‘Dancing With the Stars’ Team Honors Anne Heche After Her Death

One of Anne Heche’s final high-profile appearances in recent years came on Dancing With the Stars. The Six Days, Seven Nights star appeared on the reality competition back in 2020, still deep in the COVID-19 and with a new host grabbing headlines ahead of the season.

Despite this, Heche’s time on the show was memorable. It was also short, but not short enough for her to be forgotten in the wake of her tragic passing. The Dancing With the Stars team paid tribute to the late star on social media earlier in the month after the sad events that took her life.

“We are incredibly sad to lose one of our beloved DWTS family members, Anne Heche, whose smile and vibrant personality lit up the ballroom. We send our condolences to her loved ones,” the post reads. Several members of the cast and past contestants responded to the post to show their love, with her partner during her run, Keo Motsepe, offering some touching words after the fatal car accident.

“Anne was my partner on DWTS for Season 29. We became close friends and my heart breaks for her and her family over this terrible accident,” Motsepe said in a statement to ET. “I am praying she makes a full recovery and I know the entire DWTS family is sending her healing thoughts. In working with her, I can say she has a strong spirit and is a fighter, and I know she will be doing all she can to heal.”

Sadly, Heche succumbed to her injuries and would lie brain dead while an organ recipient was found. Heche had been hospitalized for a week in the ICU following the wild Friday car crash that puzzled LA onlookers and would create a blaze that destroyed a home.

Heche’s cause of death was confirmed to be injury from smoke inhalation and burns from the blaze. She was trapped inside the home for up to an hour, with neighbors unable to rescue her before smoke forced them out of the home.

The message from the DWTS team also shines a little light on Heche’s exit from the show. While she was voted off early, having to exit the show was not what left her with a bit of a sour taste.

“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 at the time. “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.”

Despite this, Heche considered the show a “wild ride” and would cherish the friendships she made, despite it being one of the strangest seasons the series produced.