Katherine Heigl makes rare public appearance at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Katherine Heigl returned to the public eye for the first time in years at a three-day fundraising event held at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago.
The annual, multi-day fundraiser hosted by Wine, Women & Shoes, which raised $5.5 million for Big Dog Ranch Rescue — America’s largest no-kill shelter — welcomed the Grey’s Anatomy star, 47, along with other celebrities and fashion designers.
Speaking to USA Today’s Palm Beach Post at the event, Heigl said she was there in support of Big Dog, a non-profit whose work to “solve the pet overpopulation issue” aligns with her family’s animal welfare and advocacy group, Jason Heigl Foundation.
“Our biggest goal right now really is to diminish the number of unwanted litters coming into this country, which is what is overcrowding our shelters,” the 27 Dresses actor told the outlet.
“We hear the word ‘shelter,’ and we think these animals are safe there, and they are not. It’s not the shelter’s fault, and it’s not the fault of the shelters’ workers. It’s that our country is overrun with puppy-mill breeders,” she added.
Heigl, who last made a public appearance at the 2024 Emmys for a special Grey’s Anatomy reunion, has avoided publicly discussing her political leanings. In 2014, she admitted she was “terrible at politics,” telling USA Today, “I don’t understand the politics of things.”
The Independent has contacted Heigl’s representative for comment.
Other notable figures at the event included popular TV dog trainer Cesar Millan and Trump ally, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.
It has been three years since Heigl last starred on screen, appearing as news producer Tully Hart in the final season of Netflix’s friendship drama Firefly Lane in 2023. She is best known for her breakout role as Dr. Izzie Stevens in Grey’s Anatomy from 2005 to 2010.
During her time on the long-running medical drama, Heigl led a string of romcoms, playing a pregnant journalist in 2007’s Knocked Up, a perpetual bridesmaid in 27 Dresses (2008) and a lovelorn TV producer in 2009’s The Ugly Truth. She has also starred in the espionage thriller series State of Affairs and the legal drama Suits.
In recent years, Heigl has largely stepped away from the spotlight to focus on her family and animal activism. She and her husband, Josh Kelly, live in Uah with their three children: daughters Naleigh and Adalaide, and son Joshua.
Opening up about her decision to raise her children in Utah on a 2022 episode of Today with Jenna & Hoda, Heigl said: “You know, it’s odd. I think some people are mountain people and I think some people are beach people. I’m sort of a mountain person and have always been that way.”
“My mom realized, because we went out to LA when I was 17 and hustled and hustled for years, right? And I think she realized at a certain point that I needed somewhere to escape to and kind of clear my head and that grounded me,” Heigl recalled. “So we started trying to find, and dreaming about trying to find, that perfect place. And we found Utah and then I started making enough money to be able to afford to do that.”
Heigl and her mom, Nancy, founded their animal welfare organization in 2008.
