Katherine Heigl is elevating her three youngsters away from the highlight.
The Firefly Lane star shares daughters Naleigh, 16, and Adalaide, 13, in addition to son Joshua, 8, along with her husband Josh Kelley. The pair met on the set of Kelley’s music video “Solely You” in 2005 and tied the knot in December 2007 in Park Metropolis, Utah.
Heigl and Kelley had been keen to start out a household from the get-go.
“I all the time thought I might be scared, however I am prepared,” Kelley instructed ipromiseyoumedia forward of their wedding ceremony. “I am 27, and I really feel I’ve completed greater than most individuals will do in a lifetime. I am able to cool down, begin a household and construct my Kelley empire.”
The couple turned first-time mother and father in September 2009 after adopting Naleigh from South Korea. They grew their Kelley empire once more in 2012 and 2017, respectively, with the adoption of Adalaide and the start of Joshua.
Right now, the household of 5 lives a quiet life on their ranch in Utah, which they moved to full-time in 2010. “In our minds, this turned the very best place to be for our household,” the mother of three instructed ipromiseyoumedia. “It is quiet and there is a totally different approach to residing right here.”
Heigl continued, “Our time is centered round being dwelling and being collectively … it is grounded. I feel we simply recognize the quietness of this way of life. There’s simply extra time for one another.”
Whereas the Gray’s Anatomy alum chooses to boost her youngsters away from Hollywood, she is just not shy relating to sharing her love for her household on social media.
In January 2023, Heigl spoke with NewBeauty about how she’s elevating her daughters to not be people-pleasers.
“I do assume there’s this under-the-radar, unsaid, collectively understood vibe that ladies are supposed to be ‘pleasing.’ I see it in my younger daughters, and it is simply this odd, inherent social factor,” she mentioned. “I am definitely not educating them to be like that, however they’re selecting it up someplace. I hold saying, ‘I want you to grasp that that isn’t your job.'”
Preserve studying for every thing to find out about Katherine Heigl’s three youngsters.
Nancy Leigh “Naleigh” Mi-Eun Kelley, 16
In 2009, Heigl and Kelley adopted their first youngster, daughter Nancy Leigh Mi-Eun Kelley (affectionately nicknamed Naleigh), from South Korea when she was an toddler. Naleigh was born with a congenital coronary heart challenge and underwent open coronary heart surgical procedure earlier than uniting along with her mother and father.
The Life as We Know It star has mentioned that adoption was all the time a part of her and Kelley’s household plan. “Josh and I began speaking about [adoption] earlier than we had been even engaged,” she shared with Scholastic Father or mother & Baby in 2014. “My sister Meg is Korean, and my mother and father adopted her three years earlier than I used to be born. I needed my circle of relatives to resemble the one I got here from, so I all the time knew I needed to undertake from Korea. Now we have talked about having organic kids as nicely, however we determined to undertake first. I simply needed to be a mother. So nonetheless we try this, it is fantastic with me.”
Lately, Naleigh is getting into her teen years. In a 2021 interview with Dad and mom, Heigl spoke about her expertise as a mother of tweens and shared that Naleigh is “one in all two youngsters in her grade” at college with no cellphone of her personal.
“I do know she thinks I am being a tyrant, however I fear concerning the impact of social media on youngsters her age. I watched The Social Dilemma. So I am like, ‘Go forward and hate me. I am attempting to save lots of you!’ ” she mentioned, including that Naleigh has “been sneaking my iPad and creating TikTok movies with out my permission.”
On Naleigh’s thirteenth birthday, the proud mother penned an emotional tribute to her daughter on Instagram and shared the primary photographs she and Kelley obtained of Naleigh. “This woman. The woman that made me a mom. The woman that gave my life goal. Which means. Path. Boundless everlasting love. This woman turns 13 at the moment. 13. She is formally a youngster. I can not seem to course of it,” Heigl wrote partly.
Though Heigl strives to supply a traditional childhood for her youngsters in Utah, they’ve accompanied her to work once in a while via the years. When she was little, Naleigh made her debut on The View and stole the present. Ten years later, in November 2022, she watched her mother seem on the speak present once more from the viewers.
