Ellen DeGeneres has spoken out after ex-girlfriend Anne Heche’s horror car crash that left her in a coma.
The actress was in a critical condition after a car sped through residential streets and in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles, California on Friday last, before bursting into flames.
She was removed from the scene on a stretcher, later slipping into a coma with it now being said that she is ‘’.
A spokesperson for Heche, 53, told the PA news agency that she had suffered ‘a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention.’
With her life support now expected to be turned off and her organs donated following her death, ex and former daytime TV host DeGeneres has sent well wishes her way.
The talkshow star, 64, was asked by a photographer whether she has spoken to her former partner since the incident.
In a video from , the comedian is heard replying: ‘We’re not in touch with each other, so I wouldn’t know.’
‘I don’t want anyone to be hurt’, the presenter added.
The cameraman continued: ‘It was quite a dangerous accident that happened, wasn’t it?’, to which DeGeneres responded briefly: ‘Sure was.’
Degeneres – who is now married to Portia de Rossi and has been since 2008 – dated Heche from 1997 until 2000.
The couple reportedly had an ‘amicable break up’, with the last time Heche spoke about their romance publicly being in 2021, during an interview with Perez Hilton.
‘You know what, every day of my life I reached out to her. I think that it was a very difficult thing for her to trust that I was a woman who could fall in love with a woman, without being gay’, she said when asked whether they had spoken after splitting.
‘I think there was a lot to process, so I tried to make the process as simple as possible by quitting Hollywood, moving to Ohio, growing gardens, starting to write and direct with her – which I did in Sharon Stone’s movie of all things called Misconception.
‘But nothing would satisfy her soul,’ Anne shared.
With Heche now declared braindead after suffering ‘’ – when the brain is damaged due to not receiving enough oxygen – her team have thanked everyone for ‘their kind wishes and prayers for Anne’s recovery’.
They’ve expressed their gratitude to the medical staff who have cared for her in hospital, with one spokesperson paying tribute to the American star: ‘Anne had a huge heart and touched everyone she met with her generous spirit.
‘More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love.
‘She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light.’
Heche is best-known for starring in films including Psycho, Cedar Rapids and Donnie Brasco, as well as 1997 slasher hit I Know What You Did Last Summer.
She has two sons, a 20-year-old from first husband Coley Laffoon, and and a 13-year-old from her relationship with Men In Trees star James Tupper.
