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Portia de Rossi Talks To Oprah About Hiding Her Sexuality
Posted on Tue Nov 2, 2010 10:27 AM PDT
Portia de Rossi lived with not only one secret (the anorexia and bulimia that almost killed her) but also the truth she was hiding since she was a teen -- that she was gay.
“Having to hide something like that just ruined me,” the Ally McBeal actress told Oprah Winfrey yesterday. “It really, really killed me, because even though I'd gotten to a point where I wasn't ashamed of it anymore, I was doing it for financial reasons. I was doing it so I'd have a career, because there were no lesbian TV actresses ever in history.”
Portia, who not only appeared on Oprah's show, but will also appear on wife Ellen Degeneres' show to support her new book later this week, said when she was still in the closet, she used to avoid talk shows like the plague.
"I would never do a talk show because I was so terrified—especially late night, the male talk show hosts—I was terrified if they would ask me if I had a boyfriend, because I didn't know how to answer that," she said.
And, like many gay actors and actresses, Portia watched her future wife Ellen's coming out on national television in 1997 with special interest.
"[I thought], 'If she went down, there's no way in hell I can come out,'" Portia says. "'If someone as charming and wonderful as Ellen DeGeneres can't pull this off and keep her career, it's not going to work for me.'"
Unfortunately, Ellen's show was canceled just a year later, and Oprah, who played Ellen's therapist on the "coming out" episode said, "I got more hate mail for playing the therapist on that show than I’d ever received in my entire career – just for playing the therapist."
Portia decided to keep her mouth shut and was consumed by the eating disorder that almost killed her -- at one time DeRossi admits that she weighed just 82 pounds.
But Portia got healthy with the help of her family, and it was when she was her heaviest -- 168 pounds -- that she met Ellen.
"I thought she was the most incredible woman I ever met," Portia told Oprah. "I was very excited to be around her, but there's no way in my mind I would ever think she'd be attracted to me at that weight—but she was."
Today Portia is happy, healthy and enjoying her laid-back life with her wife of two years!
How horrible to have to live with that kind of secret!
Ellen DeGeneres Chats With Wife Portia de Rossi About Her Eating Disorder - Nov 05, 2010
Portia de Rossi On Ellen DeGeneres: She "Reached In And Pulled Me Out" Of My Eating Disorder - Oct 28, 2010
Ladies In Love - Oct 17, 2009
No, We Didn't Get An Invitation! - UPDATE! - The Wedding's This Weekend!!! - Aug 14, 2008
Comments
BOOOOOORRRRRING! BOO HOO, I'M GAY...
GET OVER YOURSELF, BISCH, AND GET YER ARSE IN THE KITCHEN AND MAKE ME AN EFFING SANDWICH ALREADY!
UMMMM....I'll take a milkshake while ur in there......lol
Does anybody know who she is??
She is a fur trader.....with Ellen Degeneres
Years ago, those 2 would have been yanked off the air so fast.
Wow, the first few posters on here should be ashamed of themselves. It's YOUR hate that forces people to spend years living in the closet. It's YOUR hate that makes gays and lesbians feel suicidal and ashamed to go public.
And how please you must all be with yourselves to have your outlook on life, mocking other people for being different from you.
I'm sure your hate isn't just toward gay people. Now you will direct your hate toward me for calling you out. And tomorrow you will hate on your classmates, your co-workers, celebrities you've never met before with snotty, hateful remarks because those are the kind of people you are. Your comments have already exposed you as being those hateful kind of people.
That you took none of the pain and agony that this woman went through, but instead used it as an opportunity to mock and laugh at her is just sickening.
It doesn't make me as angry as it makes me sad. Sometimes I'm just so embarrassed about the human race, that we have this kind of hateful human being walking among us.
hahaha
stupid muff eaters
oprah should just announce she's gay already!
nasty clit lickers and dildo users
Mene,Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin
11:24 only people like you are nasty. There is no honor or beauty in being a hateful person. Same goes for almost all the other posters on here.
SO DISGUSTING!!!!!
portia is a trophy wife! if ellen wasn't rich she would never be with her!
haha
I love this , So does My boyfriend. i met him via — BlackwhiteCupid. C’ 0- M — a nice place for seeking interr acial love.which gives you a chance to make your life better and open opportunities for you to meet the attractive sin gles and treat you like a king or Queen. Maybe you wanna check it out or tell your friends.
@@@@@@ ;) ;)
she's a lying, pathetic dirtbag..
disgusting
hey atleast the have a lot in common...gross
Although I am a hetro..Ellen seems like the kind of friend I'd like to have. She seems so fun and genuine.
Homos are disgusting...period!
What a WASTE of perfectly good PUSSY.. dykes..her trim will never be the same
I've always thought she was pretty but I'm not buying that she was ever 168 pounds. She has always been thin.
Hey all you haters.....you people have serious problems. I can't believe there are still so many ignorant people out there. losers
sick couple
I can't think of a more boring story.
11:11 ....who died and made you GOD. YOUR post was hateful....YOUR comments have EXPOSED you for being a condensing idiot.....HATE is a strong word...you better learn the meaning before you go all mental......People who have glass houses shouldn't throw stones......get it?
Does it make you feel superior to have such hate in you?
Does it make you feel superior to have such hate in you?
I always believed that compassion would be the saving grace of this world. We live in such a hateful world. What is the future of the generations to come with the ugliness that exists here noe? Why can't people be accepting and kind. We are all just human living here on this earth together. I'm so afraid for the future because of the ugliness and hate. There are such extremes of hate. God help us.
The thing I find most fascinating about those of you with mean comments about all of this, whether it be Portia de Rossi attempting to educate women of the dangers of an eating disorder or both her and Ellen attempting to encourage people to just be who they are - gay, straight, whatever... just be yourself and love yourself... is that number one - you would find any reason to talk in a hateful manner of that message, but number two - you are way to cowardly to attach your name to your post and your opinions. By writing what you wrote and attaching it to "anonymous" that is exactly what you think of yourselves - that you are anonymous. Too scared to actually stand up for what you believe in or to see and accept someone else's opinions, hardships, or lifestyle. THIS is what is wrong with people today - that we really can't just live and let live. Someone has to always post some mean, hurtful, and ignorant comment on something which they have no business commenting on. It's a shame and that's why you will never know peace and happiness within yourselves the way myself, Ellen, Portia, or anyone else who owns up to who they really are and doesn't judge others, feel it.
I agree with all of the supporters above. How disgusting, that in this day and age, people can still be so ignorant, and hateful. Feeling so inclined to rant about their ignorance and then hiding behind a shield of anonimity. Judgemental cowards! If you aren't proud enough to attach your name to your passion, perhaps there is a reason!