Anne Heche Breaks Silence Over Awkward ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Elimination

Actress Anne Heche broke her silence on her awkward Dancing with the Stars elimination on Monday night. Host Tyra Banks made a major mistake when announcing the results of the fan vote at the end of the episode. The Volcano reportedly stormed off the set and was “furious” about how the scene played out after judges chose to eliminate her instead of Cheer star Monica Aldama.

When Banks announced the voting results, she said Aldama and pro dancer Val Chmerkovskiy were safe from elimination. After they were long gone from the stage, Banks began reading that there were only two couples left when there were actually three left on stage – Heche and Keo Motsepe, Vernon Davis, and Peta Murgatroyd, and Chrishell Stause and Gleb Savchenko. Everyone was confused before Banks revealed that it was actually Aldama and Chmerkovskiy and Heche and Motsepe who were supposed to be left on stage. The judges decided to save Aldama and send Heche home. A source told Page Six Heche was “furious” about the sequence of events and refused to speak with reporters after leaving the set.

“The honest truth is that it took 20 years to process and share that story, so finally, telling it and being voted off on the same night was not the best feeling,” Heche said in a follow-up statement to Page Six. “It did feel good to tell my story to show that we have come a long way, and we see things with more acceptance now — even though we are not all the way there yet, it’s important to recognize how far we have come.”

On Tuesday morning, Heche did speak with Good Morning America. By then, she had cooled off and called it a “blessing” to be on the show and to tell her story. “And to be able to have a partner to tell the truth with and to learn with,” she said. “Listen, I live in love, I live in truth and I stood up for it 10 years ago, 20 years ago and I stand up for this very same thing today.” Heche said she was “very proud, very happy” to be on DWTS.

During her final DWTS episode, Heche opened up about the discrimination she faced by openly dating Ellen DeGeneres during the late 1990s. “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,” Heche said. She claimed Fox refused to work with her after she walked the Volcano premiere red carpet with DeGeneres.

After Banks’ mistake, there were calls on social media for the new host to be fired. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba defended her, saying on The Talk that it was not Banks’ fault. “She had the wrong names given to her at the beginning of the elimination round,” Inaba said. “It was a technical error in the booth about counting the votes.”