February 11, 2021
Watch: Portia de Rossi Says Wife Ellen DeGeneres Helped Get Comfortable with Being Gay
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 1 MIN.
In a sweet interview for People magazine's "Love Issue," which is timed for St. Valentine's Day, Portia de Rossi says that her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, helped her become comfortable with being gay.
de Rossi recalls first meeting DeGeneres at a Rock the Vote concert, and then hastening to catch up as DeGeneres made a beeline backstage. "I just remember running backstage after her," de Rossi laughs in a video of the interview, "and just thinking she was the coolest, most fascinating, beautiful, funniest person I ever met."
DeGeneres shrugs good naturedly at her wife's effusive praise, while de Rossi continues: "I, at the time, was closeted. I really wasn't comfortable with my sexuality, and she was obviously very open about hers," before going on to say that she wasn't really ready for a relationship with DeGeneres at that point and "we didn't get together after that for about three years."
It was at a VH1 awards show, DeGeneres explains, that the two "started talking, and... that was it. We've been together ever since."
The couple are featured on the cover of People's first "Love Issue," which is out on Feb. 12.
To watch a clip of the interview, follow this link.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
