Anne Heche's ex Ellen DeGeneres NOT invited to 'small and private' funeral for close friends and family
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: According to reports, TV host, Ellen Degeneres won't be attending her ex-girlfriend Anne Heche's funeral. The 53-year-old actress died tragically on Friday, August 12, after a terrible vehicle accident in Los Angeles the previous week. Her car collided with a home in Mar Vista causing a fire. Due to the car crash Heche was in, she suffered serious injuries and brain damage.
The actress' ventilator was removed on Sunday, August 14, after an organ receiver was found. Under Californian law, a person is considered dead if he or she is incapable of using their brain. Insiders claim that Anne's family will mourn her death during a burial this week, without the presence of ex-Ellen. A Radar Online source disclosed: “Anne’s funeral will be this week and Ellen will not be invited. It’s just close family and friends. It will be small and private.”
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The pair have not been in contact in the past several years, despite Ellen's polite public remarks following Anne's accident. The burial service would only involve people close to Anne. The insider went on to say, “Ellen felt the need to say something after Anne died. They hadn’t spoken in years but given what their relationship meant to so many people around the world, she understands why she had to speak out.”
On Friday, August 12, Ellen posted a statement of compassion and love to the Heche family on Twitter. She wrote, “This is a sad day. I’m sending Anne’s children, family, and friends all my love.”
This is a sad day. I'm sending Anne's children, family and friends all of my love.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) August 12, 2022
Between 1997 and 2000, Ellen and Anne went out together. They made their romance public barely 4 months after Ellen came out as a lesbian. Anne's acting business had just started to flourish but her relationship with Ellen meant she faced difficulties getting offers. Due to the wide-spread public scrutiny the pair received, Heche was rejected as a Hollywood leading lady for almost a decade. In a 2020 interview with Page Six, she revealed: “It changed my life forever. The stigma attached to that relationship was so bad … I didn’t do a studio picture for 10 years. I was fired from a $10 million picture deal.” The one exception was the romcom 'Six Days Seven Nights,' a role she nearly lost until Harrison Ford stepped in to make sure she wouldn't be fired.
The actress provided more details as to why they broke things off in an edition of her podcast Better Together last year: “I broke up with her because her goal was to have a lot of money. Mine was to find love, and hers was, ‘I want $60 billion.’ Good, good luck, our forks are never going to meet.” Her relationship with Ellen not only ruined her career, but their separation also caused another major brouhaha that made it diffcult for the pair to stay friends.
Although the specifics of Anne's burial have been kept under wraps, her family has been extremely outspoken about the tragic death. Homer Laffoon, 20, and Atlas Heche Tupper, 13, were two of Anne's children with Coleman Laffoon and James Tupper, respectively. Both of them have publicly expressed their sorrow about Heche's death. Her ex-husband James said, "Love you forever," while her other ex Coleman expressed, “In the wake of Anne’s passing, I just wanted to say a few things. One, I loved her and I miss her and I’m always going to. Two, Homer is OK. He’s grieving, of course, and it’s rough. It’s really rough, as probably anybody can imagine, but he’s surrounded by family, and he’s strong, and he’s going to be OK. So for all those people checking in, thank you for checking in, showing us your heart, offering prayers and everything. It’s so beautiful. Thank you. It’s hard for me, it’s hard for my family, it’s really hard for Homer, but we’ve got each other and we have a lot of support and we’re going to be OK.”
There is currently no information on whether her other ex-boyfriends would attend the burial. When Anne Heche died, she was under the influence of cocaine and possibly fentanyl at the time of the collision. The LAPD had been looking into whether she had committed a criminal DUI. However, police have now ended their inquiry.