Portia de Rossi was dumped by her ex-husband, Mel Metcalfe years before she started dating Ellen DeGeneres.
In her memoir, Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain, Portia de Rossi revealed that she hit rock bottom after her ex-husband left her in 1999. To make matters worse, Metcalfe ran off with de Rossi’s brother’s ex-wife, Renee Kappos.
“When my husband left me, my brother moved into my place… My husband ran off with his wife, so we kept each other company and we liked to go out for margaritas and Mexican food to commiserate,” de Rossi said.
Portia de Rossi was shocked with what her ex-husband did
The Scandal star said that she and her brother couldn’t believe what just happened to them and their respective marriages.
“But when Mel left me and Renee suddenly sabotaged her marriage to my brother to be with Mel. Brother and I were left idiotically scratching our heads in disbelief,” she said.
Portia de Rossi dated her ex-husband to get a green card
The Ally McBeal alum admitted that she married Metcalfe to get a green card so that she could stay in the United States. However, the actress was unable to get her green card through Metcalfe because she just couldn’t do it in the end.
“By the end of our first year together, despite my desire to be attracted to him, my latent fear of my real sexuality was simmering and about to boil,” she said.
Ellen DeGeneres, Portia love story
In 2000, Portia de Rossi and DeGeneres crossed paths. But it wasn’t until a few years later that they both acted on their feelings for each other.
De Rossi and DeGeneres made their relationship public during their first red-carpet appearance in 2005.
While speaking with Oprah Winfrey in the same year, de Rossi said that she knew DeGeneres was the one when she first laid eyes on her. But it took her three years to confess her real feelings because she wasn’t an openly gay person back then.
The couple tied the knot after the Supreme Court of California made it possible for same-sex couples to get married in 2008.
Ellen DeGeneres gushes over her wife
While speaking with Good Housekeeping in 2017, DeGeneres gushed over her wife by saying that de Rossi understands her completely.
“In our vows, she recited a quote — ‘It is good to be loved. It is profound to be understood’ — and to me, that’s everything. What ‘I love you’ really means is ‘I understand you,’ and she loves me for everything that I am. She supports me and makes me happy,” DeGeneres said.
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