Katherine Heigl has admitted she thought she had failed as a mother when she failed to bond with her adopted daughter.The actress said her daughter’s initial rejection almost broke her heart as she struggled to cope.
She said she threw herself into work but found being apart from her daughter Naleigh only made the situation worse.
'At first I blamed myself and thought I was a bad mother. It took a while before I could admit to myself that the lack of trust had nothing to do with me,' she said.
The former Grey's Anatomy star and husband Josh Kelley adopted 10-month-old Naleigh from South Korea in 2009.
The actress expected to bond with her daughter immediately - but was upset when she was rejected and described the months that followed as the 'hardest time in my life.'
'I fought incredibly hard for my daughter to accept me as mother. Her rejection almost broke my heart,' she told a German newspaper.
Heigl said she immersed herself in work filming The Ugly Truth with Gerard Butler and Killers with Ashton Kutcher.
But being on a film set away from her family only made the problem worse.
'When I realized that, I immediately cut back on work,' she said.
Heigl said when Naleigh bonded with her husband she felt a failure as a mother.
Now two years since the adoption Heigl said they have a tight bond.
She and her husband have previously said they always planned to adopt a child from Korea.
'My sister Meg is Korean and my parents adopted her three years before I was born,' Heigl said in an magazine interview.
'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.'
She said she threw herself into work but found being apart from her daughter Naleigh only made the situation worse.
Tough role: Katherine Heigl, pictured here with husband Josh Kelley and daughter Naleigh in February, has opened up about her struggle to bond with her child
The former Grey's Anatomy star and husband Josh Kelley adopted 10-month-old Naleigh from South Korea in 2009.
The actress expected to bond with her daughter immediately - but was upset when she was rejected and described the months that followed as the 'hardest time in my life.'
'I fought incredibly hard for my daughter to accept me as mother. Her rejection almost broke my heart,' she told a German newspaper.
Heigl said she immersed herself in work filming The Ugly Truth with Gerard Butler and Killers with Ashton Kutcher.
Focused on family: The actress cut back on work to spend more time with her daughter
'When I realized that, I immediately cut back on work,' she said.
Heigl said when Naleigh bonded with her husband she felt a failure as a mother.
Now two years since the adoption Heigl said they have a tight bond.
She and her husband have previously said they always planned to adopt a child from Korea.
'My sister Meg is Korean and my parents adopted her three years before I was born,' Heigl said in an magazine interview.
'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.'
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