Early life
Heche was born on May 25, 1969, in
Aurora, Ohio, the youngest of five children of
Nancy Heche (née Prickett) and Donald Joseph Heche.
[7][8] Heche's family moved eleven times during her childhood; at one point, they lived in an
Amish community.
[9] When asked in a 2001 interview on
Larry King Live what her father's source of income was, Heche replied, "Well, he was a choir director. But I don't think he made much on that a week. He said that he was involved in a business of gas and oil, and he said that until the day he died, but he never was involved in the business of gas and oil ever."
[10] The family settled in
Ocean City, New Jersey, when Heche was twelve years old. Due to the family's strained finances, she went to work at a dinner theater in
Swainton.
[11][12] "At the time we'd been kicked out of our house and my family was holed up living in a bedroom in the home of a generous family from our church", she said.
[13] "I got $100 a week, which was more than anyone else in my family. We all pooled our money in an envelope in a drawer and saved up enough to move out after a year."
[13]
On March 3, 1983, when Heche was 13, her 45-year-old father died of HIV/AIDS, which she believed was contracted from a homosexual partner: "He was in complete denial until the day he died. We know he got it from his gay relationships. Absolutely. I don't think it was just one. He was a very promiscuous man, and we knew his lifestyle then", Heche said on
Larry King Live.
[10] Heche said that he repeatedly raped her from the time she was an infant until she was 12, giving her genital herpes.
[14] When asked "But why would a gay man rape a girl?" in a 2001 interview with
The Advocate, Heche replied "I don't think he was just a gay man. I think he was sexually deviant. My belief was that my father was gay and he had to cover that up. I think he was sexually abusive. The more he couldn't be who he was, the more that came out of him in [the] ways that it did."
[14] In a 1998 interview, she reflected that her father being
closeted ultimately "destroyed his happiness and our family. But it did teach me to tell the truth. Nothing else is worth anything."
[15]
Three months after her father's death, Heche's 18-year-old brother Nathan was killed in a car crash.[13] The official determination was that he fell asleep at the wheel and struck a tree,[8] though Heche claimed it was suicide.[16] The remainder of Heche's family subsequently moved to
Chicago, where Heche attended the
progressive Francis W. Parker School. In 1985, when Heche was 16, an agent spotted her in a school play and secured her an audition for the daytime
soap opera As the World Turns. Heche flew to
New York City, auditioned, and was offered a job, but her mother insisted she finish high school first.
[12] Shortly before her high school graduation in 1987, Heche was offered a dual role on the daytime soap opera
Another World. "Again I was told I couldn't go. My mother was very religious and maybe she thought it was a sinner's world", Heche stated. "But I got on the phone and said, 'Send me the ticket. I'm getting on the plane.' I did my time with my mom in a one-bedroom, skanky apartment and I was done."
[13]
Family
Heche had four older siblings, three of whom have also died. The eldest, Susan (1957–2006), from whom Anne was estranged, died of
brain cancer in 2006.
[102] Cynthia died at two months of age in infancy of a heart defect.
[13] The third child and only son, Nathan (1965–1983), died aged 18 in a car crash three months after their father died in 1983. Anne said his death was a suicide, though their mother Nancy disputes this.
[8][16][103] Abigail is the fourth sibling, then followed by Anne.
[104] Anne and her mother, Nancy, were estranged since Anne confronted her about sexual abuse she said she suffered at the hands of her father.
[105]
In her 2001 memoir,
Call Me Crazy,
Anne wrote that when she contracted genital herpes as an infant, her mother insisted that it was a diaper rash and refused to take her to the doctor.[106] Nancy Heche was outraged by her daughter's allegations, responding, "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." She added, "I find no place among the lies and blasphemies in the pages of this book."
[107]
Her sister Abigail added, "It is my opinion that my sister Anne truly believes, at this moment, what she has asserted about our father's past behavior; however, at the same time, I would like to point out that Anne, in the past, has expressed doubts herself about the accuracy of such memories." She said, "Based on my experience and her own expressed doubts, I believe that her memories regarding our father are untrue. And I can state emphatically, regardless of Anne's beliefs, that the assertion that our mother knew about such behavior is absolutely false."
[107]
Since her husband's death from AIDS, Nancy Heche has been a Christian therapist and motivational speaker, who lectures on behalf of James Dobson's Focus on the Family about "overcoming homosexuality".[30] In 2009, Anne Heche told The New York Times:
My mother's had a very tragic life. Three of her five children are dead, and her husband is dead. That she is attempting to change gay people into straight people is, in my opinion, a way to keep the pain of the truth out. People wonder why I am so forthcoming with the truths that have happened in my life, and it's because the lies that I have been surrounded with and the denial that I was raised in, for better or worse, bore a child of truth and love. My mother preaches to this day the opposite of that core of my life. It is no mistake that she still stands up against love. And one wonders why I'm not rushing to have her meet my children.
[30]
In 2011, Anne Heche told
The Daily Telegraph that she doubted she would be able to repair her relationship with her mother.
[13]
Family
Heche had four older siblings, three of whom have also died. The eldest, Susan (1957–2006), from whom Anne was estranged, died of
brain cancer in 2006.
[102] Cynthia died at two months of age in infancy of a heart defect.
[13] The third child and only son, Nathan (1965–1983), died aged 18 in a car crash three months after their father died in 1983. Anne said his death was a suicide, though their mother Nancy disputes this.
[8][16][103] Abigail is the fourth sibling, then followed by Anne.
[104] Anne and her mother, Nancy, were estranged since Anne confronted her about sexual abuse she said she suffered at the hands of her father.
[105]
In her 2001 memoir,
Call Me Crazy, Anne wrote that when she contracted genital
herpes as an infant, her mother insisted that it was a diaper rash and refused to take her to the doctor.
