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Anne Heche's podcast co-host has broken her silence following the actress' untimely death.
Heche, 53, died on August 12 a week after her car crashed into a California home and she was pulled from the fiery wreckage by first responders.
Public Relations expert Heather Duffy Boylston had co-hosted the Better Together podcast with Heche since its launch in October 2020.
According to the show's description they started the podcast to "celebrate friendship, and we believe that we can create more joy in the world by sharing our stories, stumbles, and triumphs."
Boylston needed time to "process the profound loss of my beautiful friend with the kindest soul I've known," before posting a tribute on Instagram.
She shared a photo of the pair standing back to back and smiling towards the camera alongside a caption about Heche.
"Anne was joyful despite all the challenges that she faced in her life. She was truthful despite being in a business that is make-believe," Boylston wrote.
"Spreading love and kindness in the world is what mattered most to her, even if, at times, the world did not give it back."
Boylston then described the "bravery and the sacrifice it took for Anne to stand up for the right to love who you wanted back in the late 90s."
Heche entered a high profile romance with comedian Ellen DeGeneres in 1997 shortly after the latter came out on her network sitcom.
Boylston continued: "Her public stand for equality empowered many LGBTQ+ people worldwide to see a future where they could live in their truth, which mattered to her more than anything.
"We have come a long way because of her truth, bravery, and kindness in that moment 25 years ago when she chose to bring a woman as her date to the premiere of Volcano."
Boylston concluded her post: "I wish the media would have circled back at some point while she was with us to recognize how harshly they judged her in those moments when she took a stand for equality.
"She was way ahead of us, and we are all just catching up. Fly free, my friend. This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you."
Boylston's message came as the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner ruled Heche's cause of death an accident, saying she died as a result of inhalation of smoke and thermal injuries.
The coroner also noted that a "sternal fracture due to blunt trauma" was another "significant condition."
A sternal fracture is a break in the breastbone from a high impact trauma such as vehicle accident, falling from a height, or high impact sports.
Heche was rushed to hospital and remained in a coma until she succumbed to a severe anoxic brain injury a week later when she was declared legally dead according to Californian law.
An anoxic brain injury is caused when the brain is completely deprived of oxygen. It is a condition that can lead to severe disability, coma and death.
Doctors kept her body on life support for two more days while they found donor recipients for her organs.
Heche is survived by her two children: Atlas, 13, and Homer, 20.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more