Anne Heche wrote in her memoirs that Ellen Degeneres was the “only woman” she ever fell in love with.

In her posthumous memoir Call Me Anne, actress Anne Heche wrote that Ellen was the “first and only woman I ever fell in love with” adding that she was “hypnotized” by how open the comedian was about her sexuality.

Famously, Heche dated the talk show host from 1997 to 2000, becoming one of Hollywood’s first openly lesbian couples in the process.

During her life, Heche had been open about the fact that her father, a Baptist choir minister, was a hidden homosexual. She passed away due to complications from AIDS at age 45 in 1983.

‘I think my father was a sex addict. I think he saw everyone as a sexual being. But I think at the time he was living a very extravagant homosexual lifestyle,’ he told Larry King in a 2001 interview. ‘You know, at that time there were bath houses where the whole trick was how many you can do a night. You know, there’s no mistaking what he was doing at the time.

Heche died in a flaming car accident in August. The actress had traces of cocaine and fentanyl in her system at the time. She was 53 years old.

In the book, Heche accuses Six Days, Seven Nights director Ivan Reitman of telling her to be more like Jodie Foster and not speak publicly about her sexuality. She wrote: ‘Why, Ivan asked me, can’t I be like Jodie Foster? (She didn’t know what that meant. “Everyone knows,” she explained, “it” is her sexuality. “She just doesn’t talk about it.”

Heche’s autobiography, the follow-up to her 2001 book Call Me Crazy, will be published on January 24.

In an excerpt from the book, published by People, Heche writes about compromising her burgeoning film career over her relationship with Ellen. The actress regrets that at that time the media did not ask her why she had a relationship with the comedian.

Heche wrote: ‘Since no one asked, I’ll tell you why. Because she had lived in a family built on lies. My father hid his sexuality his entire life from him.

She continued: “When I met Ellen and she was open and honest about her sexuality, it was the most attractive and seductive quality in a person I’d ever seen.” He was mesmerized by her honesty, and that’s why she was the first and only woman I ever fell in love with.”

“I was in love with a person who had chosen to use his public persona to support the cause he stood for, which was LGBTQ+ rights for everyone on the planet who loved them. Love became my destiny,” added the late star.

In 1983, his father, Donald, became one of the first people in the United States to be diagnosed with AIDS, and that’s how his family learned that the Baptist minister and choir director had been living a secret homosexual life. .

According to Heche, her father never admitted to being gay. He died from the disease at the age of 45.

After his tragic death, Ellen issued a short statement on Twitter saying: “This is a sad day. I am sending Anne’s children, family and friends all my love.”

The Donnie Brasco star is survived by two sons: Atlas, whom she had with Tupper, and 20-year-old Homer, whom she had with ex-husband Coleman Laffoon.

Heche also wrote about being confronted during the filming of the hit comedy Six Days, Seven Night in 1997 about his relationship with Ellen.

Heche said her co-star Harrison Ford and director Ivan Reitman questioned her about rumors that she and Ellen were having a child.

She wrote: ‘Our ‘pregnancy’ was everywhere. They showed me this as proof why this frankness about my relationship was becoming such a headache for them.

DeGeneres and Heche were so serious that in 1999 they declared that if Vermont legalized same-sex marriage in a highly publicized case before the state supreme court, they would marry.

Heche continued: ‘Why, Ivan asked me, can’t I be like Jodie Foster? (He didn’t know what that meant. “Everyone knows,” she explained, “that” is her sexuality. “She just doesn’t talk about it.”)

Foster first publicly acknowledged her sexuality in 2007 during a speech at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast.

It doesn’t appear that Heche has any ill will towards Ford. The Call Me Anne blurb references ‘How Harrison Ford became her mentor on set’.

In a 2020 interview with People, he said it was Ford who stepped in and saved his role on the sitcom.

‘I wouldn’t have gotten that movie. He called me the day after they told me I wasn’t going to get it, because I took Ellen to the [Volcano] premiere, and Harrison Ford, was a hero.

“He said, ‘Frankly, honey, I don’t give a damn who you sleep with. We’re going to make the best romantic comedy there is, and I’ll see you on the set.'”

Just before her death, Heche said in an interview with the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast that she and Ellen broke up because the comedian’s goal was to “make a lot of money.”

Though Heche credited Ellen for ‘moving the needle’ on her way out.

She said in the interview: ‘Ellen deserves the position she deserves. She had no warriors on her side other than me. We were each other’s army and that has been erased from history, but it was true. She didn’t have many people to defend her or support her.

Earlier this month, Heche’s 20-year-old son Homer took over his mother’s Instagram account to announce the book’s publication.

Homer explained that his mother had finished the manuscript for his book before she passed away. He said: ‘I know she was excited to share it with the world. So, mom, here I am to share it with the community you created, let it flourish and take on a life of its own, as you would have wanted.’

Heche’s son also said that a special event to launch the book will be held on January 24 at Barnes & Noble’s Grove at Farmer’s Market.

The event will feature Heche’s podcast partner, Heather Duffy. She told People after the first excerpt was released: ”[Heche’s] life was filled with much pain.’

Duffy continued: “Anne was homeless in her youth and abused by her father, and then coming to Hollywood and being so successful and then being treated that way by the press and the public… being blacklisted.”

It never tired her. He never made her less optimistic. He never made her mistrust others. She was full of kindness for others,” she added.