The news of actress Anne Heche’s death came as a shock to a lot of her fans. The actress met with a fatal accident that took her life.
She leaves behind her grieving mother who has dealt with loss too many times in her life…
Anne Heche met with a car accident that took her life. The actress lay in a coma due to a “severe anoxic brain injury,” that was caused by a lack of oxygen when her car crashed into a home.
The actress was declared brain dead but was kept alive to assess her organs to see if they could be donated. After the assessment, she was removed from life support and subsequently passed away.
She leaves behind her two children, her sister, and her mother. Her mother, Nancy Heche has lived through her fair share of heartbreaks and trauma. She has now lost four out of her five children.
After Anne’s relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres became public news, her relationship with her mother suffered greatly. Her mother held conservative religious views and did not support her daughter.
In 1983, Nancy’s husband Donald Heche died of AIDS. Donald had been secretly gay and had caught the disease due to his extra-marital relations with other men.
Her mother later claimed her extreme reaction had been a result of her opposition to homosexuality because of her husband’s “betrayal.” She said in an interview, It was “like the betrayal of an unspoken vow: we will never have anything to do with homosexuals.”
Anne and Ellen dated from 1997 to 2000, at a time when same-sex couples were not accepted by Hollywood as they are today.
“I didn’t do a studio picture for 10 years. I was fired from a $10 million picture deal and did not see the light of day in a studio picture,” the actress recalled in later interviews.
Before she began dating DeGeneres, Heche also dated A-Lister actor Steve Martin. They dated for two years, and while it was a solid relationship, Heche later said she did not want to commit herself for life to it.
Soon after Ellen, she began dating Coleman “Coley” Laffoon, whom she married. Laffoon was a cameraman, and the two were married for 8 years and had a child together.
After her divorce, she entered another long-term relationship with a Canadian actor and her co-star in “Men in Trees,” James Tupper. They announced their relationship in late 2008, telling the world they were expecting a child together.
Her last relationship was with her “Hung” co-star Thomas Jane. The couple ended things in 2021, and after Heche’s car crash, he put out a statement saying, “While Anne and I are no longer an item, today’s tragic news was devastating to me and to all who love her. My heart goes out to Anne and her two sons. As of right now Anne is stable and expected to pull through. My thoughts and prayers are with Anne, one of the true talents of her generation. Thank God no one else was hurt.”
Anne’s mother meanwhile faced a lot of loss and heartache.
Nancy suffered a lot of loss in her life, especially as a mother. A few months after her husband died in 1983, Nancy also lost her 18-year-old son in a car accident. Even though Anne believed it was a suicide, which she speculated in her book.
Nancy also had a daughter Cynthia who died when she was 2 months old because of a heart defect. Her daughter Susan Bergman, who was a professor of literature and a writer, lost her life because of brain cancer in 2006 when she was 48 years old.
And now after the death of Anne Heche, Nancy Heche is only left with one living child. Anne’s sister, Abigail Heche, a jewelry designer.
Anne’s childhood had been quite disturbed, something she shared with everyone in her book, “Call me Crazy.” After suffering sexual abuse at the hands of her father who later passed away from AIDS, Anne spent her childhood riddled in fear at having contracted the virus from him too. She also revealed that at one point her father had also given her genital herpes.
Anne had a distraught relationship with her mother. In her memoir titled, “Call me Crazy,” Anne said she had been sexually abused by her father as a child and that her mother had not believed her. She revealed in her book that her father had abused her sexually from when she was a toddler to when she was 12 years old.
She was sure her mother must have seen the marks when she would change Anne’s diapers but she did not do anything. She said her mother was a “good Christian” who never questioned her husband. Anne said, “she didn’t ask questions. She didn’t scream. She didn’t yell.”
Her mother also denied her daughter’s accusations in her book, saying, “no place among the lies and blasphemies in the pages of this book.” She further added, “I am trying to find a place for myself in this writing, a place where I as Anne’s mother do not feel violated or scandalized.” This and other instances in their relationship caused a rift between the two women.
However, they had seemingly been trying to mend it. From Nancy’s post on social media from 2013, she was seen having dinner with both her daughters.
Whatever the case may be, the loss of her child must be incredibly upsetting to 85-year-old Nancy Heche. Losing your child at any age is incredibly hard, and even worse when it is a sudden accident that claims their life.
Our hearts go out to Nancy Heche and other loved ones of Anne Heche for all that they are going through with her sudden passing.
