Groundbreaking! It’s true that Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche’s time together was brief, but their example has helped pave the way for other LGBTQ+ couples in Hollywood and beyond.
Former Ellen DeGeneres Show host and Heche hit it off immediately upon meeting in 1997.
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Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres
“I met her at the Vanity Fair party. And it was a chemistry thing that you can’t really describe,” DeGeneres later recalled while speaking with the Tampa Bay Times in May 1998. “It just happened. Obviously, I was attracted to her, but that wasn’t enough. There are a lot of attractive people. She is so unique.”
They first met days before the release of Heche’s film Volcano and months before DeGeneres’ Time magazine cover story with the headline “Yep, I’m Gay.”
Heche took DeGeneres with her on the 1997 Volcano red carpet despite the criticism she might have received. The decision had a profound impact on her career and on society’s perception of same-sex couples.
“I took Ellen, we were told that my contract for Fox would be [ended] and I would be fired. And that the movie that I had just met Harrison Ford on wouldn’t hire me,” Heche recalled during a 2018 interview on the “Irish Goodbye” podcast. “And we went to the premiere — these are the stories that I know people don’t know — we went to the premiere, we were tapped on the shoulder, put into her limo in the third act, and told that we couldn’t have pictures of us taken at the press junket. And both she and I were fired that week.”
The former Brave star was alluding to the fact that it took less than a year for their relationship to go public before Ellen, starring DeGeneres, was canceled by NBC.
I read Anne Heche’s book and have never gotten over the fact at 18, she was dating the man who played her character’s Uncle John.
— Shannon (@GirlwDaMostCake) August 6, 2022
“I tried to back out of her life,” DeGeneres said when speaking to the Tampa Bay Times in May 1998. “I said, ‘I think I’m ruining your career and life, and I don’t think I’m good for you. I think I should get out of here.’”
The couple split up in the year 2000, but not before they’d significantly impacted the art scene.
The star of 13 Minutes claimed on Dancing With the Stars in October 2020, “I was in a relationship with Ellen DeGeneres for three and a half years, and the stigma attached to that relationship was so bad that I was fired from my multi-million-dollar picture deal and I did not work in a studio picture for 10 years.”
Heche referred to her time with DeGeneres as a “beautiful part of her life,” despite the criticism following their romance.
In August of 2020, she reflected on the past love affair in Mrs. Warburton magazine, saying, “I’m proud to have been part of a revolution that helped move equality forward, but there is still work to be done.”
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