Ungrateful? Unprofessional? A Bad Person? Katherine Heigl Reflects on Grey’s Anatomy Drama: ‘It Wasn’t Very Nice or Fair’

It’s been years since she last scrubbed in at Seattle Grace, but fans still have questions over what Katherine Heigl did and said about Grey’s Anatomy more than a decade ago and how she feels about the drama now.

Grey’s Anatomy is ABC’s medical drama following the personal and professional lives of surgical interns, residents and attendings at Seattle Grace Hospital (now known as Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital) in Seattle, Washington. The series — which premiered in 2005 and is created by Shonda Rhimes, the same mind behind shows like Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder — led to one spin-off, Station 19, in 2018.

Heigl played Isobel “Izzie” Katherine Stevens, a surgical intern and then attending, from Seasons 1 to 6 of Grey’s Anatomy. She left in 2010 two years after she came under controversy for a statement criticizing Grey’s Anatomy‘s writing. In an interview for Variety‘s Actors on Actors series with her former Grey’s Anatomy co-star, Ellen Pompeo, in June 2023, Heigl responded to accusations she was the “bad guy” in her drama with Grey’s Anatomy. “I’m always the bad guy. People like me to be the bad guy,” she said. She continued, “I was so naive. I got on my soapbox and I had some things to say, and I felt really passionate about this stuff. I felt really strongly. I felt so strongly that I also got a megaphone out on my soapbox. There was no part of me that imagined a bad reaction. I felt really justified in how I felt about it and where I was coming from.”

Heigl — who said she’s been called “a bad person,” “ungrateful” and “unprofessional” as a result of her statement about Grey’s Anatomy — also opened up about how she believed the narrative told about her for years until her late-30s. “I’ve spent most of my life — I think most women do — being in that people-pleasing mode,” she said. “It’s really disconcerting when you feel like you have really displeased everybody. It was not my intention to do so, but I had some things to say, and I didn’t think I was going to get such a strong reaction”

She continued, “I was in my late 20s. It took me until probably my mid- to late-30s to really get back to tuning out all of the noise and going, ‘But who are you? Are you this bad person? Are you ungrateful? Are you unprofessional? Are you difficult?’ Because I was confused! I thought maybe I was. I literally believed that version, and felt such shame for such a long time, and then had to go, ‘Wait. Who am I listening to? I’m not even listening to myself. I know who I am.'”

But what did Katherine Heigl do and say about Grey’s Anatomy exactly? Read on for a timeline of Heigl’s Grey’s Anatomy drama and where she stands now.

What did Katherine Heigl do and say about Grey’s Anatomy?

What did Katherine Heigl do and say about Grey’s Anatomy? Heigl’s Grey’s Anatomy drama started in 2008 when she withdrew her submission for a Primetime Emmy Award for Season 4 of Grey’s Anatomy because she didn’t think she was “given the material” to warrant a nomination. “I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention,” she said in a statement to The New York Times at the time. “In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.”

Two sources involved in the production of Grey’s Anatomy told The New York Times that the series’ writers and producers were angered by Heigl’s statement and considered it a “slap.” Heigl’s Emmys statement also came after a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair, in which she called her 2007 movie Knocked Up “sexist.” “It was a little sexist,” she said. “It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I’m playing such a bitch; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you’re portraying women? Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie.”

In the same interview, Heigl also called Izzie’s affair with a married man in Grey’s Anatomy Season 4 a “ratings ploy.” “It was a ratings ploy,” she said. “It was absolutely something that shocked people; it wasn’t predictable, and people didn’t see it coming. It’s our fourth season; there’s not a lot of spontaneity left. And business is business; I understand that, but I want there to be some cooperation between the business end and the creative end, so there’s some way of keeping it real.”

Heigl’s Emmys statement also after she temporarily suspended contract negotiations with Grey’s Anatomy‘s creators as she sought a raise she felt would put her on pair with other cast members, such a Ellen Pompeo, who made $200,000 per episode at the time, according to Vanity Fair. “Katie is disappointed and hurt that (producer) Touchstone doesn’t value her as much as her other costars, especially Sandra Oh and Isaiah Washington,” a source told People at the time.

At a panel weeks after Heigl’s Emmys statement, creator Shonda Rhimes claimed that wrote “the back half [of Grey’s Anatomy Season 4] light for Katherine so she could do her movie,” referring to Knocked Up. In an interview on Oprah’s Next Chapter in 2012, Rhimes revealed that Heigl’s statement “stung.” “On some level it stung, and on some level I was not surprised,” she said. “When people show you who they are, believe them. I carry that with me a lot. It has served me well.”

Two years after the statement, Heigl announced she was leaving Grey’s Anatomy after six seasons in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2010. “I’m done,” she said at the time. “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.” In her interview with Entertainment Weekly, Heigl also revealed that she regretted her statement about the Emmys. At the time I thought I was doing the right thing. And I wanted to be clear that I wasn’t snubbing the Emmys. The night I won [in 2007] was the highlight of my career. I just was afraid that if I said, ‘No comment,’ it was going to come off like I couldn’t be bothered to [enter the race],” she said. “But really, I could have more gracefully said that without going into a private work matter. It was between me and the writers. I ambushed them, and it wasn’t very nice or fair.”

She also responded to claims she was “ungrateful” because of her statement. “The ungrateful thing bothers me the most. And that is my fault,” she said. “I allowed myself to be perceived that way because I was being whiny and I was griping and because I made these snarky comments. So much about living life, to me, is about humility and gratitude. And I’ve tried very hard to have those qualities and be that person and I’m just so disappointed in myself that I allowed it to slip.”

She continued, “Of course, of course I’m grateful. How can I not be grateful? I have been afforded such a wonderful life. And to have come this far and to have this kind of success and the freedom and the choices it allows me.”

She also thanked Grey’s Anatomy for giving her and her husband, Josh Kelley, the financial means to adopt their first child, Naleigh. “The fact that I could even have Naleigh in my life — adoption isn’t cheap — is something to be so unbelievably grateful for,” she said. “I am disappointed in myself for allowing that perception to exist… There’s nothing more gross than [the idea of] somebody in my position being ungrateful.”

She continued, And I hope that in the coming years I can change people’s minds about that. The six years [I spent on Grey’s Anatomy] were important years, and I don’t want them to be demeaned. And that’s another reason why I’m so annoyed with myself. I let myself demean something that was actually very beautiful and very important. Like any job, there are ups and downs. But I don’t want to demean what that experience was. I don’t want it to become about this negativity that I’ve spewed.”

Grey’s Anatomy is available to stream on Hulu.

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