Katherine Heigl Says She ‘Never Saw’ Daughter Filming ‘Life As We Know It’: I Was ‘Afraid’ She ‘Didn’t Love Me’
The actress opened up about how difficult it was to return to work after adopting her daughter and not spending as much time as she wanted with her.
Being a new parent is difficult, and returning to work after first welcoming your baby can be even harder. Katherine Heigl opened up about how emotional it was to have to return to work on the movie Life As We Know It after first adopting her daughter Naleigh in 2009, during an appearance on The View on Monday, November 28.
Sara Haines spoke about how a decade ago Katherine, 44, had brought Naleigh, 14, on the classic talk show. After reflecting on the past appearance, the actress got emotional as she recalled what it was like when she and her husband Josh Kelley first had their daughter. “Naleigh came to us at nine months, and three days later, I got on a plane and went to work in Atlanta, and at the time, becoming a new mother, I was just like, ‘I got it. I got it. I can handle this. They’ve told us we can have it all. We can have careers and have families, and it’s all going to be great. It’s all going to work out.’ I never saw that baby,” she said.
Katherine continued and said that as she was working on the movie, she bonded more with triplets that were acting on-set than her own daughter, and she revealed some of her fears. “I was at work with three triplets, who were playing my goddaughter, and I spent more time with them than I did with my new daughter, and she bonded with my husband. Of course, he was with her. So, I was always afraid that I had missed that opportunity to really bond with her,” she said. “And that she didn’t love me.”
Thankfully, it’s clear that Katherine and her daughter share a special love for each other all this time later. Naleigh was in the audience on the show to support the Firefly Lane star. Shortly after welcoming her daughter, the actress ended up leaving the classic show Grey’s Anatomy in 2010. She recently reflected on whether she’d return as Izzie Stevens in a January 2021 interview with E!’s Daily Pop. She said “never say never,” but also said, “You know, I just, I don’t know.”
Besides Naleigh, Katherine and her husband have another daughter and a son. After Naleigh, the actress and musician adopted a second daughter Adelaide, 10, in April 2012, and Katherine gave birth to a son Joshua, 5, in December 2016.