‘I’m so proud of you, so happy for you. I know what a scary thing that is’

Ellen DeGeneres

This week, Ellen DeGeneres welcomed a newly out Ellen Page onto her daytime talk show and offered her public congratulations for coming out.

‘I think my biggest fear in doing it was having a panic attack, quite frankly. I was just so ready to do it, and so excited to do it. So it was a combination of such thrill to be at a place in my life where I was able to do that, and grateful to have that moment, and grateful to you (Ellen), because you did it at a time when it was much harder and much scarier.’

Ellen Page

Ellen DeGenere came out in a Time Magazine cover story in 1997 at the same time that her character on her self-titled ABC sitcom came out. The show was canceled soon after.

Page grew a bit emotional when DeGeneres played a portion of her HRC speech and talked about the damaging effect of keeping your sexuality a secret.

‘It’s toxic. You think you’re at a place where you’re like, “Oh, I’m happy to be gay, I’m so comfortable being gay, I love being gay.” Honestly, it wasn’t until making that choice and doing that (speech) when I realized that, no, I was carrying a tremendous amount of shame and guilt for not being out, and felt isolated from the LGBT community.’

Ellen Page