- Katherine Heigl spoke about her mental health to Yahoo Life.
- She said that being prescribed medication for her anxiety "saved my life."
Former "Grey's Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl recently opened up to Yahoo Life's Kerry Justich about how anxiety medication "saved" her life after a public backlash in 2008.
Heigl explained to Yahoo Life how all of the headlines she made in the early aughts — particularly surrounding her quotes on negative experiences filming "Grey's Anatomy" and "Knocked Up" — impacted her mental health.
"Being suddenly kind of defined by public opinion was very new. And it was very positive at first, so it felt really good … And then it turned," she said. "I did feel very isolated in it, I really got in my head."
She described herself to the site as a "people pleaser" and said that she wasn't "grounded or stable in my own self" enough to realize that the negative comments people were making about her at the time weren't true.
"So I spent a lot of time in my early 30s worried that maybe they were right and I was this kind of person. But then defending myself, in my own mind, it's like that horrible neuroses and anxiety," Heigl explained.
Heigl told Yahoo Life that she wished that society was more open about mental health in the early 2000s because she might have been able to learn how to protect herself and gotten help sooner. She said she thought the anxiety she was experiencing "was completely on me" and that "it was a moral or character weakness."
The "Firefly Lane" star said that her life began to change when she began educating herself on mental health and started taking medication to treat her anxiety.
"It essentially saved my life," she said of being prescribed medication.
Heigl previously made negative comments to outlets about her roles in 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Knocked Up'
Heigl's star first began to rise when she landed the role of Dr. Izzie Stevens on ABC's hit medical drama, which began airing in 2005. She won an Emmy in 2007 for her portrayal of the optimistic surgeon in training who fell in love with Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) — a patient who needed a heart transplant on season two of the show.
But in 2008, she withdrew her name from Emmys consideration, per a statement published by Entertainment Weekly that read in part, "I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization" she said she withdrew.
Per a "Grey's Anatomy" tell-all book called "How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy," the statement reportedly caused tension between Heigl and the "Grey's Anatomy" writers, most notably the show's creator, Shonda Rhimes.
However, Heigl continued speaking out about how unhappy she was working on "Grey's." On "The Late Show With David Letterman" in 2009, Heigl said the length of her workday on the show was "cruel and mean." She also said she was speaking out about it because she hoped it was "embarrassing" to decision-makers on the show.
"Grey's Anatomy" wasn't the only project Heigl was outspoken about. She was able to make the transition from the small screen to feature-length films thanks to Judd Apatow's 2007 comedy "Knocked Up," which she starred in alongside Seth Rogan.
But in 2008, she made comments about the film and her character to Vanity Fair reporter Leslie Bennetts.
"It was a little sexist," she said of "Knocked Up." "It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I'm playing such a bitch; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you're portraying women? Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie."
Heigl has since apologized for or walked back those comments
The "27 Dresses" star spent many years apologizing for her comments about both "Grey's Anatomy" and "Knocked Up." In 2010, she told Entertainment Weekly that she could have handled the 2008 Emmys situation " more gracefully" and added that her 2009 comments to Letterman sounded "whiny."
During a December 2022 interview with SiriusXM host Betty Smith, Heigl said that she "fled" "Grey's Anatomy" "in a panic" because the world around her was reaching a level of "intensity that was not healthy for me."
"I look back at it and sometimes I go, 'God, I wish I had just calmed down a moment. Taken a breath, thought it through, had some conversations about this possibility. What about this possibility? How about if I do, you know, just this many episodes a season?'" she continued.
As for her comments on "Knocked Up," Vanity Fair reported that Heigl told Howard Stern in 2016, "I liked the movie a lot. I just didn't like me," referring to her character in the movie Alison Scott.
In a 2021 interview with Ashley Spencer for The Washington Post, Heigl admitted she does sometimes get angry that she felt like her comments were taken out of context.
"I may have said a couple of things you didn't like, but then that escalated to 'she's ungrateful,' then that escalated to 'she's difficult,' and that escalated to 'she's unprofessional,' " she said. "What is your definition of difficult? Somebody with an opinion that you don't like?"
Heigl now lives in Utah with her husband Josh Kelly and their three children. She said that having a home base away from Los Angeles has helped her better separate her public and private selves.
Heigl pointed out to Yahoo Life that if she hadn't gone through the struggles and loneliness that she did she wouldn't be the person that she is today. "I wouldn't have figured out how to take care of myself and I can now," she added.
"Firefly Lane" season two part one is streaming now on Netflix.