Anne Heche's mother, Nancy, has sadly now outlived four of her children after her youngest, Anne, tragically passed away last week.
Anne crashed her car into a house in the Mar Vista neighbourhood of Los Angeles two weeks ago, causing her vehicle and the building to ignite in flames. VT previously reported that police revealed the actress, whose life support was turned off on Friday, was driving under the influence after her blood-work tested positive for cocaine.
The deeply religious 85-year-old had five children to Donald Heche, who she did not realize was a closeted homosexual until he passed away from HIV/AIDS in 1983, per the Daily Mail. Nancy had always refuted Anne's claims that Donald had given her genital herpes and had sexually abused her until the age of 12.
Soon after Donald's death, Nathan, the family's only son, was killed in a fatal car accident when he was only 18. Anne, however, has maintained that this was suicide, per the Daily Mail. Another Heche sibling, Susan Bergman, died from a brain tumor in 2006.
Anne's infant sister, Cynthia, had died of a heart defect only months before Anne's birth. Abigail Heche is the only surviving child.
Born in Oklahoma, Nancy is devoutly religious. The Christian Broadcasting Network wrote that, as a young mother, her and her husband Donald lived in an Amish community and were involved in a Christian fundamentalist church.
In fact, the New York Times described her as an "eerily compliant wife" who was never "reading a newspaper, listening to the radio or watching television."
As a result of her affiliation with Christian fundamentalism, Nancy has been rather vocal about her views on homosexuality, and has in recent years become an outspoken advocate against homosexuality, and for gay conversion therapy. These are things, Nancy believed, were her "calling," per the Christian Examiner.
When Anne became romantically involved with Ellen Degeneres during the late 90s, Nancy was very open on her controversial opinions on this, stating at the time the relationship was: "Like a betrayal of an unspoken vow: We will never have anything to do with homosexuals," per the Christian Broadcasting Network.
The New York Post also reported that Nancy had said: "I am plummeted into disbelief and outrage [...] I am dumbfounded, in a state of shock. Doesn’t Anne know what homosexuality has done to our family?"
In 2001, Anne published her memoir Call Me Crazy, which detailed her tumultuous childhood and her claims that her father sexually abused her. Nancy had always refuted these allegations, saying they had "no place among the lies and blasphemies in the pages of this book," per the New York Post.
Eight years later, Anne told the New York Times that: "My mother's had a very tragic life. Three of her five children are dead, and her husband is dead. That she is attempting to change gay people into straight people is, in my opinion, a way to keep the pain of the truth out."
