Anne Heche addressed Ellen DeGeneres relationship and ‘alien’ sexuality in new memoir
Anne Heche opens up about her relationship with Ellen Degeneres in posthumous memoir. (Getty; Viva Editions)
Anne Heche opened up about her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres in a memoir written before her death.
Call Me Anne, which Heche completed shortly before her untimely passing, details her relationship with the talk show host and her views on her own sexuality.
Heche and DeGeneres were considered Hollywood’s first lesbian power couple, having dated from 1997 to 2000.
It was Heche’s only public relationship with a woman, and in the book, she explains that she never labelled her sexuality.
“I did not, personally, identify as a lesbian. I simply fell in love! It was, to be clear, as odd to me as anyone else. There were no words to describe how I felt.
“Gay didn’t feel right, and neither did straight. Alien might be the best fit, I sometimes thought.
Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche attend the 49th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (Ron Galella/Getty)
“What, why, and how I fell in love with a person instead of their gender, I would have loved to have answered if anyone had asked, but as I said earlier, no one ever did.
“I am happy that I was able to tell you in this book – once and for all.”
She adds in the book: “I was labeled [sic] outrageous because I fell in love with a woman. I had never been with a woman before I dated Ellen.”
Heche had previously spoken out against Hollywood’s effective ‘blacklist’ against her because of her relationship with Degeneres, saying it cost her a large movie deal.
Anne Heche died in August after she crashed her car into a home in Los Angeles. She is survived by her sons Homer and Atlas.
Shortly before her death, she turned in the manuscript for Call Me Anne, which will be published in January 2023.
The book is sequel to her first memoir Call Me Crazy, released in 2001, in which she alleged that her father had sexually abused her as a child.
The new book will also cover her professional relationship with her mentor Harrison Ford, whom she starred opposite in Six Days, Seven Nights.
