Now that Dancing With The Stars season 29 is here, we're dropping everything viewers need to know about Anne Heche. The 51 year-old mom of two is ready to take the ballroom by storm. However, viewers may not know that Heche's road to DWTS has been action-packed with drama.

Heche got her start in entertainment on the daytime soap opera Another World back in 1987. She remained on the show until 1991, and later pivoted into an exciting career in movies. In 1997, she appeared in the films Donnie Brasco and Volcano, both of which catapulted her to instant stardom. More notably that year, Heche began a widely publicized romantic relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, who had recently shocked the world by coming out as a lesbian on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and later on her self-titled sitcom, Ellen. The couple instantly became tabloid fodder. Heche and DeGeneres were known as much for their celebrity circle of friends including Melissa Etheridge and Kathy Najimy as they were for their respective bodies of work. However, the relationship ended after three years. The couple announced the split in a joint statement. Speculation swirled that Heche ended the relationship with DeGeneres after falling in love with a cameraman named Coley Laffoon. What happened next has dogged Heche ever since. In August 2000, she was hospitalized in Fresno, California after wandering into the home of a local resident. The actress, 31 at the time, was discovered babbling and wearing nothing more than her bra and a pair of shorts. Some news outlets alleged that she was on a bad drug trip, dehydrated, and possibly reeling from the DeGeneres breakup, as well as issues with her career. Heche has since admitted that the incident was likely brought on by mental illness, which she says is due, in part, to the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her deceased father.

Related: Dancing with the Stars: Julianne Hough Flaunts Her Bikini Body During Idaho Holiday

Homeowner Aracelli Campiz recounted Heche's unexpected arrival at her house to KSEE-TV: "She was saying a lot of funny things, that's all," Campiz told the station, adding that Heche seemed weary after her prolonged exposure to the 90-degree weather. Campiz continued: "She even put on a pair of my slippers and she made me put on a pair of slippers, too." In the months after the incident, Heche became the butt of late-night television jokes.

Anne Heche in Psycho

Among Heche's other noteworthy moments in the public eye was the opportunity any actress would die for. In 1998, she was tapped by director Gus Van Sant (Milk; My Own Private Idaho) to reprise the role of Marion Crane, made famous by Janet Leigh in the movie, Psycho. The Alfred Hitchcock thriller is widely regarded as a film classic, and Heche's portrayal was a nearly spot-on recreation of the shower scene in which she's stabbed to death by the serial killer, Norman Bates, played by Vince Vaughn in the remake. Other notable projects flesh out her filmography. She starred opposite Harrison Ford in Six Days, Seven Nights, and reunited with Vaughn in Return to Paradise, also in 1998. Heche went on to receive an Emmy nomination for her performance in the Lifetime movie Gracie's Choice and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for her work in Broadway's Twentieth Century. In 2018, Heche was called upon to join the cast of  Chicago P.D. among a long list of additional performances in her storied career. Heche is also a talented director, screenwriter, and author.

Although many Dancing with the Stars viewers might not know much about Anne Heche and her body of work, she is a compelling addition to this season's cast. From her surprising relationship with Ellen DeGeneres to her incident in Fresno, this actress will be able to bring a lot of drama to each of her dances. If photos of Heche sporting an injury in advance of season 29 are any indication, then she and her dancing partner will have a lot of work ahead of them. However, this is one talented survivor who has been knocked down multiple times, and still managed to emerge a household name.

Next: Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles: Everything to Know About Developer Zach Vella

Source: E! Online