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

Katherine Heigl is raising her three kids away from the spotlight.

The Firefly Lane star shares daughters Naleigh, 14, and Adalaide, 12, as well as son Joshua, 7, with her husband Josh Kelley. The pair met on the set of Kelley's music video "Only You" in 2005 and tied the knot in December 2007 in Park City, Utah.

Heigl and Kelley were eager to start a family from 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 after adopting Naleigh from South Korea. They grew their Kelley empire again in 2012 and 2017, respectively, with the adoption of Adalaide and the birth 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 became the 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 the Grey's Anatomy alum 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 daughters not 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, 14

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 a congenital heart issue and underwent open heart surgery before uniting with her parents.

The Life as We Know It star has said that adoption was always part of her and Kelley's family plan. "Josh and I started talking about [adoption] before we were even engaged," she shared with Scholastic Parent & Child in 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 with Parents, Heigl spoke about her experience as a mom of tweens and 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 watched The 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."

On Naleigh'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 on The View and stole the show. Ten years later, in November 2022, she watched her mom appear on the talk show again from the audience.

"Naleigh came to us at 9 months and three days later I got on a plane and went to work in Atlanta. At the time, becoming a new mother I was just like, 'I got it, I got it, I can handle this,' " Heigle explained on the show. "You know, 'They've told us we can have it all. We can have careers and families and it's all going to be great. It's all going to work out.' I never saw that baby ... she bonded with my husband — of course — he was with her. So I was always afraid I had missed this opportunity to bond with her, and that she didn't love me."

Adalaide Marie Hope Kelley, 12

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

During an appearance on The Tonight Show, Heigl told host Jay Leno that 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 for Parents.

"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, Heigl shared a carousel of photos on Instagram in honor of Adalaide's 10th birthday.

"My beautiful, fiery, witty girl turns 10 today," Heigl began. "Ten years ago today Adalaide made her way into the world and into our arms. She was the smallest baby I had ever seen. Weighing in at just 4 pounds 11 ounces. I could place her in the palm of my hand and her little legs would only reach an inch past my wrist. I started calling her peanut after that. My beautiful, delicious, observant peanut."

Joshua Bishop Kelley Jr., 7

In June 2016, PEOPLE confirmed that Heigl and Kelley were expecting 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 born on Dec. 20, 2016. Just after his birth, the couple and their newborn graced the cover of PEOPLE and 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 for Parents that she "was so relieved" when she found 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 told Parents. He also loves to help his mom out on set. While filming season 2 of her Netflix show Firefly 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.

Joshua recently started kindergarten as well, which made Heigl a bit emotional. On the first day of school, Heigl posted a series of photos of all three of her children, writing in the caption, "Well it's that time of year again. Back to school for these two and off to kindergarten for my last and final baby." She continued, "I feel funny. Like maybe I might start crying. Or maybe I'll just run around the house for the next seven hours intermittently yelling FREEDOM!!! We'll see. 😏❤️."