Katherine Heigl Reveals Her Fears as a Parent and Talks Leaving L.A. (Exclusive)

“Extra’s” Rachel Lindsay spoke with Katherine and Sarah about the end of the show and their decision to raise their kids outside of Hollywood.

Katherine is all about the work-life balance after missing out on the early years of daughter Naleigh’s life.

She shared, “This beautiful young woman, so proud… I see that little girl, that little being that she was and I missed so much of it. Just missed a lot of it.”

Heigl is now living with her family in Utah. She explained, “I thought if I raised my children in a secluded, simpler, more grounded lifestyle than what we were living in L.A., which was super focused… my career was always the priority, and I just wanted to take a step back from it and I wanted to differentiate between the two parts of me because, you know, what I have to do when I leave the house in Los Angeles is very different than what I have to do when I leave the house to schlep my kids to school in Utah."

She pointed out, “The problem is that you face a lot of the same struggles raising children anywhere. Same fears of are you gonna go down the wrong path or make the wrong choices? It’s still complicated, still really always low-level fear that you’re not doing right but there is just more groundedness for me. I think when I feel that way, I’m a better mother.

While Sarah loved Los Angeles, she wanted to raise her kids “around their cousins and around family” in Vancouver. She added, “Having that and them being able to grow up skiing and playing hockey… Not that I played hockey growing up, but I did just join a mom’s hockey team.”

The two women are very involved with their families, but they still make time for work.

Katherine and Sarah developed an “instantaneous” friendship off-screen, bonding over their kids.

Heigl noted, “I just felt so comfortable with her immediately. I felt safe and I felt I could be my true self. And I think because she shares as much as she gives and I am an over-sharer inherently, I think we all know that. Sometimes it can be very vulnerable and you can feel like, ‘Ohm my God, why did I just tell this person my entire life story, like they’re super judging me now?’ And Sarah, not for one instant, ever made me feel like that. She just instantly related, she would instantly share her own stories. And those relationships are so special… I just need people like that and I’m so grateful for her. She’s just, she’ll never get rid of me.”

Sarah commented that they “clicked right away” and the friendship “just grew over the show.”

She went on, “We laughed so hard. We have very similar senses of humor. We had a great time and that makes it so fun.”

Katherine suggested they do a project in the future that is “straight comedy.”

Of the end of “Firefly Lane,” Sarah shared, “It was just this unicorn job where you loved the people, the part and the story… And it was sort of the timing that it was always intended to be because it follows the arc of the book.”