(WENN)

Nathan Lane, star of Broadway and film, was a guest on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show to chat about an award he’s receiving from the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention group which focuses on helping gay and questioning youth. During his visit, Lane shared with Ellen his story of coming out to his mother when he was still living at home with her in New Jersey. He was involved in a relationship, which his mother mistakenly believed was with a woman, when Nathan decided to tell her the truth about his sexuality.

I was around 21 and I finally sat her down, she was this little Irish Catholic lady from Jersey City and so I said, you know, “I know you think I’m seeing a girl, but I’ve been seeing a guy.” And she said–the blood just drained from her face–and she said, “So you’re a homosexual?” And i said, “Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, I guess so.” And she said, “Oh, I would rather you were dead.”

Find out why Nathan Lane laughed when Ellen’s audience gasped at this point in his story after the jump…

Ellen’s audience reacted with a collective gasp, to which Nathan Lane laughed and continued by saying:

See, I always laugh, because I knew her better than they did. (gestures to audience) Because you know, it was the worst, you know. So I said, “I knew you’d understand,” and once I got her head out of the oven she was fine. And she was never…she was always very accepting of relationships I had, it was never an issue except for that one time.

Bless his heart, that’s a sad, but good story. I wonder how my son will come out to me. I mean, I don’t have one yet, and I don’t know for sure that he’ll be gay, but seriously, for me to be able to conceive and raise a straight man is going to take a miracle of science, I’m such a hag.