Will & Grace star Megan Mullally and Ellen DeGeneres — who, despite Eric Trump's claims, is probably not part of a government conspiracy — have been friends for 30 long years. While you might think three decades is enough time to learn everything there is to know about someone, these two proved that people are always filled with surprises.
According to BuzzFeed, Mullally visited Ellen on Monday and revealed that for years she honestly believed DeGeneres' girlfriends were just her roommates.
"I lived like a block and a half away, and I would walk over [to your house]," Mullally recalled. "You had a roommate. I remember thinking, 'That's nice, Ellen has this lovely roommate named, you know, Janet or something. Isn't that nice? They really seem like they get along great.'"
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It gets better. Mullally then admitted that despite all of the many clues DeGeneres and her girlfriends would drop (for instance, they shared a room and a dog), she never considered the women as anything other than platonic friends.
"As the years went on, you had a lot of lovely roommates," Mullally said. "And I thought, 'Ellen just gets along with people so well. People are just drawn to her like a magnet. I had a terrible time finding a roommate, and Ellen just finds them like that.' I mean, so naïve."
DeGeneres, who is now happily married to actress Portia de Rossi, came out as a lesbian for the first time publicly back in 1997 on the cover of Time magazine. Though the announcement shocked many of her fans around the globe, DeGeneres assumed that her friends knew.
"Are you serious," she asked Mullally with a smile. "You didn't know I was gay?
Neither of the women stated why they never discussed DeGeneres' sexuality back when they first became friends, but it could have something to do with the social stigmas during that time. While it's still unfortunately not always easy for people to come out today, society's views are changing as more LGBTQ+ people are represented more in TV, film, and music.
We still have a long way to go, but it's inspiring to know we have with folks like DeGeneres paving the way for acceptance.