“Naleigh got here to us at 9 months and three days later I bought on a aircraft and went to work in Atlanta. On the time, changing into a brand new mom I used to be identical to, ‘I bought it, I bought it, I can deal with this,’ ” Heigle defined on the present. “You recognize, ‘They’ve instructed us we will have all of it. We are able to have careers and households and it is all going to be nice. It is all going to work out.’ I by no means noticed that child … she bonded with my husband — after all — he was along with her. So I used to be all the time afraid I had missed this chance to bond along with her, and that she did not love me.”
Adalaide Marie Hope Kelley, 13
Heigl and Kelley adopted their second youngster, a daughter named Adalaide, from Louisiana in 2012.
Throughout an look on The Tonight Present, Heigl instructed host Jay Leno that Adalaide’s adoption was “serendipitous.” She defined that she and Kelley had initially needed to undertake internationally once more, however the course of had develop into very troublesome. “Korea had gotten very laborious to undertake from and China had a really lengthy ready checklist. I used to be form of, ‘Tick, tick, tick. Any day now!’ ” she mentioned.
She went on to share that they’d solely simply begun wanting into home adoption after they obtained a name about Adalaide: “My lawyer known as and mentioned, ‘There is a start mom and she or he’s due in 4 weeks. She’s all yours if you need her!’ ”
As Adalaide and her sister have gotten older, they’ve begun to “have extra questions” about their origins, as Heigl shared in her April 2021 cowl story for Dad and mom.
“Now we have mentioned to them, ‘That is your story. We have no details about your organic fathers, however we do have a bit about your organic moms,’ ” Heigl mentioned of Naleigh and Adalaide.
Later within the interview, Heigl mentioned Adalaide’s character and hobbies. “She’s my pistol, all piss and vinegar,” the actress mentioned of her “fearless” center youngster. “She truly desires to start out barrel racing,” she added of Adalaide’s ardour for using horses on their ranch. “And he or she likes to make Naleigh giggle.”
In April 2022, Heigl shared a carousel of photographs on Instagram in honor of Adalaide’s tenth birthday.
“My stunning, fiery, witty woman turns 10 at the moment,” Heigl started. “Ten years in the past at the moment Adalaide made her means into the world and into our arms. She was the smallest child I had ever seen. Weighing in at simply 4 kilos 11 ounces. I may place her within the palm of my hand and her little legs would solely attain an inch previous my wrist. I began calling her peanut after that. My stunning, scrumptious, observant peanut.”
Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr., 8
In June 2016, ipromiseyoumedia confirmed that Heigl and Kelley had been anticipating their third youngster.
“The Kelley clan is thrilled to announce that we expect a 3rd addition to our household,” the couple instructed ipromiseyoumedia in an announcement on the time. “Naleigh and Adalaide couldn’t be extra excited to welcome their new sibling into the fold and Josh and I are overflowing with pleasure and gratitude.”
Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr. was born on Dec. 20, 2016. Simply after his start, the couple and their new child graced the quilt of ipromiseyoumedia and opened up about how Joshua got here to be.
“It was a shock! I knew I needed to increase our household, I knew I needed to have extra kids,” Heigl mentioned. “I simply did not understand how we had been going to go about that.”
She later admitted throughout her interview for Dad and mom that she “was so relieved” when she came upon she was having a boy. “It was truly an enormous cause why I used to be vacillating between attempting to get pregnant or adopting once more, since with adoption you’ll be able to specify the intercourse,” she defined, including jokingly, “I simply thought, one other woman may imply lifelong remedy for all of us.”
At 5 years outdated, Joshua was “obsessive about Spider-Man and the Hulk,” as Heigl instructed Dad and mom. He additionally loves to assist his mother out on set. Whereas filming season 2 of her Netflix present Firefly Lane, Heigl introduced alongside Joshua, who posed for a photograph along with his mother whereas carrying a director’s headset. “Future director? ❤ #FireflyLane #FireflyLaneSeason2 #behindthescenes #household,” the actress captioned the snap on Instagram.
Joshua just lately began kindergarten as nicely, which made Heigl a bit emotional. On the primary day of college, Heigl posted a sequence of photographs of all three of her kids, writing within the caption, “Properly it is that point of yr once more. Again to highschool for these two and off to kindergarten for my final and remaining child.” She continued, “I really feel humorous. Like possibly I’d begin crying. Or possibly I am going to simply run round the home for the subsequent seven hours intermittently yelling FREEDOM!!! We’ll see. 😏❤️.”
