In a telling Reddit Q&A session on Monday evening, the only male celebrity ever linked to Ellen DeGeneres responded to rumours that he once dated the Emmy-winning talk show host.
Johnathon Schaech and Ellen DeGeneres were photographed looking loved-up on multiple occasions in the mid-90s before the host famously came out as gay in 1997.
But as the Legends of Tomorrow actor revealed in his tell-all Ask Me Anything, their relationship was strictly for the cameras.
Ellen and Johnathon pictured together at the Coneheads premiere on July 19, 1993.
“My manager asked me to accompany her to events,” the tall, dark and handsome actor revealed.
“She was scared people would not watch the show, her sitcom Ellen, because she was gay. It was an honor,” he explained.
“I grew up with two gay aunts and a gay uncle. My Aunt died of cancer. She was a proud woman and she didn’t get proper care because she didn’t want to be away from her partner. Hospitals didn’t allow partners the same rights as a spouse,” said Johnathon.
“When you have someone you love in your life that is gay or a lesbian it’s very clear that they deserve the same rights as anyone else. It’s not about religion,” he continued, before adding: “If you don’t love ELLEN now — you don’t watch her show. She’s a great example for the human race.”
Ellen and Johnathon were pictured holding hands and gazing into each others eyes on the red carpet at the 1995 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Two years on in 1997, the comedian revealed her sexual orientation in an iconic Time magazine cover story. That same year, her character on the comedy sitcom Ellen also came out as gay.
Watch the memorable moment it all went down in the video player below.
Opening up in a segment of Oprah Winfrey’s series, Master Class, Ellen discussed her difficult decision to come out, saying: “What I had been saying to myself was, ‘Would I still be famous, would they still love me if they knew I was gay?’”
“And my fear was that no, no they wouldn’t, and then it made me feel ashamed that I was hiding something.”
“It made me feel ashamed that I couldn’t feel honest and really be who I am, and I just didn’t want to pretend to be somebody else anymore so that people would like me.”
It was the moment that changed Ellen’s life forever.
Following her decision to step into the role of her true self, Ellen then went on to pursue the love of her life, Portia de Rossi.
Ellen reportedly met the Australian beauty in 2000, and although their chemistry was tangible, they decided not to act upon it. It wasn’t until 2004 that their love really began to flourish.
“I ran into Ellen at a photo shoot [in 2004] and she took my breath away,” Portia confessed of her feelings for the Finding Nemo actress.
“That had never happened to me in my life, where I saw somebody and [experienced] all of those things you hear about in songs and read about in poetry. My knees were weak. It was amazing. And it was very hard for me to get her out of my mind after that,” Portia said in an interview in The Advocate.
According to Hollywood sources, this was the moment the now happily-married couple met.
On May 16th, 2008, Ellen announced perhaps her best news yet on her talk show.
“Yesterday, if you haven’t heard, the California Supreme Court overturned a ban on gay marriage,” she began.
“So I would like would like to say, right now for the first time, I am announcing I am getting married.”
Later that year, they said “I do” at their Beverly Hills home on 16 August, witnessed by their mothers and 17 other lucky guests.
“My feelings for Ellen overrode all of my fear about being out as a lesbian. I had to be with her, and I just figured I’d deal with the other stuff later,” Portia said of her now-wife.
