‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Katherine Heigl Ditched Hollywood for Utah: ‘I Needed a Place to Escape’

Katherine Heigl has revealed she gave up on Hollywood after realizing she needed “a place to escape to”.

Heigl, 44, first moved to Los Angeles when he was 17. She quickly rose to fame with her roles in “27 Dresses,” “The Ugly Truth” and the ABC drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” Today, the actress calls Utah home.

“I think some people are mountain people, and some people are beach people,” Heigl explained on Thursday’s episode of the “TODAY” show. “I’m more of a mountain person and I’ve always been that way. And my mom realized that, because we went to Los Angeles when I was 17 and we hustled for years, isn’t it? “Right? And I think she realized at some point that I needed a place to escape and clear my head, and that grounded me.”

“So we started trying to find, and dreaming about trying to find, that perfect place. And we found Utah, and then I started making enough money that I could afford it.”

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Heigl’s Utah home was originally a vacation home, but her husband, singer Josh Kelley, made a choice that solidified the place as their residence.

“We built these houses in Utah, we expected them to be more like vacation homes, or a time where I could get away from the hustle and bustle and all the work. And we just started spending more and more time there,” she explained. “And it was my husband who finally made it his primary residence on his driver’s license and all that. And we went. ‘Yeah, I think this is our primary residence. We live here now.'”

To Heigl, the location seemed perfect. The actress called the choice a “good decision” for her family because she is “more centered” and can keep her finger “on the pulse” of what her children are doing.

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Katherine Heigl lives full-time in Utah with her family. (Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images via Getty Images)

Katherine Heigl and her husband Josh Kelley have three children together. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic via Getty Images)

Heigl and Kelley have three children together; Naleigh, 13 years old, Adalaide, 11 years old and Joshua, 6 years old.

“I think my kids sometimes wish they were in a livelier, more vibrant city,” Heigl said. “But I told them, ‘I understand you’re sacrificing that in some way, but I still think it was the right choice for our family because I’m more centered and aware of what’s going on in your life .'”

“It’s a small town, I know who your friends are, who you hang out with, I know what’s going on at school. It’s just easier to keep your finger on the pulse,” a- she declared.

Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley were married in 2007. (Photo by Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images)

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Heigl previously admitted she didn’t know how to raise children in Los Angeles. The family moved to Utah in 2010 after Heigl left “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Heigl reportedly left the show due to tensions with executive producer and creator Shonda Rhimes.

Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo on the set of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’. (Getty Images)

“I was here in my head, in my gut, in my spirit, in my life. I was just vibrating at way too high a level of anxiety,” Heigl later explained of his exit from the series during an interview with Vanity. Fair. “For me, it’s all a bit of a blur, and it took me years to learn how to deal with that, to master it.”

“I can’t even say I’ve mastered it, but knowing how to work through it, that anxiety and that fear – and stress is stress. And if you leave stress too long, unmanaged and unresolved, it can be debilitating.”

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