Friends and co-stars of Anne Heche are reacting to news that the Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress is not expected to survive injuries from last week’s fiery car crash.
“She was declared brain dead last night but has been kept on life support for organ donation,” a rep told the Daily News Friday afternoon. “Her heart is still beating.”
The rep had said Thursday that Heche suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and remained in a coma, in critical condition.
Under California law, that means Heche is legally dead.
“This is a sad day,” comedian and TV personality Ellen DeGeneres tweeted Friday afternoon. “I’m sending Anne’s children, family and friends all of my love.”
DeGeneres and Heche were one of Hollywood’s first visible same-sex power couples, after the two dated from 1997 to 2000.
Actor James Tupper, who shares a 13-year-old son with Heche, posted a photo of the actress on Instagram, writing “love you forever” followed by a broken-heart emoji.
His post prompted many Instagram users to send their condolences.
“Just so heartbreaking,” fellow comedian and television personality Rosie O’Donnell wrote in a TikTok post.
Actress Rosanna Arquette tweeted that she is “very upset and sad that Anne Heche is not expected to live.”
And even though Heche “would have been arrested for driving under the influence and putting lives in danger,” Arquette added, “she still is a great artist and struggled with addiction, it’s terribly sad for her children and for her friends.”
The “Six Days Seven Nights” actress reportedly had cocaine in her system when she slammed her blue Mini Cooper that into a two-story home in Mar Vista, a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, on Aug 5.
Some social media users criticized the support the actress has received slamming the mother of two for speeding in a residential area possibly while on drugs — though Heche has a history of mental-health struggles and has been open about struggling with addiction in the past, as a sexual-abuse survivor.
