Why Katherine Heigl Ditched Hollywood And Moved To Utah

Not every star is keen on the hubbub of Hollywood, which is why actor Katherine Heigl left the California lifestyle behind in about 2010 and moved to a 25-acre, animal-filled ranch in Utah with her husband, Josh Kelley. While speaking to Good Housekeeping in 2014, Heigl talked about her family's life in Utah at the time. 

"Josh and I are into this quiet life," Heigl said. "Neither of us likes the traffic and the chaos of Los Angeles. It's overwhelming." Heigl also felt stressed after she'd been branded "difficult" for comments she made on previous acting projects (which is part of why Heigl didn't get a farewell episode on "Grey's Anatomy"). The energy of L.A. didn't help with that.

After her "Grey's" exit, Heigl and Kelley had aspirations for something different. "We had big dreams of expanding our family, moving to the mountains and having a quieter life," Heigl said. "Utah is spectacularly beautiful, the people are wonderful and kind, it's an easy commute from L.A. — and there's no traffic!" Heigl also thought Utah was better than L.A. for parenting too (and at the time of the interview, she and Kelley had adopted Naleigh and Adalaide, two of their three children). "Up here, the other kids are just kids," she said. "They're the children of working parents and families with ranches and cattle and horses, living normal lives, celebrating normal moments."

Two years after that interview in 2016, Katherine Heigl gave birth to her and Josh Kelley's third child, Joshua Jr. As of 2023, Heigl's family was still living in Utah. She explained on "Today with Hoda & Jenna" more on what compelled her to settle on a ranch, and it had to do with the great outdoors.

Heigl told Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager how she has always preferred the mountains to the beaches. "And my mom realized, 'cause we went out to LA together when I was 17 and hustled and hustled and hustled for years, right?" Heigl said, referring to her mother Nancy Heigl, who is a co-producer on many of Heigl's projects and has also been her manager. "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." Heigl eventually picked Utah as that destination. 

"And we built these houses in Utah that we expected to be kind of more vacation homes, or when I could get away from the hustle and all the work," Heigl said. "And we just started spending more and more and more time there." She credited Kelley as being the first one to make it official on his driver's license that their Utah house was their main home. Heigl later referred to Utah as home in a video she narrated for the Salt Lake City 2034 Winter Olympics, when she said, "And we can't wait to open our home to the world once more and say, 'Welcome back.'"