seat 'cause I wasn't gonna say anything."
See a clip from Rhimes' interview on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" below.
