Anne Heche and son Homer Laffoon.Photo: Rachel Murray/Getty
Anne Heche’s older son is opening up about the decision to publish amemoir the actress was working onahead of herunexpected deathin August.
On Thursday night,Homer Laffoon— who was named general administrator of Heche’s estate in November following amonths-long legal battlewith her exJames Tupper— spoke emotionally aboutCall Me Annewhile also thanking the public for their “support” since she died.
“Never imagined I’d find myself responsible for mom’s IG account, but here we are,” Laffoon, 20, posted on Instagram alongside an image of the book’s cover.
“But this is my mom’s account so enough about me,” added Laffoon. “I have a responsibility to share with her community what she was working on and how excited she would have been to tell you herself.”
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Call Me Annebook cover.Simon & Schuster
“My mom had a completed manuscript for a second book at the time of her passing,” said Laffoon. “The book is the product of mom’s further efforts to share her story and to help others where she could. Call Me Anne is the result and I know she was excited to share with the world.”
“So, mom, here I am sharing it with the community you created, may it flourish and take on a life of it’s own, as you would have wanted,” he added.
Laffoon then announced"a special event" to celebrate the bookat Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles on its release date: Jan. 24.
“I know mom would want to see everyone’s smiling face as she read an excerpt and signed copies,” continued Laffoon.
“I don’t plan on using this platform too often but know she loved her fans, loved writing (she wrote endlessly) and it would not feel right not to reach out at a time like this,” he added, concluding, “As mom liked to sign off, Peace and love, Homer.”
Heche had been writingCall Me Anne, her follow-up to 2001’sCall Me Crazy, formonths leading up to her deathon Aug. 12,Publishers Weeklypreviously reported. Heche was 53 when she wasremoved from life supporton Aug. 14, two days after being declared legally dead.
The book “consist[s] of personal anecdotes of her rise to fame: howHarrison Fordbecame her on-set mentor, her relationship withEllen DeGeneres, herencounterwithHarvey Weinstein, her history of childhood sexual abuse, her relationship with God, her journey to love herself,” according to Start Publishing.
Looking back on her relationship, Heche wrote, “I was labeled ‘outrageous’ because I fell in love with a woman. I had never been with a woman before I dated Ellen.”
Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche.Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty
“I did not, personally, identify as a lesbian. I simply fell in love!” wrote the actress. “It was, to be clear, as odd to me as anyone else. There were no words to describe how I felt. Gay didn’t feel right, and neither did straight.”
“Alien might be the best fit, I sometimes thought,” she continued. “What, why, and how I fell in love with a person instead of their gender, I would have loved to have answered if anyone had asked, but as I said earlier, no one ever did. I am happy that I was able to tell you in this book — once and for all.”
In 1997, Heche and DeGeneres, now 64, made headlines asone of the first openly gay female couplesin Hollywood. The pair called it quits in 2000 after three and a half years of dating.
“I met her at theVanity Fairparty. And it was a chemistry thing that you can’t really describe,” DeGeneres told theTampa Bay Timesin May 1998of the pair’s connection. “It just happened. Obviously, I was attracted to her, but that wasn’t enough. There are a lot of attractive people. She is so unique.”
The actress wasthe mother to two children, sons Homer and Atlas, whom she shared with her exesColey Laffoonand Tupper, 57, respectively.
source: people.com
