Katherine Heigl Returns to the Emmys Red Carpet After 10-Year Hiatus: See Her Then and Now!
The actress is set to reunite with her 'Grey's Anatomy' costars at the 2023 Emmy Awards, 16 years after she won the Emmy for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens
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Katherine Heigl is back on the Emmys red carpet!
The star, 45, hit the carpet at the 2023 Emmy Awards on Monday, her first time at the show since 2014, wearing the reigning color of awards season — bright red!
She stepped out in a strapless Reem Acra gown with a statement pin at the waist and sparkling Rahaminov diamonds. she also matched her makeup to her dress with a bold red lip.
"I wore my own shoes," she told E!'s Live from the Red Carpet. "My own sparkly Louboutins."
Heigl, who most recently starred in the Netflix breakout hit Firefly Lane, is set to reunite with her Grey's Anatomy costars at this year's ceremony.
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Heigl lasted attended the Emmys in 2014 alongside husband musician Josh Kelley. She presented that year wearing a vintage silk John Hayles dress, Chopard jewels, Christian Louboutin shoes and an Oroton clutch.
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In 2007, Heigl won the Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for her role as Izzie Stevens on the long-running ABC hit medical drama. She nodded to Old Hollywood glamour in a white fishtail Zac Posen gown, Mary Norton clutch and classic red lips, plus a romantic updo.
The following year, she declined Emmy consideration for her work on Grey's Anatomy, which became a highly publicized controversy at the time.
She opened up about the backlash to Howard Stern in 2016, saying she "wasn't feeling good" about her work that season, so she didn't submit to the panel for Emmy consideration — and she didn't expect her decision to become public or blow up.
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“There was a part of me that thought, because I had won the year before, that I needed juicy, dramatic, emotional material, and I just didn’t have that that season,” she explained at the time, adding that she was "really embarrassed" after making headlines and apologized to show runner Shonda Rhimes.
“I went in to Shonda and said, 'I’m so sorry, that wasn’t cool; I should not have said that,' " Heigl recalled. “I shouldn’t have said anything publicly, but at the time I didn’t think anybody would notice; I didn’t think that journalists would see who submitted and who didn’t. I just quietly didn’t submit. And then it became a story, and then I felt I was obligated to make my statement.”
Since then, the actress has been open about the mental toll of being labeled "difficult" for speaking up about her experiences on the Grey's Anatomy. And in recent years, her costars have also spoken out in support of her candor.
Ellen Pompeo (who played Meredith Grey for 19 seasons) defended Heigl in an episode of her Tell Me podcast last spring, when she was joined by another Grey's alum, Kate Walsh. The pair discussed comments that Heigl made more than a decade ago about working on the series.
"I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working, and she was 100 percent right," Pompeo said at the time. "And had she said that today, she'd be a complete hero. But she's ahead of her time, made a statement about our crazy hours and of course, [it was like], 'Let's slam a woman and call her ungrateful.' "
Added Pompeo: "When the truth is, she's 100 percent honest, and it's absolutely correct what she said. She was f------ ballsy for saying it — she was telling the truth. She wasn't lying!"
See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 75th annual Primetime Emmy Awards as they're broadcasting live on Fox from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
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