Katherine Heigl couldn't "fathom" swapping her Utah life for a return to Hollywood

She told E! News: "When they're little, that's the most delicious and exciting time for you as a parent, but when they're teenagers is when they need you the most, and that's where I'm at.

"I just don't see how I could go off and make a movie for three months or a television series for nine months.

"Nothing shoots in Utah, so I have to go on location, and it's just it's not something right now that I can fathom doing successfully.

"I think I would be so torn and divided. I don't know how much of my attention I could give a project when I'm worried about my kids at home."

Katherine's last movie role was in 2021's 'Fear of Rain' - although she has been cast as Patty Amore in musical rom-com 'That's Amore!' - and she hasn't appeared on television since the second part of 'Firefly Lane' season two aired in 2023.

Occasionally, the 46-year-old star - who has found "so much joy and contentment and clarity and grounding" in her new life - wonders if she should be trying to rediscover her acting career.

She explained: "Sometimes I ask myself if I should be in the game, if I should be hustling, if I should be more ambitious. And I just think I really don't want to.

"If you don't want that, then don't do it, just because you think that's what you're supposed to do, or that's what society expects from you."

Instead, the 'Grey's Anatomy' finds herself in a "happy and content" place spending time with her kids.

She added: "I'm really happy and content and I'm so grateful for the years I had in the industry, in the hustle.

"My children were younger, and though I will always regret so much of the time I missed with them while I was hustling, while I was working, I am grateful to be here now."