Image Credit: ANDREW ECCLES FOR EWBy popular demand (mostly from our international readers who don’t have access to Entertainment Weekly), here’s the version of my Katherine Heigl Q&A that ran in the magazine…

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?
KATHERINE HEIGL: 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?
HEIGL: 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. READ FULL STORY »