Shonda Rhimes suffered sleepless nights due to stress after being deluged with death threats over social media

She told The Sunday Times newspaper: "Social media changed. Fans have passionate feelings, and I was always fine with that ...

"But then it became weird ... They got mean. And you never knew who was going to really take offence in the wrong way ... It was because people are dangerous and strange."

The mum-of-three stopped reading posts on social media but she was kept awake at night worrying about her family's security.

She went on: "I wanted to just be able to walk out my front door and hang out with my kids and not be worried. I would lay awake at night with stress ...

"[It] affected a lot of things. And I had some very helpful friends who'd had similar experiences, who were able to give me a lot of perspective, and who were adamant that if you can't live normally then you're not going to be able to live."

Shonda eventually decided to move away from Los Angeles in 2020 and won't make public the state where she now resides with her kids. She went on to admit she's now even considering moving abroad.

She added: "I've been thinking about it a lot hard. Like, it feels like a much more serious consideration now ... Literally my whole life is about living to not be having security in my life. That really is my reason."