Katherine Heigl on Utah: it is spectacular and wonderful. In the latest issue of Good Housekeeping, Katherine Heigl opened the doors of her stunning Utah farm to the mag and revealed that she owns over 30 animals with husband Josh Kelley. Inside the magazine, Heigl talked about her Mormon faith, trying to keep her daughters wholesome, losing her sibling and why she prefers Utah to California.
Katherine Heigl Utah connection is very deep, according to an interview that is featured in the September issue of Good Housekeeping.
Heigl took part in a very country inspired photo shoot for the publication where she posed with her daughters Nancy Leigh “Naleigh” Mi-Eun Kelley and Adalaide Marie Hope Kelley in her grand kitchen that looks like it was designed by Martha Stewart or Paula Deen.
Mrs Katherine Marie Heigl also took pictures with some of the 36 animals that she has running around the impressive ranch.
Heigl and her husband Josh Kelley have horses, cats, dogs, chickens, goats and donkeys.
Kelley who married Heigl in 2007 in Deer Valley, Utah, has become an amateur equestrian since purchasing the 25 acres farm in the middle of nowhere (there are no other homes in the area, the barns are surrounded by endless forest, a river and lots of serenity).
The Knocked Up star who has 11 horses said that riding is like dancing and she enjoys it. Heigl on Utah:
“Utah is spectacularly beautiful, the people are wonderful and kind, it’s an easy commute from L.A. — and there’s no traffic!”
The television producer also told the magazine that she loves Utah because of its link to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more than 60% of Utah residents are Mormon).
The Bug Buster actress who became a Mormon after the death of her brother Jason in Connecticut in 1986 said that religion is still important to her and she believes that there is a God.
Heigl credits the Mormon church for making her the woman she is – the talented lady is disciplined and has self respect (because of her faith she decided not to live with Kelley until they were married.).
For those reasons, she wants her daughters to be raised at least half of the year in Utah.
Heigl says that when her daughters are in Utah, they get to be kids, they play outside and create bonds that will last a lifetime.
Whereas back in Los Angeles, life gets a bit crazy. Heigl claimed that after the Grey’s Anatomy drama, she decided to prioritize and put family first.
The former child star (Heigl has been working since the age of 9) stated that she and her musician husband have agreed to work only half of the year.
For six months she is in Hollywood filming State of Affairs, while he is on tour and for the other half of the year the family is back in Utah, where the girls have friends and attend public school.
The 35-year-old actress told the publication that she is determined to give her kids a real childhood, like the one her Mormon parents gave her.
The actress confessed that her parents (her mother Nancy Heigl was originally a Catholic and her father Paul Heigl a Lutheran) joined the Mormon church after their 15-year-old son died falling off behind a truck.
According to Heigl, religion provided her parents with some of the answers they were searching for and enabled them to pull through after the tragedy.
She is proud of her upbringing in the church, because it thought her to respect the rules and her elders.
The mom-of-two even complained to the mag saying that Naleigh who loves horseback riding prefers to read her bedtime story with her dad because he plays the guitar and sings to her.
Heigl also opened up about her younger years, telling the mag she was very naive as a kid and a teenager, and her friends often took advantage of her kindness.
She explained that she was a late bloomer, skinny and flat chested.
But at the age of 14, she was blessed with curves, got some self-confidence and she landed a big acting gig in My Father the Hero, which starred French now Russian icon Gérard Depardieu.
The few friends she had, got jealous of her new found fame and fabulous figure, and rapidly turned their backs on her.
So, she made the decision to be a people-pleaser in order to win her former pals back.
But after doing Under Siege 2, Heigl realized that was not the person she wanted be and changed her ways.
In addition of Katherine Heigl Utah love, the actress also touched on lighter topics in Good Housekeeping, she confessed that she hates high heel shoes because they give her feet a weird shape, she revealed that as a teenager she prayed to God for her breasts to grow and she monitors her niece’s activities on Instagram to make sure she stays away from sexual contents.
Heigl’s new show State of Affairs will premiere Monday, Nov. 2 at 10 PM on NBC. The initial reviews are somewhat positive, but she will face a lot of competition in this time slot from more established programs like Castle (ABC) and NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS).
