Congratulations are in order for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi, who recently celebrated 12 years of marriage.
DeGeneres and De Rossi married on August 16, 2008 soon after same-sex marriage was legalised in California. They said ‘I do’ at their Los Angeles home with only 19 guests present. Both brides wore Zac Posen outfits for the big day.
Late philosopher and self-help guru Wayne Dyer officiated the ceremony.
“Today we have taken a giant step forward toward the ideal that all of us, with no exceptions, are not only created equal, but we each have the unalienable right to pursue our own happiness,” he said during the ceremony.
“I have often said that true nobility is not about being better than anyone else, it’s about being better than you used to be. With your exchange of vows today, you symbolize for many who have gone before you, who were forced to live their lives in quiet desperation, lurking in the shadows, that we as a people, are truly becoming better than we used to be.”
The pair met at a party back in 2000, and De Rossi told Oprah she fell in love instantaneously. However, at the time she had not come out as a gay woman, so she could not express her feelings. In 2004, they reconnected at VH1’s Big in ’04 Awards.
They went public as a couple in 2005 at the HBO Golden Globe Awards After Party. They soon moved in together.
Speaking to People Magazine, De Rossi said: “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.”
Over a decade later and the couple still seem as loved up as ever. They did not post any honororary social media posts to celebrate their anniversary, presumably because of the ongoing internal investigation at DeGeneres’s show following allegations of a toxic work environment. De Rossi has come out to say that she stands by her wife.
