LONDON: Actress Portia De Rossi spent three years admiring her wife Ellen Degeneres from afar - because she didn't want to risk her acting career by 'coming out'.

The former Ally MCBeal star admits she spent years hiding her feelings for the TV star who was to become her wife.

In the couple's first TV interview together since their 2008 wedding, the Australian star told Oprah Winfrey, "It took me three years to actually tell her how I felt about her because I was on Ally MCBeal at the time and I was not living as an openly gay person.

"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."

But de Rossi admits she fell for DeGeneres the first time they met.