Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl glams it up with a Roberto Cavalli gown and looks beautiful for the cover of the latest issue of InStyle Magazine (August 2009).

The 30 year-old actress, who stars with Gerard Butler in a new romantic comedy “The Ugly Truth”, opens up about family tragedy, meeting her husband Josh Kelley and the controversial Emmy snub. Here are some highlights:

On meeting her husband, singer-songwriter Josh Kelley: “I was fed up with trying to be somebody else and got really lucky and met a great guy who loved me for me. It’s hard—I think women have to struggle to define themselves, to find what they want. I keep telling my friends, seriously, write down what you want and make it specific. Like, I’m talking, do you want a beach house in Venice? Be specific and be creative and define not only what you want in your career but what you want in your personal life.”

On family tragedies—her brother’s death in 1986 and her mother’s battle with breast cancer: “Here’s the deal: This is what my family and I have been through, and although we’re not perfect, we are survivors. [My siblings and I] were taught to overcome—although that’s not the right word because you don’t really overcome that kind of stuff, but you do learn to live with it and you learn to live despite it… No one in my family ever said, ‘Life’s not worth living because this happened or that happened to me.’ It’s always worth living. And living well.”

On being criticized last summer for saying the Grey’s Anatomy material she’d been given to work with wasn’t Emmy-worthy: “Now I’ve got this moniker that I’m the foot-in-the-mouth gal, and I keep thinking, In what way? Because I said something you don’t agree with? Because I said something you don’t like? I’m just telling you my opinion. I hate the idea that I can’t be honest about how I feel about things because it’s going to piss somebody off who feels differently. That seems preposterous to me.”

On “The Ugly Truth” ‘R’ ratings: “I know this is going to sound bad but I’m really glad [Ugly Truth is rated] R. I didn’t want to do another PG-13 movie. [In any real-life contentious relationship with romantic underpinnings] you’re probably going to drop the F-bomb once in a while. You’re probably going to say some things that are kind of harsh. And you’re definitely going to talk about sex. It doesn’t have to be so Snow White and Prince Charming.”

Katherine Heigl InStyle Photos

[images: InStyle]