‘Dancing With the Stars’: Anne Heche Says She’s Open to Appearing on Ex Ellen DeGeneres’ Show

On Monday night’s episode of Dancing With the Stars, Anne Heche and her partner Keo Motsepe were eliminated. During the course of the evening, the various celebrity contestants spoke about some difficult and important moments in their lives. As for Heche, she opened up about previously dating Ellen DeGeneres, explaining that her career was negatively impacted after she went public with their relationship. Following her elimination, Heche opened up about her time on DWTS and addressed whether she would ever make an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the future, as Entertainment Tonight noted.

When asked by ET about the prospect of her going on the talk show, Heche responded, “Ask her! Come bring it. It would be interesting to see us come face to face.” The actor went on to say that the interesting part would be whether DeGeneres is down for it or not. “What would it be like for her is the more interesting question,” she joked and added that there would be plenty for them to chat about. “It would probably be… exciting. I think she’s a magnificent woman.”

Heche and DeGeneres dated from 1997 to 2000. They met each other at a Vanity Fair party in 1997, a meeting which Heche said forever changed her. Prior to her performance on Monday night, the actor explained to Motsepe that she faced discrimination for dating DeGeneres. “My movie premiere for Volcano, I had told them that I was taking Ellen as my date and I was told if I took Ellen I would lose my Fox contract,” she claimed in the segment. “At that moment, she took my hand and said, ‘Do what they say’ and I said, ‘No thanks.’ I took Ellen to the premiere and I was ushered out before the movie even ended and was told I was not allowed to go to my own after party for fear that they would get pictures of me with a woman.”

Heche continued to explain that DeGeneres warned her that this kind of situation could happen. She added, “I was in a relationship with Ellen DeGeneres for three-and-a-half years and the stigma attached to that relationship was so bad that I was fired from my multi-million dollar picture deal and I did not work in a studio picture for 10 years.” It should be noted that Fox did not respond to PEOPLE‘s request for comment regarding Heche’s claims.