Partway through the sixth season of Shonda Rhimes’ massive hit “Grey’s Anatomy” (specifically, in the episode “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked,” which aired in January 2010), we see Isobel “Izzie” Stevens, one of the series’ original surgical interns played by Katherine Heigl, for the final time. To call Izzie’s exit abrupt is … an understatement. After getting fired from Seattle Grace-Mercy West hospital, Izzie flees, leaving her new husband, Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), behind. When she comes back in “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked,” she suggests that maybe she and Alex can fix things; he tells her that’s not possible, and Izzie is never seen or heard from again.
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Characters leave “Grey’s Anatomy” all the time. Patrick Dempsey’s leading man, Dr. Derek Shepherd (often referred to as “McDreamy”), left the series in season 11, Sandra Oh hung up her stethoscope in season 10 when her character, Dr. Cristina Yang, moved to Switzerland, and even the titular Meredith Grey, played by Ellen Pompeo, left the series in season 19. (Pompeo is still an executive producer, provides the show’s voice-over, and, for my money, pops up on the long-running medical drama often enough that it’s like she never left at all). So, what happened with Heigl?
I’ll be honest: a lot of nasty rumors concerning Rhimes, Heigl, and bad on-set behavior swirled around Heigl’s exit, but I’ll just provide the actor’s own words. In the 2021 book “How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy” by entertainment journalist Lynette Rice, Heigl said she left when she and her husband Josh Kelley adopted a daughter from South Korea. “I started a family, and it changed everything for me,” Heigl revealed. “It changed my desire to work full time. I went on 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.” Then, in 2022, she said her departure was also due to her mental health. “I think with ‘Grey’s’ at that time, I didn’t feel I had any other choice [but to leave],” Heigl said to SiriusXM host Bevy Smith in an interview. “I was breaking, it was breaking me, and I was young […] I mean, I was vibrating at a level that I was gonna get sick and, you know, I did get mentally sick.”
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