Katherine Heigl was heartbroken when her adopted daughter forged an instant connection with husband Josh Kelley because she was initially rejected by the young tot.
 
The star adopted baby Naleigh from Korea in 2009 when she was 10 months old, but Heigl confesses the mother-daughter bond was surprisingly slow to form.
 
During an interview with German publication Bild am Sonntag, she said, "People are always talking about the strong bond between mother and daughter, this magical connection - but we didn't have that. (It was) the hardest time in my life... I fought incredibly hard for my daughter to accept me as (her) mother. Her rejection almost broke my heart."
 
And the actress reveals the experience was made even more painful by the fact that the young child immediately took to singer Kelley.
 
She continued, "At first I blamed myself and thought I was a bad mother. It took a while before I could admit to myself that the lack of trust had nothing to do with me."
 
Little Naleigh is now four.