The Untold Truth Of Katherine Heigl

As a blonde, white woman of Germanic and Irish heritage, Katherine Heigl hasn’t experienced the sting of racism in America. Her sister, who was adopted from Korea, has, which hit home for Heigl. “Because I was raised with adoption, looking beyond skin color was the norm for me, and I just believed that love is love — it doesn’t matter what we look like,” she told Parents. “But then when I asked my sister, Meg, if she had been treated one way when she was out in public with our parents and a different way when she was out by herself without them, she said, ‘Oh yeah, all the time!’”

That came into focus even more when Heigl brought home two non-white daughters, Naleigh and Adalaide, who she adopted from South Korea and Louisiana, respectively. Heigl told People, “Josh and I felt like we had lived in a very light bubble our whole life. … I even think when the girls came into our lives, I didn’t assume everyone felt like I did, but I assumed the majority did — that the majority didn’t see race and color.”

However, she’s since come to realize that for her daughters as they grow older, experiencing racism will sadly become inevitable. When that happens, she said, “I just want them to feel safe enough with us that they can tell us if they are hurt that way so that we, as a family, can come together and reduce that. Because I can’t pretend that it might not ever happen.”