Katherine Heigl's 3 Kids: All About Naleigh, Adalaide and Joshua

Mar. 15, 2025

Katherine Heigl with her family.Photo: Katherine Heigl Instagram

Katherine Heiglis raising her three kids away from the spotlight.

TheFirefly Lanestar shares daughters Naleigh, 15, and Adalaide, 12, as well as son Joshua, 8, with her husband Josh Kelley. The pair met on the set of Kelley’s music video “Only You” in 2005 andtied the knotin December 2007 in Park City, Utah.

Heigl and Kelley wereeager to start a familyfrom the get-go.

“I always thought I’d be scared, but I’m ready,” Kelley told PEOPLE ahead of their wedding. “I’m 27, and I feel I’ve done more than most people will do in a lifetime. I’m ready to settle down, start a family and build my Kelley empire.”

The couple became first-time parents in September 2009 afteradopting Naleighfrom South Korea. They grew their Kelley empire again in 2012 and 2017, respectively, with theadoption of Adalaideand thebirth of Joshua.

Today, the family of five lives a quiet life on their ranch in Utah, which they moved to full-time in 2010. “In our minds, this becamethe best place to be for our family,” the mom of three told PEOPLE. “It’s quiet and there’s a different way to living here.”

Heigl continued, “Our time is centered around being home and being together … it’s grounded. I think we just appreciate the quietness of this lifestyle. There is just more time for each other.”

While theGrey’s Anatomyalum chooses to raise her kids away from Hollywood, she is not shy when it comes to sharing her love for her family on social media.

In January 2023, Heigl spoke with NewBeauty about how she’s raising her daughtersnot to be people-pleasers.

“I do think there is this under-the-radar, unsaid, collectively understood vibe that women are meant to be ‘pleasing.’ I see it in my young daughters, and it’s just this odd, inherent social thing,” she said. “I’m certainly not teaching them to be like that, but they’re picking it up somewhere. I keep saying, ‘I need you to understand that that is not your job.'”

Keep reading for everything to know about Katherine Heigl’s three kids.

Nancy Leigh “Naleigh” Mi-Eun Kelley, 15

Katherine Heigl Instagram

In 2009, Heigl and Kelley adopted their first child, daughter Nancy Leigh Mi-Eun Kelley (affectionately nicknamed Naleigh), from South Korea when she was an infant. Naleigh was born with acongenital heart issueand underwent open heart surgery before uniting with her parents.

TheLife as We Know Itstar has said that adoption was always part of her and Kelley’sfamily plan. “Josh and I started talking about [adoption] before we were even engaged,” she shared withScholastic Parent & Childin 2014. “My sister Meg is Korean, and my parents adopted her three years before I was born.I wanted my own family to resemble the one I came from, so I always knew I wanted to adopt from Korea. We have talked about having biological children as well, but we decided to adopt first. I just wanted to be a mom. So however we do that, it’s fine with me.”

These days, Naleigh is entering her teen years. In a 2021 interview withParents, Heigl spoke about her experience asa mom of tweensand shared that Naleigh is “one of two kids in her grade” at school without a phone of her own.

“I know she thinks I’m being a tyrant, but I worry about the effect of social media on kids her age. I watchedThe Social Dilemma. So I’m like, ‘Go ahead and hate me. I’m trying to save you!’ " she said, adding that Naleigh has “been sneaking my iPad and creating TikTok videos without my permission.”

OnNaleigh’s 13th birthday, the proud mom penned an emotional tribute to her daughter on Instagram and shared the first photos she and Kelley received of Naleigh. “This girl. The girl that made me a mother. The girl that gave my life purpose. Meaning. Direction. Boundless eternal love. This girl turns 13 today. 13. She is officially a teenager. I can’t seem to process it,” Heigl wrote in part.

Although Heigl strives to provide a normal childhood for her kids in Utah, they have accompanied her to work on occasion through the years. When she was little, Naleigh made her debut onThe Viewand stole the show. Ten years later, in November 2022, she watched hermom appear on the talk show again from the audience.

Adalaide Marie Hope Kelley, 12

Heigl and Kelleyadopted their second child, a daughter named Adalaide, from Louisiana in 2012.

During an appearance onThe Tonight Show, Heigl told hostJay Lenothat Adalaide’s adoption was “serendipitous.” She explained that she and Kelley had initially wanted to adopt internationally again, but the process had become very difficult. “Korea had gotten very hard to adopt from and China had a very long waiting list. I was kind of, ‘Tick, tick, tick. Any day now!’ " she said.

She went on to share that they had only just begun looking into domestic adoption when they received a call about Adalaide: “My lawyer called and said, ‘There’s a birth mother and she’s due in four weeks. She’s all yours if you want her!’ "

As Adalaide and her sister have gotten older, they have begun to “have more questions” about their origins, as Heigl shared in her April 2021 cover story forParents.

“We have said to them, ‘This is your story. We don’t have any information about your biological fathers, but we do have a bit about your biological mothers,’ " Heigl said of Naleigh and Adalaide.

Later in the interview, Heigl discussed Adalaide’s personality and hobbies. “She’s my pistol, all piss and vinegar,” the actress said of her “fearless” middle child. “She actually wants to start barrel racing,” she added of Adalaide’s passion for riding horses on their ranch. “And she loves to make Naleigh laugh.”

In April 2022, Heiglshared a carousel of photoson Instagram in honor of Adalaide’s 10th birthday.

Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr., 8

In June 2016, PEOPLE confirmed that Heigl and Kelley wereexpecting their third child.

“The Kelley clan is thrilled to announce that we are expecting a third addition to our family,” the couple told PEOPLE in a statement at the time. “Naleigh and Adalaide could not be more excited to welcome their new sibling into the fold and Josh and I are overflowing with joy and gratitude.”

Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr.was bornon Dec. 20, 2016. Just after his birth, the couple and their newborngraced the cover of PEOPLEand opened up about how Joshua came to be.

“It was a surprise! I knew I wanted to expand our family, I knew I wanted to have more children,” Heigl said. “I just didn’t know how we were going to go about that.”

She later admitted during her interview forParentsthat she “was so relieved” when shefound out she was having a boy. “It was actually a big reason why I was vacillating between trying to get pregnant or adopting again, since with adoption you can specify the sex,” she explained, adding jokingly, “I just thought, another girl could mean lifelong therapy for all of us.”

At 5 years old, Joshua was “obsessed with Spider-Man and the Hulk,” as Heigl toldParents. He also loves tohelp his mom out on set. While filming season 2 of her Netflix showFirefly Lane, Heigl brought along Joshua, who posed for a photo with his mom while wearing a director’s headset. “Future director? ❤ #FireflyLane #FireflyLaneSeason2 #behindthescenes #family,” the actress captioned the snap on Instagram.

source: people.com