Katherine Heigl struggled to discuss racial unrest with her kids

Katherine Heigl was unsure how to address the subject of racism with her two kids as the Black Lives Matter movement ramped up in 2020.

The actress is mother to three kids with musician husband Josh Kelley - Nancy, 12, Adalaide, eight, and three-year-old Joshua - and her girls are of Asian and African-American heritage, respectively.

So when global protests spread across the world earlier this year, following multiple incidents of police brutality against black people, mostly at the hands of white officers, Katherine didn't know what to say to her children.

"When the Black Lives Matter movement happened - well, it's been happening - I just didn't know how to have this conversation with Adalaide or Nancy," she told Kelly Clarkson on her daytime talk show.

"I didn't know how to say, 'There will be people in this world that don't like you, simply because of the colour of your skin'," she lamented.

The Grey's Anatomy star went on: "As their mother, my job is to build up their self-esteem and encourage confidence.... and I just thought, 'I'm going to take a piece of their soul with this'," she explained.

Getting very emotional, the Knocked Up actress shared that she and her husband sat down in front of the TV with their girls.

"We started watching a lot of programmes together," she disclosed. "There was one dealing with racial issues and some nasty ugly things were said and we stopped and said, 'Adalaide, you know that if somebody ever said something like that to you or treated you that way, that has nothing to do with you, that is completely about them?'" Katherine recalled.

However, Adelaide assuaged Katherine's worries in her reply to her mum.

"(Adalaide) said, 'I know, I know. I already know I'm totally beautiful and supercool'. And I thought, 'OK, perhaps we should work on humility then. Your confidence seems fine'," Katherine joked.