Shonda Rhimes brought her oldest daughter, 22-year-old Harper, to the Los Angeles premiere of her new show, The Residence, on Wednesday.
The mother-daughter duo posed for photos during their rare red-carpet appearance together in all-black, color-coordinated outfits.
Stylishly dressed in a black glittered Chanel outfit with mesh sleeves and silver accessories, Rhimes posed arm-in-arm with her daughter, who wore a black dress, a black leather jacket, and a Chanel purse. She shared a carousel of photos from the premiere on Instagram.
The renowned TV producer, writer and showrunner typically keeps her daughters — Harper, adopted in 2002; 12-year-old Emerson, adopted in 2012; and Beckett, 11, born via surrogacy in 2013 — out of the limelight.
An alumna of Dartmouth College, Rhimes spoke at the 2023 commencement. The Bump reported that she revealed during her commencement address that she often avoids answering, “Shonda, how do you do it all?”
As a successful single mother, Rhimes shared her experiences with the class rawly instead of sugar-coating them.
“The answer is this, I don’t,” Rhimes said. “Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means I am failing in another area of my life.”
She continued, “If I am killing it on a Scandal script for work, I am probably missing bath and story time at home. If I am at home sewing my kids’ Halloween costumes, I’m probably blowing off a rewrite I was supposed to turn in. If I am accepting a prestigious award, I am missing my baby’s first swim lesson.”
Rhimes shared that seeing life through her daughters’ eyes makes everything worthwhile.
“I want my daughters to see me and know me as a woman who works…In their world, mothers run companies. In their world, mothers own Thursday nights. In their world, mothers work. And I am a better mother for it. The woman I am because I get to run Shondaland, because I get to write all day, because I get to spend my days making things up, that woman is a better person—and a better mother. Because that woman is happy. That woman is fulfilled. That woman is whole.”
Rhimes’ new series, The Residence, is now streaming on Netflix.
