It's been over 20 years since Jodi Picoult released My Sister's Keeper but the tragic ending is still just as devastating as ever - even for the author.

Jodi Picoult, who wrote the 2004 award winning book, admitted the ending was far sadder than she remembered despite being the one who wrote it.

'I want to apologize to everyone that's read My Sister's Keeper,' the 58-year-old writer began the video.

The author then went on to say she had re-read the ending in recent days for a 'secret project' she is currently working on.

'I started sobbing at 8.30 in the morning,' she admitted. 'That's a brutal book.'

'Who came up with that idea?' she quipped. 

The heart-wrenching book follows 13-year-old Anna Fitzgerald, who was conceived as a bone marrow donor for her cancer-stricken sister, Kate. She then seeks medical emancipation from her parents after they insist she donate one of her kidneys to her sister.

The popular book was turned into a full length feature film, starring Cameron Diaz and Alec Baldwin, in 2009.

While it has been two decades since the book was released, the devastating nature of the ending is still raw for many fans.

'First book I ever launched across the room. I didn't even realize what I had done till after the sobs,' one user wrote.

'I read this book at the age of 13 because my sister who passed at 17 with cancer had started it and never got to finish it. It took me a year to get through it emotionally but I finished it for her,' another shared. 

'Back when it came out, I was a waitress in college. We would pass it all around and little by little you would just see waitresses coming in for their shift to pass on the book crying,' added another. 

Last year, Picoult released her book By Any Other Name, which tells the stories of two women who use pseudonyms in order to receive recognition for their work. 

One story is the tale of Emilia Bassano, a real-life woman who some historians believe may have been the brains behind Shakespeare's work, and the other is Melina Green, a fictional modern-day playwright who submits her work to a festival under her Black male roommate's name.

Picoult has previously confessed she was unhappy with how the movie adaptation of her beloved My Sister's Keeper turned out.

In a TikTok video posted in 2023, Picoult revealed it wasn't her decision to change the dramatic ending of the book. 

'The director - who was also the writer of the script - told me he was going to keep the ending,' she explained.

'[The ending] honestly was what made most of you throw the book at someone else and say: "You gotta read this,"' she continued.

'Then I found out through a casting director that he had actually changed the ending of the script that he showed me,' she explained, adding it 'did not' match the one in the book.

'I was really upset,' the author admitted. 'I flew to the movie set and I went to talk to him and he pretty much through me off the set.'

Picoult said she went to the production company and told them they were making a big mistake.

'[I told them] I have a lot of readers who loved the ending of this book,' she recalled.

'They said, "you know, we really trust him. We think he knows what he's doing,"' Picoult added.

The author then pointed out that a major criticism was that the movie changed the ending.

'A lot of people said they liked the book's enduing better, and got that I will always be very, very grateful,' she said.