Donald Joe Heche - Father Of Anne Heche

Donald Joe Heche lived in various towns around Ohio, including suburbs of Cleveland and Akron and best known as the father of Anne Heche. He was a fundamentalist Christian and the he was raised in a deeply religious environment.

He is a follower of the Bible and attended church regularly. His faith played a significant role in shaping his values and beliefs, which he passed down to his daughter Anne who died on August 11, 2022. Events in Heche's personal life often upstaged her acting career.

Who Was Donald Joe Heche?

Born in 1930, Donald Joe Heche was married with Nancy Heche (née Prickett), an American activist, author, and counselor.

Anne Heche, his daughter, claims he assaulted her when she was little. In order to keep his sexuality a secret from his family, he led a double life. Donald contracted AIDS from his frequent contact with gay men.

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Donald Joe Heche Wife

Donald Joe Heche met his future wife, Nancy Heche, in high school. Donald co-founded a schismatic fundamentalist Baptist church. They lived with their children on an isolated compound in the Amish country near Burton, Ohio from the early 1960s until 1971.

Couple had five children, Nate Heche, Susan Bergman, Cynthia Heche, Anne Heche and Abigail Heche. As of 2023, four of Heche's five children were deceased.

How Did Donald Joe Heche Died?

In 1983, Donald Heche died of AIDS. Upon learning of the diagnosis, Heche became aware that her husband had been a closeted gay man.

He was one of the first Americans to succumb to the deadly AIDS virus, which was discovered in a group of homosexual males only two years prior.

The family's troubles continued even after it. Anne Heche has maintained for some time now that she was blacklisted in the early aughts as a result of the publicity surrounding her lesbian relationship with Elle DeGeneres.

It seemed like the ban also affected her connection with her mom. Heche's mother saw her lesbian relationship as a "sin," Heche said to the Tampa Bay Times in 1998.

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Grandchildren

Donald Joe Heche grandchildren were Atlas Heche Tupper, Homer Laffoon, and Elliot Bergman.

Nancy Heche relationship with her daughter Anne Heche

Donald Joe Heche's wife, Nancy Heche is a devout Christian, detailed her feelings of betrayal after her daughter came out as a lesbian in 1997 in a book she published in 2006.

After that, tensions between the two continued to build. She revealed that her famous daughter had cut off all contact with her. Anne Heche's mother-daughter connection was not healed before her untimely death on August 11, 2022.

Continuous death in the Heche family

Donald Joe Heche's been beset with tragedy, beginning with the death of his sister-in-law, Cynthia Heche in infancy due to a heart condition, secretly-gay patriarch Donald Heche dying from AIDS in 1983, and later that same year and brother Nathan Heche was killed in a car accident in New Jersey at 18.