Ellen DeGeneres surprises same-sex couple behind viral tweet

Ellen DeGeneres surprised a same-sex couple on her chat show after a newly engaged women said she was rejected by her parents for being gay.

DeGeneres, one of the most high-profile LGBTQ figures in the US, invited Kate Austin and her financee Sarah Sulsenti to be in her studio audience .

The couple had tweeted a picture to DeGeneres and TV presenter Chrissy Teigen, showing them celebrating their Paris engagement in front of the Eiffel Tower.

The post, which quickly went viral, was captioned: “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 fiancee and i would cry.”

Ms Austin added the hashtag #shootingmyshot.

During Tuesday’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the host introduced the tweet during her Show Me Your Tweets segment, before surprising the couple by inviting them to come down from the audience and onto the sofa to be interviewed.

During the interview, Ms Austin told DeGeneres she came out five years ago but has since had a rocky relationship with her mother.

“My mom was really terrible,” she said. “She said everything you could think of under the sun.”

DeGeneres apologised for not being able to make their wedding, but gave them another surprise in the shape of friends and family who had been supportive of their relationship.

Ms Sulsenti then got down on one knee and asked Ms Austin to marry her.

Earlier, Ms Austin described DeGeneres, who famously came out on the cover of Time magazine in 1997, as a “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 fiancee,” a tearful Ms Austin told DeGeneres.

“So many people don’t accept that. You paved the way for queer women everywhere.”