[106] Nancy Heche was outraged by her daughter's allegations, responding, "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." She added, "I find no place among the lies and blasphemies in the pages of this book."
[107]
Her sister Abigail added, "It is my opinion that my sister Anne truly believes, at this moment, what she has asserted about our father's past behavior; however, at the same time, I would like to point out that Anne, in the past, has expressed doubts herself about the accuracy of such memories." She said, "Based on my experience and her own expressed doubts, I believe that her memories regarding our father are untrue. And I can state emphatically, regardless of Anne's beliefs, that the assertion that our mother knew about such behavior is absolutely false."
[107]
Since her husband's death from
AIDS, Nancy Heche has been a Christian therapist and motivational speaker, who lectures on behalf of
James Dobson's
Focus on the Family about "
overcoming homosexuality".
[30] In 2009, Anne Heche told
The New York Times:
My mother's had a very tragic life. Three of her five children are dead, and her husband is dead. That she is attempting to change gay people into straight people is, in my opinion, a way to keep the pain of the truth out. People wonder why I am so forthcoming with the truths that have happened in my life, and it's because the lies that I have been surrounded with and the denial that I was raised in, for better or worse, bore a child of truth and love. My mother preaches to this day the opposite of that core of my life. It is no mistake that she still stands up against love. And one wonders why I'm not rushing to have her meet my children.
[30]
In 2011, Anne Heche told
The Daily Telegraph that she doubted she would be able to repair her relationship with her mother.
[13]
Mental health problems
Following her separation from DeGeneres in August 2000, Heche drove from Los Angeles to Cantua Creek in a Toyota SUV.
[108] She was wearing only a bra and shorts at the time, parked the car, and walked 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km), before reaching a ranch house.
[108] The homeowner, Araceli Campiz, who had seen Heche in a movie, recognized her and let her in.
[108] After drinking a significant amount of water, Heche "took off her Nikes and said she needed to take a shower."
[108] Campiz assumed that Heche was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but Heche later revealed that she had taken
ecstasy.
[10] After taking a shower, Heche entered the living room, asked for a pair of slippers, and suggested that they should watch a movie.
[108] After half an hour, Campiz contacted the
Fresno County sheriff's department.
[108] Heche later told the deputies that she was "God, and was going to take everyone back to heaven in a spaceship." She was then taken by ambulance to Fresno's University Medical Center and admitted to the psychiatric unit, but was released within a few hours.[108]
Heche stated she was "insane" for the first 31 years of her life, and that this was triggered by being sexually abused by her father during her infancy and childhood.
[109][110] In a series of nationally televised interviews with
Barbara Walters,
Matt Lauer, and
Larry King to promote
Call Me Crazy in 2001,
Heche stated that she created a fantasy world called the "Fourth Dimension" to make herself feel safe, and had an alter ego who was the daughter of God and half-sister of Jesus Christ named "Celestia", who had contacts with extraterrestrial life forms.[107][111] Heche said she recovered from her mental health concerns following the incident in Cantua Creek and had put her alter ego behind her.
[10]
Allegations against Harvey Weinstein
In a January 2018 interview on the podcast Allegedly with Theo Von and Matthew Cole Weiss, Heche alleged that Harvey Weinstein had exposed himself to Heche and demanded oral sex. The timeframe of the incident was not stated. Heche also stated that she was fired from an unspecified
Miramax film in retaliation
. She further stated that there were many other sexual harassment incidents that took place over her career and that having survived child sexual abuse had given her the strength to stand up to unwanted advances like Weinstein's. A spokesman for Weinstein acknowledged his being "friendly" with Heche, but denied all allegations.
[112][113]
Car crash and death
On August 5, 2022, Heche was involved in a sequence of two car crashes in the
Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, first when the
Mini Cooper she was driving hit a garage at an apartment complex, and second when she crashed into a house, resulting in a fire that left her severely burned.
[114][115][116] A
doorbell video recorded in the moments before the final crash shows Heche's vehicle rushing along a neighborhood street at a very high speed, followed a few seconds later by the sound of a crash.
[117][118] The vehicle collision and resulting
house fire required 59 firefighters to handle, who took 65 minutes to fully extinguish the fire and rescue Heche from the vehicle. The house was left
structurally compromised and uninhabitable.
[119] The tenant of the house sustained minor injuries, but her attorney said that she and her pets "almost lost their lives" and that she had lost all of her personal property to the fire.
[120][121]
Law enforcement officials said that Heche was "deemed to be under the influence and acting erratically" at the time of the crashes.
[115] The
Los Angeles Police Department said that a preliminary blood analysis confirmed the presence of
narcotics in Heche's system, although more comprehensive
toxicology tests that could take weeks are required to identify specific drugs.
[122][123]
Heche was removed from the crash scene on a stretcher,
[118] and was transported to a hospital.
[124] She was filmed sitting up on the stretcher and struggling with
paramedics as she was being wheeled into the ambulance; however, she lost consciousness soon afterward.
[118][125] On August 8, a representative for Heche said she was in a coma in critical condition, with medical ventilation required for a
pulmonary injury.
[126]
On August 11, the representative said that Heche was not expected to survive due to an
anoxic brain injury, and that she was being kept on
life support to determine if her organs were viable for donation, in accordance with her expressed wish to be an
organ donor.
[127][128] Heche was declared
brain dead a few hours later on August 12, but remained on life support to assess organ donor viability and locate recipients.
[129][130][131][132] Having been declared "brain dead", under California law, Heche was considered
legally dead.
[133][134][135] On August 14, it was announced that organ recipients had been found and that her body would undergo the organ donation procedure that afternoon.
[136] That evening, her publicist announced that she had been "peacefully taken off life support."
[4][137]