Katherine Heigl is raising her family in a stunning home in Utah, but for almost two decades she called Los Angeles her home.
So what made the Firefly Lane actress do a U-turn on Hollywood?Katherine and her singer-songwriter husband, Josh Kelley, are proud parents to Naleigh, 14, Adalaide, 10, and son Joshua, six.
While she continues to forge forward in her film and TV career, Tinsletown is no longer the place she wants to live with her kids.
Katherine faced her fair share of controversy in the past since her departure from Grey's Anatomy, and it would be understandable for fans to think that this may have been the reason she moved away.
However, she says it was her children she was thinking about, not her career. "I didn't know how to raise them in L.A., so I felt like I could do it here," she told E! News of their choice to move.
MORE: Katherine Heigl shares glimpse inside her incredibly wholesome homelife with children
SEE: Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley's most precious family moments
"I could be more on top of things that scare me and I could be more on top of the kinds of friends they have and places they're going, the kind of activities they're involved in — and what the hell they're doing on their phones!"
Josh is the main caregiver when Katherine leaves to film her various projects. Most recently, she's been in Vancouver shooting the final few episodes of Firefly Lane's season two which airs on Netflix on April 27.
It's not easy being away from her family but Katherine insists she's able to compartmentalize and focus on the work at hand.
MORE: Katherine Heigl's refreshing take on post-pregnancy weight loss
"I can't easily anymore take them out of school systems and put them into whole new cities and environments," she explained to People. "I had to live with that aspect of what I do for work, I have to leave my family."
© InstagramKatherine continued: "I call the kids probably two, three nights a week. I'm not FaceTiming every day—I'm at work, having crap cell service or terrible WiFi. You have to be able to let it go."
Both Naleigh and Adalaide were adopted by Katherine and Josh - who she married in 2007 - and she said she had the conversation about marriage and children early on in their romance.
Speaking to Red magazine earlier this year, she said: "About six months after meeting my now-husband I was, like, ‘I’d better get a few things straight now: marriage and having a family are both really important to me; starting a family with adoption is also really important to me [her sister, Meg, was adopted from South Korea before Heigl was born]."
If those things don’t speak to you, we should part ways.’ Luckily, he was, like, ‘I’m down with that!’ ”
Keep up with the latest celebrity stories Sign up to our HELLO! Mail newsletter and get them delivered straight to your inbox.
