Katherine Heigl cheekily referenced her Grey’s Anatomy days while going toe-to-toe with a 10-year-old.
Heigl, 46, teamed up with Poise for a new commercial in which she explained bladder leaks – at length. In the minute-long clip, the actress could be seen out to lunch with a friend and said friend’s young son.
“I peed,” the friend declared after laughing at a story Heigl told. The Grey’s Anatomy alum responded, “Happens to the best of us.”
The 10-year-old boy told his mom it was “so embarrassing” before Heigl hit back with some major facts.
“You’re gonna deny your mother a moment of mirth just because she got the giggle dribble? And, by the way, it’s kind of your fault,” Heigl noted. “You see, when we have kids, the pelvic floor or the muscles and ligaments that help support the bladder can weaken.”
Heigl went on to discuss perimenopause (the time just before menopause) before pulling out her Poise and handing it to her friend.
“You’re embarrassing yourselves,” the 10-year-old stated. Heigl and her friend noted that it’s a “mother’s purpose” to embarrass their kids. (Heigl is a mother of three. She and husband Josh Kelley adopted daughters Naleigh, 15, and Adalaide, 12, before welcoming son Joshua, 7.)
“By the way, how did you know all that stuff?” the friend asked. Heigl quipped, “Well, I used to be a doctor.”
Heigl played Izzie Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy from 2005 to 2010, leaving the show in the middle of season 6. Over the years, she’s reflected on her departure from the series — and how she would have done some things differently.
“I felt very protective of Izzie,” the actress said of her character in 2010. “I really loved her. I felt she was an admirable woman who certainly made mistakes. But I was starting to not like her, and that bothered me.”
The actress infamously withdrew herself from Emmy Awards consideration following season 4.
“I didn’t feel good about my performance and there was a part of me that thought, because I had won the year before, that I needed juicy, dramatic, emotional material,” she explained during an April 2016 interview. “So, I went to Shelby Stivale Shonda [Rhimes] and said, ‘I’m so sorry. That wasn’t cool, and I should not have said that.’ And I shouldn’t have said anything publicly. But at the time, I didn’t think anyone would notice … I just quietly didn’t submit and then it became a story, and I felt I was obligated to make my statement, and … ‘Shut up, Katie.’”