How she found peace after childhood abuse
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Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP/Shutterstock Anne Heche
When Anne Heche At the age of 53, he died in August injuries sustained in a Los Angeles car crash, she left behind two sons — Homer Atlas — an Emmy-winning acting career and an unfinished memoir. A rich, if sometimes labyrinthine personal narrative was also left by her.
Heche is best known for her screen work, especially in the 90s. Wag the Dog Six Days, Seven Nights TV series as well Men in Trees. Her other accomplishments include: her three-year relationship With Ellen DeGeneres.
She took it all on — her experiences with fame, being sexually abused by her father and her relationship with DeGeneres — in her 2001 book Call Me Crazy. In her follow up, Call Me Anne, excerpted exclusively in this week’s issue of PEOPLE, Heche set out to show that her past — and pain — did not define her.
Her most recent work was to play herself and share more about herself in her podcast Better Together. She was ahead her time in how she saw the world, according to her friend and podcast cohost. Heather DuffyHeche’s friend, Alicia, died at her side and she completed the book.
Duffy, 52: “She might even have been constrained by this mortal realm.” She never received credit for the changes she made.”
Anne Heche’s brand new book
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Heche’s first and only relationship was with a woman in 1997. DeGeneres and Heche were seen holding hands at White House. It shocked the entire world. It also hindered Heche’s promising film career, but, Duffy says, that three-year relationship moved the needle for how we view same-sex relationships — change we can see clearly today.
Heche writes: “In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres began a relationship with me. She was my first star in a big-budget film, Six Days Seven Nights. One lunch break during the first week of filming saw me called into Harrison Ford’s trailer. Ivan Reitman, Harrison and I were seated on one of the white pleather couches. I sat hesitantly on the white pleather sofa.
They had seen the evening news. It was rumored that Ellen and I were actually pregnant. Rumours about our “pregnancy” were everywhere. Ivan showed me this to show me why my openness regarding our relationship was becoming a pain in their asses. Ivan asked, “Why can’t I be Jodie Foster?” I didn’t even know what it meant. He explained that everybody knows it. It was her sexuality. “She doesn’t talk about this.
It was strange that anyone believed that I could get pregnant quickly with a girl, and even more bizarre that they cared about the perception that my actions would ruin a film that hadn’t been shot.
Barry King/WireImage Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres
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The worst thing is that it all ended, from my first week writing my first novel to Ellen’s first week. Call Me Crazy It was 2001 and no one ever asked me any questions about any of it. No matter how many articles were written, no one ever asked me why. What force could have caused a person to put their career on the line? Why? Why would you do that?
Because nobody asked me, I’ll tell you why. Because I grew up in a family built on lies. My father kept his sexuality hidden throughout his entire life. Ellen was honest and open about her sexuality. This was the most attractive and enticing quality I’ve ever seen in someone. Her honesty was what attracted me to her, which is why she was the only woman I fell in love with. I fell in love a person who chose to make her public appearance in support of the cause that she was fighting for, which was LGBTQ+ rights.
My destiny was to find love.“
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Duffy says that Anne’s life was marked by a lot of pain. “Anne was homeless in her youth and abused by her father, and then to make it to Hollywood and be such a success and then to be treated that way by the press and the public… being blacklisted. It didn’t make her less optimistic. It did not make her less optimistic. She never lost faith in others. She was always kind to others.”
Anne Heche with her boys
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Duffy feels connected to Heche even after Heche’s passing. “We were talking about the afterlife. She said, If you died, you would probably haunt me.’ I replied that she would feel the same way. “
Duffy was able to feel the same connection when she was with Heche in the hospital after the accident.
She recalls that she knew right away when she said she was going to go. I said to her, “I got you. I’m here with you, I’m here with your boys. She is now free to fly. She is soaring and does not need to be contained anymore. This gives me a lot more peace knowing that she can finally be as bold and large as she desires to be.
You can read more about Anne Heche’s book in the current issue of PEOPLE. It is available on newsstands on Friday. Subscribe. here.