"Now it's on the shelves, people can go read about it, don't, whatever. But I got my life. The gift that I gave myself was my life. So, okay, yes, it was very difficult to get there, but at the same time, it was the only choice that I had. And so that was the best part and that was the worst part."

The glowing actress describes her new life with a tangible sense of joy. "It's the other side. It's my reward for working so hard. It's everything that I aimed to achieve, and so now it's easy and fun and happy and free, 'cause I knew that was the goal. You never know for sure that you're going to achieve your goal. But that was my number one goal in my life: to get to the other side of my pain. And now being on the other side of it is sweet. It's really sweet."

Heche has a lot to look forward to these days: In addition to the birth of her child and her two upcoming films, she is ecstatic about a recent shoot for the April issue of Vogue magazine, for which famed photographer Annie Leibowitz photographed the very pregnant actress with her husband.