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Having been married to Ellen DeGeneres since August last year, it wasn't until Monday, November 9 during an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that Portia de Rossi acknowledged she fell in love with the openly gay talk show host at first sight. "It took me three years to actually tell her how I felt about her, because I was on 'Ally McBeal' at that time and I was not living as an openly gay person," she recalled. "I was closeted and very, very afraid that if I talked about being gay it would be the end of my career. So I wasn't about to then date the most famous lesbian in the world."

"Over those three years, we saw each other at parties or various things, but the one time that was the most significant was at a photo shoot," she continued telling her story. "I just walked over to say hello to her and I couldn't believe it, but she turned around and it was like an arrow was shot through my heart. I was weak at the knees and I was overwhelmed with how I felt. But then it took me about 10 months to get the courage up to do something about it."

On marrying Ellen, Portia explained "It's important to be married because as a gay person, it's hard to know the difference between being married and having that kind of legal stamp of validity to your relationship. It's hard to know how that actually feels until it happens and that's why it's important that everybody have that feeling."

"The thing about being a gay couple is that in the past you referred to your wife and there was quotation marks around it. There was always that chance that people would kind of snicker about it," added the actress. "Now it's fact. It's law. She's my wife. I get to say that she's my wife, and that's just the way it is."

Ellen who also made an appearance on the talk show then chimed in, "Anybody that's married knows there's a difference. It feels like you're home. There's an anchor. There's a safety. I'm gonna be with her until the day I die and I know that."