Katherine Heigl Explains Why She Escaped Hollywood to Live in Utah: ‘It Was the Right Choice for Our Family’

Katherine Heigl, 44, has starred in some of Hollywood’s biggest films (27 Dresses) and TV shows (Grey’s Anatomy), but despite her success as a leading lady, she doesn't want to live right where the magic happens.

During a recent visit to the TODAY show, Heigl chatted with hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager about the reasons why she left Hollywood and moved her family to Utah.

“I think some people are mountain people, and I think some people are beach people,” Heigl began. “I’m a mountain person and I have always sort of been that way. And my mom realized, because we went out to LA when I was 17 and hustled and hustled for years, right? And I think she realized at a certain point that I needed somewhere to escape to that could just clear my head and ground me.”

She added: “So we started trying to find, and dreaming about and trying to find, that perfect place. And we found Utah and then I started making enough money to be able to afford to that.”

Heigl and her singer-songwriter husband, Josh Kelley, 43, have been married since 2007. They currently share three children—Naleigh, 14, and Adalaide, 11, who they adopted, and their son, Joshua, 6, who Heigl gave birth to in December 2016.

The Knocked Up star explained her family’s transition to Utah, saying, “We built these houses in Utah that we expected to be more vacation homes, or when I could get away from the hustle and all the work. And we just started spending more and more time there...It was my husband who finally made it his primary residence on his driver’s license and stuff. And we went: ‘Yeah, I think this is our primary residence. We live here now.’”

She added, “I think my children sometimes wish they were in more of a hubbub-y exciting city, but I said to them, ‘Listen, I understand that you are sacrificing that in some ways but I still think it was the right choice for us as a family, because I am more centered and aware of what’s going on in your life.’”

Good for you, Katherine.

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