Katherine Heigl Reflects on Leaving 'Grey's Anatomy' & What She Regrets Not Doing Sooner

Katherine Heigl is looking back.

The 42-year-old actress reflected on leaving Grey’s Anatomy in 2010 in an interview with People.

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“I don’t think you get through life without any regrets, but you can create some purpose from it,” she said while reflecting on her career as a whole.

Following her 2007 Emmy win, she withdrew her name from contention for a repeat nomination, saying she “did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant” a nomination, which led to a reputation for being “difficult” in Hollywood amid other incidents.

“I know there’s a better way to deal with those things than I did. I could have handled it with more grace,” she said.

“I don’t actually regret leaving Grey’s Anatomy — I did the right thing for me and for my family — but I do regret the heightened drama I was feeling at that time. If I’d known anything about meditation then, or had been talking to a therapist or someone to help me through some of the fear that I was steeped in, I think I would have been more calm in how I approached what boundaries I needed to create to thrive,” she continued.

“I certainly regret not learning earlier how to manage my anxiety better. Living at that heightened level of anxiety…created a defensiveness in me and wariness and assuming that people were against me. I let my mind run rampant without the tools to properly manage that,” she went on to say.

“The last five years has been really about learning how to manage that anxiety and to control my own thoughts. I learned that not managing stress leads to not dealing with negativity or frustration or disappointment in the proper way.”

She also further reflected on being labeled “difficult.”