Katherine Heigl Defends Decision To Leave Grey’s Anatomy

News

Katherine Heigl says her shifting priorities are the main reason she left Grey’s Anatomy in 2010.

In recent interview with Good Housekeeping, Heigl says that between shooting movies and Grey’s Anatomy, her schedule didn’t leave her enough time with her daughter Naleigh, whom she and husband Josh Kelley adopted from South Korea in 2009.

“I would come home angry and frustrated that I’d missed everything with my kid that day,” Heigl said. “I didn’t get to wake her up from her nap, or do bath time or bedtime. I’d have to sneak into her room and kiss her when she was sleeping, hoping not to wake her up.”

After the adoption, Heigl initially only asked for her workload to be lightened as she tried to negotiate being a mother with her film career and the popular ABC series. She eventually asked to be released and the show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes, allowed her to break her contract.

“I felt like my priorities were messed up,” she said. “I was putting so much time and energy into just my work, but I was raised [to believe] that family comes first.”