Anne Heche has revealed she was left upset by her “Dancing with the Stars” elimination after opening her heart about her romance with Ellen DeGeneres.
As Page Six previously reported, the actress stormed off the set following Monday night’s show and refused to talk to waiting press.
Before her dance, in which she performed a powerful paso doble set to Katy Perry’s “Rise,” she opened up about her relationship with DeGeneres, and the scrutiny she faced at the time for dating a woman in the public eye.
When asked about her exit, Heche, 51, told Page Six exclusively: “The honest truth is that it took 20 years to process and share that story, so finally, telling it and being voted off on the same night was not the best feeling.
“It did feel good to tell my story to show that we have come a long way, and we see things with more acceptance now — even though we are not all the way there yet, it’s important to recognize how far we have come.”
She said dancing on the show was a “wild ride” and she would not forget the friends she made.
Heche and DeGeneres, 62, dated from 1997 to 2000 and the star opened up to her “DWTS” partner, Keo Motsepe, about her relationship with the talk show host, admitting that it “changed my life forever.”
“My story is a story that created change in the world, moved the needle for equal rights forward,” she said. “In 1997, I met Ellen DeGeneres at the Vanity Fair party and that was the night that changed my life forever.
“My movie premiere for ‘Volcano,’ I had told them that I was taking Ellen as my date and I was told if I took Ellen, I would lose my Fox contract. At that moment, she took my hand and said, ‘Do what they say,’ and I said, ‘No thanks.'”
She added, “I took Ellen to the premiere and I was ushered out by security before the movie even ended and was told I was not allowed to go to my own after-party for fear they would get pictures of me with a woman.
“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 multimillion-dollar picture deal and I did not work in a studio picture for 10 years.”
DeGeneres married Portia de Rossi in 2008, while Heche wed Coleman Laffoon in 2000, but the actress filed for divorce in 2007. The former couple share 18-year-old son Homer.
Heche also has an 11-year-old son, Atlas, with her “Men in Trees” co-star James Tupper, but they split in 2018 after 10 years together.
Her exit came following an eviction blunder as host Tyra Banks accidentally told “Cheer” star Monica Aldama and her pro partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, that they were safe from elimination.
Moments later, however, Banks revealed that there was actually an “error in the control room,” and that she needed Aldama and Chmerkovskiy to return to the stage. “This is live TV, right? This is the craziness of live TV,” the host quipped. Ultimately, Monica and Val were safe as Heche and Motsepe were sent home.
“That was all so confusing for us,” Heche told Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday. “It wasn’t pleasant, to be honest.”