Anne Heche has revealed she did not "identify" as a lesbian when dating Ellen DeGeneres in her final book.
Heche died from inhalation injury and burns in August aged 53, a week after crashing her car into a house in Los Angeles. Her death was ruled as an accident by the coroner.
Before her passing, the Donnie Brasco star had been working on a memoir, which will be released in January. In it, she reveals her thoughts about dating DeGeneres in the late 1990s, when they were one of Hollywood's only open same-sex couples.
"I was labelled outrageous because I fell in love with a woman. I had never been with a woman before I dated Ellen," Heche wrote in an extract from Call Me Anne, obtained by The Associated Press. "I did not, personally, identify as a lesbian. I simply fell in love! It was, to be clear, as odd to me as anyone else. There were no words to describe how I felt.
"Gay didn't feel right, and neither did straight. Alien might be the best fit, I sometimes thought," she continued. "What, why, and how I fell in love with a person instead of their gender, I would have loved to have answered if anyone had asked, but as I said earlier, no one ever did. I am happy that I was able to tell you in this book - once and for all."
When Heche died, DeGeneres issued a brief statement via Twitter.
"This is a sad day. I'm sending Anne's children, family and friends all of my love," she posted.
Although DeGeneres's career went from strength to strength in the years after her character in her sitcom Ellen came out as gay, and bagged a hit TV chat show, Heche claimed in interviews that she believed questions about her sexuality cost her leading lady roles.
After splitting from DeGeneres in 2000, she married cameraman Coleman Laffoon, with whom she had a son, Homer.
Following her split from Laffoon, Heche dated her Men in Trees co-star James Tupper, with the couple welcoming son Atlas in 2009.
Previously, Heche released a book titled Call Me Crazy in 2001.
