Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s Life-Altering Love Story

“It’s the first time that I’ve known in every cell of my being that I’m with somebody for the rest of my life,” DeGeneres told People in November 2005. She had been in a relationship with photographer Alexandra Hedison for four years before she and de Rossi got together.

“We were just supposed to be together,” the still fairly new talk show host said. “It was a tough decision. I was physically getting sick because I was trying not to say anything. So I told Alex and she told Francesca. It was really hard to uproot everything.”

Gregorini admitted to The Advocate in 2014 that her breakup with de Rossi was “pretty harrowing. I’ve never really talked about it, and, I want to be respectful to all the players, and, to be honest, I’ve definitely made my peace—Portia and I are friends, I’m friends with Ellen.”

“Everything turned out as it was meant to,” Gregorini added, “but it definitely, at the time, it was a very harrowing experience, because heartbreak is harrowing. Any breakup is just awful, but then to be dragged through the press, while it’s happening, in real time, it’s definitely not a picnic. It did make me stronger. I definitely went down for the count, for a couple months there, but, it definitely gave me a resolve to pick myself up, and make something of myself, and my life…

“We were meant to be together for that point in time, and, and then not, and I think she’s found a great partner for her. I think they’re really well matched.”