Portia de Rossi Recalls Being Afraid to Reveal Ellen DeGeneres Relationship

usmagazine.com:

A moving story. Portia de Rossi made an appearance on her wife Ellen DeGeneres’ show to talk about coming out to her grandmother when she and DeGeneres, 64, began dating over 17 years ago.During the Monday, May 2, episode, de Rossi, 49, explained that her grandmother was a big fan of DeGeneres’ eponymous sitcom and “wouldn’t miss an episode until the episode where she [DeGeneres] came out.” The Arrested Development star revealed that from that day on, her grandmother would say “that disgusting woman” when advertisements for DeGeneres’ show aired.“That didn’t bode well for me,” said de Rossi, who says she was “closeted” at the time.A native of Australia, de Rossi later moved to Los Angeles where she met and began a relationship with DeGeneres.

She told her grandmother about her new love interest during a visit home. “I sat by gran’s chair at her feet,” the actress explained on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “She said to me, ‘Are you seeing anyone special?’”De Rossi said that at that point, her grandmother already knew she was living with DeGeneres and she told her, “Gran, I’m with Ellen.”De Rossi’s grandmother, who was 99 at the time, put her head in her hands. “I thought, ‘That’s it, I’ve killed my grandmother,’” the Ally McBeal actress joked.

But then her grandmother, de Rossi recalled, “Just looked at me and she goes, ‘Well, I love you just the same.’”DeGeneres revealed that de Rossi’s grandmother had their wedding picture next to her bed until she passed away at 103. “My grandmother meant everything to me, we were actually born on the same day,” she said.The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which has been on the air since 2003, will have its final episode on May 26.