Izzie Stevens got cancer, married Alex, survived the cancer, and then disappeared in season six. She eventually returned for a second, admitting that she no longer felt like Seattle was her home. Alex later received divorce papers, and now we know that Izzie secretly had Alex’s twins, lives on a Kansas ranch, and became a surgical oncologist.
Katherine Heigl ‘The exit essentially began in 2008 when she withdrew her name from Emmy because she didn’t feel the material deserved it. In 2010, the character completely disappeared. She has said in the years since that she would like to return to the character, but Shonda Rhimes hasn’t. “I’m done with this story,” she told TVLine in 2015.
A rising romcom star at the time, Heigl starred in a few more romcoms before returning to television with State of Affairs, then Doubt. More recently, she switched to Suits and the 2020 series Firefly Lane.