(Harper's Bazaar)
Katherine Heigl says her 18-month-old adopted daughter is “100 percent” fine after undergoing open heart surgery before leaving her native Korea due to a congenital heart disease.
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the 31-year-old actress said daughter Naleigh was initially described as a baby with special needs, but in actuality she had heart disease, which was corrected by the surgery before she was brought home in September of last year.
“She has a scar, so she won’t be wearing bikinis, which is fine by us,” Heigl tells the magazine.
“A lot of children don’t find forever homes because they’re on that special-needs list, even if it’s because of something as simple as her mother smoked cigarettes for a month, not knowing she was pregnant. That’s not so huge that you couldn’t handle it.”
Heigl said she always knew she would adopt from Korea, as her half sister Meg is from there as well.
Now, she is happily enjoying her new life as a mom, in spite of the little glitches of parenthood, like when the toddler threw up on her lingerie.
“"If parent time interferes with sexy time, that's that," she joked to the mag.
The star of the upcoming film “Killers” says she doesn’t want her to be spoiled, but instead hopes her privilege will allow her to seek out things that fulfill her.
“I don’t want her to have a Beemer on her 16th birthday or spend the summer at a beach house with friends. Nope, you want a beach house, you pay for it.”