Copyright: Getty Images/BuzzPhoto
As an actress, Katherine Heigl has experienced the pinnacles of success, including an Emmy award for her role in Grey’s Anatomy, but her introduction to motherhood was far less glamorous, the UK Daily Mail reports.
Heigl and her husband Josh Kelley became first-time parents in 2009 when they adopted a 10-month old South Korean girl named Naleigh, and Heigl says she expected to bond with her new baby daughter immediately.
GALLERY: Fancy being a celebrity nanny?
So when Naleigh initially rejected her, Heigl admits her confidence as a mother was shaken, and she felt like a failure.
‘At first I blamed myself and thought I was a bad mother. I fought incredibly hard for my daughter to accept me as a mother,’ she said. ‘Her rejection almost broke my heart.’
Heigl tried to fight the feelings of inadequacy by throwing herself into her acting work, but soon discovered that being away from her family was in fact making the problem worse.
When she returned, Heigl says she realised that her husband had developed an ‘effortless’ bond with Naleigh, which prompted the realisation that perhaps she was trying too hard.
‘Josh hadn’t put any pressure on himself, he was just himself, where I was trying to be the perfect mother,’ she told CNN. ‘I learned a lot from him, actually. I started following his lead and just had to let it go.'
Heigl says it took a year of working on the relationship before her daughter really trusted her, and says that two years on, the pair have a very tight bond.
Heigl and Kelley say they would definitely consider adopting another child, although they haven’t ruled out the possibility of having a biological child of their own either.
14 Comments
Kids can spot a fake a mile away ..
ReplyI'm not normally a violent person but I hope that the prison guards beating up on that prisoner are all fired, charged with this brutal attack & imprisoned in the same jail as their victim. Poetic Justice..
ReplyShe thought she was a bad mother, so decided to abandon her family - because, apparently, it's all about how SHE feels.
1 ReplyI am glad that she finally feels she has a bond with her child, however the focus and concern should be on the adopted child - not the insecure feelings of the parent. For what reason she thought removing herself from the situation by "throwing herself" into work is beyond me - adopted children can have abandonment issues and by the parent removing themselves, even partially, from the situation when things get too hard just increases the child's issues. Not that we can rely on articles in the media about adoption - unfortunately they tend to be flippant and glamorise adoption rather than highlighting the real issues involved.
ReplyFashion accessories aren't supposed to be so difficult.
Reply