Katherine Heigl Insists Motherhood Was The Reason She Left ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

Katherine Heigl has addressed the rumors that she left “Grey’s Anatomy” on bad terms, more than a decade after she abruptly departed the hit series to the shock of her fans.

The 42-year-old actress revealed in an excerpt from Lynette Rice’s “How To Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy” obtained and published Saturday by Daily Telegraph that it was actually motherhood that drove her to exit the medical drama.

“I started a family and it changed everything. [Motherhood] changed my desire to work full-time,” she said. “I went on family leave and just got to be a [mom], and it changed my whole perspective…. that was really the turning point.”

In Season 6, Heigl’s character, Izzie Stevens, was surprisingly fired from Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital amid budget cuts and decided to leave Seattle, saying she needed a fresh start.

Behind the cameras, the storyline was created because Heigl wanted parental leave since it was the time when she brought home her first adopted child, Nancy Leigh “Naleigh” Kelley, with singer-songwriter husband Josh Kelley, 41.

As she spent time with her family, Heigl said she initially wanted to do both, taking care of her daughter and doing “Grey’s Anatomy,” so she expressed her desire to no longer be a full-time series regular, as per Us Weekly.

Eventually, she realized that it was hard doing both and that there was no way to make both of them work at the same time. She also admitted that it didn’t feel right for the cast and crew to make changes just to meet her filming schedule needs.

“There wasn’t a great way to compromise the work schedule that didn’t negatively affect the crew or the cast. It wasn’t feeling fair to them or the show to ask them to bend around my needs,” the Hollywood star was quoted as saying in the book that is set for release on Sept. 28.

In the end, Heigl had to make the difficult decision to leave the highly acclaimed series, which won her an Emmy in Season 2. Contrary to the rumors that she refused to return because there was allegedly tension between her and the creative team, she said she formally and gracefully exited “Grey’s Anatomy” on good terms.

“So before I was due back, I spoke again to Shonda [Rhimes, creator] about wanting to leave. Then I waited at home until I was given the formal OK that I was off the show. The rumors that I refused to return were totally untrue,” she said.

Meanwhile, another excerpt leaked earlier this week claimed that lead star Patrick Dempsey, who left “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2015 after portraying Dr. Derek Shepherd for nearly 11 years, “terrorized” people on the set.

“There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him,” executive producer James D. Parriott was quoted as saying in the book by The Hollywood Reporter.