Ellen DeGeneres Surprises Same-Sex Couple After Parents Say They Will Skip Wedding
Ellen DeGeneres surprised a same-sex couple on her show Tuesday after the women said their parents were skipping their wedding because they disapproved of the relationship.
Kate Austin tweeted photos to DeGeneres and Chrissy Teigen that showed her and her fiancée, Sarah Sulsenti, celebrating their engagement in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower.
“hi @chrissyteigen & @TheEllenShow!! my parents aren’t going to attend my wedding because they don’t like that i’m gay! i need someone to walk me down the aisle and someone else for a ‘father/daughter’ dance. plz come, my fiancée and i would cry 💕 #shootingmyshot,” Austin tweeted at DeGeneres, who responded yesterday: “See you tomorrow.”
DeGeneres shared Austin’s tweet on Tuesday’s show during her “Show Me Your Tweets” segment and brought out Austin and Sulsenti as her next guests. During a brief interview, Austin told DeGeneres she came out publicly five years ago and has since had a rocky relationship with her mother.
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“My mom was really terrible,” Austin said. “She said everything you could think of under the sun.”
DeGeneres told them she can’t make the wedding, but instead offered the couple a cardboard stand-in of herself with a hilarious retractable arm that holds tissues — something both Austin and Sulsenti needed moments later when DeGeneres took the surprise a step further and brought out their chosen family and friends who have supported their relationship.
Sulsenti then got down on one knee and re-proposed to Austin in front of their family, friends, and their “biggest role model.”
“If it wasn’t for someone like you, I would have never had the courage to just go out there in the public and propose to my fiancée,” Austin told DeGeneres, wiping away tears. “So many people don’t accept that. You paved the way for queer women everywhere.”
DeGeneres is set to receive the Carol Burnett Award at next year’s Golden Globes, which honors those who have made “outstanding contributions to television on or off the screen.” She’s being honored for her on-screen work, philanthropy and lending her voice through her platform for those who don’t have one.
“Everybody deserves love,” Ellen told Austin and Sulsenti on Tuesday. “That’s the most important thing. That is all that matters in this life.”
