Kerry Washington has lifted the lid on rumours suggesting Chase Infiniti could star in a Scandal spin-off.

The Imperfect Women star, 49, played crisis manager Olivia Pope in seven series of the hit drama before it came to an end in 2018 but the Internet has been flooded by speculation suggesting creator Shonda Rhimes could bring Scandal back with a new cast including One Battle After Another star Chase as Olivia's secret daughter.

Now Kerry has opened up about the rumours and fuelled the speculation by insisting she has "no idea" what Shonda is up to. During an appearance on ITV TV show This Morning, Kerry said: "You would have to ask Shonda.

"I have no idea … although there has been this joke on the Internet of Chase Infiniti being her daughter … "

Kerry previously leaned into rumours which implied Chase could play Olivia's daughter from a fling with fictional US President Fitzgerald Grant - played by Tony Goldwyn.

After meeting Chase at a recent awards show, Kerry shared a picture of the two stars together and posted it on social media, writing: "Hey Fitz, I found our daughter."

Kerry tagged both Chase and Tony in the post.

The actress previously revealed she was told she was a "risk" when TV bosses were first casting Scandal.

Kerry admitted sheis "proud" audiences warmed to the show because she was the first black woman to front a network drama series in her own lifetime.

Speaking on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, she said: "When Scandal first aired, everybody talked about it, literally talked about it as, 'a risk,' to have a black woman as the lead of a network drama because it hadn't happened in almost 40 years.

"And I was in my 30s at the time, so it hadn't happened in my lifetime. And people didn't think it would work.

"So I was so proud that it worked, but also I wasn't proud of myself. I wasn't like, 'oh, I'm amazing.' I was like, audiences are amazing, right? Because audiences showed up.

"Audiences tuned in in record numbers to say, 'We want to see heroes that look like us.' And then a bunch of audience members tuned in to say, 'we want to see heroes that don't look like us. We're open to our heroes and our protagonists looking like everybody.'

"And so that's why the show worked."

Kerry went on to insist she believes Scandal was able to make a real difference to the entertainment industry. She added: "I was really proud that we went from being a risk to being like a mandate at every television network.

"After that, everybody was like, what's our show with a woman of colour in the lead? And even at ABC, there were more shows with women of colour at the centre."