Is Anne Heche gay? Her sexuality detailed

It is tough to imagine that a little over twenty years ago, a celebrity lesbian relationship was considered scandalous; that the relationship between Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche nearly sank their careers. It puts into perspective the massive progress the LGBTQ+ community has made and is a constant reminder that the dark days of discrimination aren’t that far back. 

Heche’s revelations about her relationship with Ellen increased her popularity but dented her career growth. Following Heche’s tragic accident in early August 2022, Ellen said she was no longer in touch with Anne. She told The Daily Mail: “We are not in touch with each other, so I would not know. I don’t want anyone to be hurt.”

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Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche rarely departed tabloid first pages during and after their relationship. Ironically, even with all the publicity the couple attracted, their careers floundered.  

“I tried to back out of her life,” Ellen told The Tampa Bay Times. “I said, ‘I think I’m ruining your career and your life and I don’t think that I’m good for you. I think I should get out of here.’” 

Heche said while competing on Dancing With the Stars: “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.”

After Heche and Ellen broke up, the tabloids found another reason to keep Anne in the headlines: her relationships with men. Despite identifying as sexually fluid, critics within and without the LGBTQ+ community criticized her dating choices. 

Heche moved on with Coleman ‘Coley’ Laffoon, a cameraman she met while shooting Ellen’s stand-up comedy tour. The couple married in September 2001 and announced they were expecting a child. Laffoon and Heche share a son named Homer. 

In a candid interview with ABC News, Heche said that Laffoon understood her fluid sexuality. Anne insisted that she fell in love with a person, not a sex:

“He’s one of the few people I’ve ever met who actually embraces the same notion about sexuality that I do… which is that you love who you love. You fall in love with a person, not a sex. I would never limit myself to saying I would be with a man or a woman.”

“I met her at the Vanity Fair party,” Ellen talked to The Tampa Bay Times about her first meeting with Heche. “And it was a chemistry thing you can’t really describe.” 

When Anne met Ellen, she’d never hooked up with a girl. She’d dated comedian Steve Martin for two years, thinking she’d found the love of her life. However, Anne discovered she didn’t want to commit to Steve. 

Anne described Ellen as ravishing and radiating. “I think at certain times in people’s lives you just radiate an energy and a glow of fabulousness,” Anne said. Heche said that the sex she had with Ellen the night they met was the best of her life up to that point:

“Up until that point, that was the best sex I’d ever had. I felt cared for… I felt free to express a part of me that I had not been able to express with a man. I felt sensuous and sexual in a way I hadn’t before.”

Since Ellen, Heche hasn’t had a public relationship with another man. Anne divorced Laffoon in March 2009 after falling in love with her Men In Trees co-star James Tupper. The couple shares a son named Atlas.

During an interview with The Telegraph in May 2011, Anne affirmed she’d only dated men since Ellen. “Yes! Yes! I mean, that’s been way out there for years,” Heche said when asked whether Ellen was her last lesbian relationship. 

Heche and Tupper separated in 2018. Anne was recently linked with skincare expert Peter Thomas Roth. “Peter and Anne met through mutual friends in the Hamptons and have been dating for about eight weeks,” a source told Us Weekly in September 2021. 

Anne publicly dated a woman once, sparking a revolution that normalized celebrity LGBTQ relationships. She told Mr. Warburton Magazine she’s proud of the impact of her lesbian relationship:

“Our time was a beautiful part of my life and one that I wear with honor. I was a part of a revolution that created social change, and I could not have done that without falling in love with her.”