Katherine Heigl: The Goodbye Girl

Note to Janet Jackson: This is how you do a wardrobe malfunction. As she took the stage to accept ShoWest's Female Star of the Year award on March 18 in Las Vegas, Katherine Heigl was about to address the elite showbiz crowd when the left strap on her Donna Karan dress snapped. Luckily, the 31-year-old actress caught the flimsy garment before her, ahem, girls could be exposed, and she stood there with her frock in tatters and gave her speech. ''What was I going to do?'' shrugs Heigl the following day, from the comfort of the modest yet meticulous home she shares with her husband, musician Josh Kelley, and their 16-month-old daughter, Naleigh, in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. ''I wasn't going to stop the show and make everyone wait while somebody tries to find a way to pin it. I decided to just go for it.'' It turned out to be one of her smartest PR moves. The incident — in which she came off looking vulnerable, relatable, and sympathetic — earned her some of the best press of her career at a time when she needed it the most. And as she recounts the experience, it's clear that she appreciated the timing of the tension reliever as well. As ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY first reported, Heigl is leaving her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy in much the same way she spent her six-year stint on the show: amid controversy. After sitting out more than half of this season, both to make a movie — the romantic comedy Life as We Know It — and to bond with the special-needs child she and Kelley adopted from South Korea last September, Heigl was due back on the set of the ABC drama on March 1. But she never showed up. It was the latest bump in a rocky tenure that's been marred by numerous skirmishes. The fact that she's bailing on the show that made her a household name, eight months after solidifying herself as a box office draw (in The Ugly Truth) and 18 months before her contract was up, only reinforced the perception that she's a selfish diva. But on this day, we encountered a very different Heigl. Dressed casually in capri jeans and a purple cardigan, with her newly darkened locks pulled back, the actress curled up on the sectional on her second-floor terrace with a glass of wine, ready to explain, clarify, and, yes, apologize.

Where do things stand with Grey's Anatomy? Are you done?
I am done. We just finalized our agreement. Everyone had been working really hard to find an amicable and gracious way of letting go and moving on. It's sad, but it's what I wanted.

How did it come to this?
My life changed so dramatically in the last six years. I started a family, and it changed everything for me. It changed my desire to work full-time.

So you made this decision last fall after you adopted Naleigh?
No. That certainly accelerated it. I had actually started talking to [series creator] Shonda Rhimes over a year ago about the idea of moving on. I had told her that I wanted to start a family — Josh and I were in the process of adoption — and I wanted to warn her. And she was really respectful and supportive. She wanted to try to figure out how I could do both, and I kind of wanted to do both. But at the end of the day, there wasn't a great way to compromise the work schedule that didn't negatively affect the crew or the cast. It wasn't feeling fair to them or the show to ask them to bend around my needs.

The plan was for you to return to the set on March 1 and stick around through the end of the season. But you didn't show up on March 1. Why?
I went on my family leave and spent three months in Utah and just got to be a mom, and it changed my whole perspective.... That was really the turning point for me. So before I was due back, I spoke again to Shonda about wanting to leave. Then I waited at home until I was given the formal okay that I was off the show. The rumors that I refused to return were totally untrue. [In response, ABC Studios issued the following statement: ''By mutual agreement, Katherine Heigl has ended her successful run as Dr. Isobel Stevens. The studio wishes her well. Everyone at Grey's Anatomy is now focused on delivering a shocking season finale and a great show for seasons to come.'']

Would you describe it as an amicable parting?
Yeah, I think so. I think it was a little bit shocking for everybody, and a little bit like, ''Can't we find a way to work it out?'' And I really wanted to, but at the same time I just felt like I couldn't sacrifice my relationship with my child. Naleigh and I will always be a little bit complicated. I really had to work on bonding with her because I was obsessed with her, but she could really do without me. [Laughs] It was really hard because she loved Josh so much but she just kind of tolerated me. And I want this child to know that she will forever have me in her corner and I don't want to disappoint her. [Voice cracking] And even though I know I'm disappointing the fans, and I know I'm disappointing the writers and my fellow cast members and the crew, I just had to make a choice. I hope I made the right one.... It sucks. You wish you could have it all exactly the way you want it. But that's not life.... I had to try to find the courage to move on. And I am sad. And I'm scared. But I felt it was the right thing to do; we just didn't quite know how to do it appropriately, gracefully, and respectfully to the audience. And I think we all felt that it wasn't respectful to the audience to bring [Izzie] back again and then have her [leave] again. We did it twice this season. It starts to feel a little manipulative.