Ellen DeGeneres has said she’d ‘love’ to host a talk show in the UK after moving over from the US. However, there’s one problem.
The American comedian, 67, moved to Britain with her wife, Portia de Rossi, 52, in November last year, deciding to set up a new life here after Donald Trump was re-elected.
While she tends to keep a low profile these days, this weekend, Ellen made her first public appearance since relocating, joining a conversation with Richard Bacon at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham.
She reflected on the bullying scandal that rocked her hit talk show in the States, ultimately leading to a decline in popularity and its full cancellation in 2022.
After fronting over 3,000 episodes, Ellen hosted her final episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May of that year, having been engulfed by accusations of a toxic workplace and at the centre of a wider investigation.
Despite it leading to a decline in viewership, Ellen has remained defiant in the face of the allegations, now saying she’d jump at the chance to replicate some success in the UK.
But while she misses her old chat show ‘a lot’, she isn’t sure its format would work anymore, as she explained tonight in quotes obtained by BBC.
‘I mean, I wish it did, because I would do the same thing here. I would love to do that again,’ she admitted. ‘But I just feel like people are watching on their phones, or people aren’t really paying attention as much to televisions, because we’re so inundated with information and entertainment.’
Ellen confessed to having no plans for what she wants to do next, but she’ll be planning her future career moves ‘very carefully’.
‘I just don’t know what that is yet,’ she stated, declaring that she does want to have ‘fun’ after growing ‘bored’ in recent months, now that she’s not in front of the bright lights and cameras.
Ellen, who now lives in a sprawling Cotswolds mansion, previously spoke about being ‘cancelled’ by the internet when she was accused of being ‘mean’ to staff behind the scenes.
She once called the accusations of toxicity behind the cameras of her show ‘orchestrated’ and ‘misogynistic’, later telling her 2024 tour crowd that she struggled with knowing how to confront the matter.
‘No matter what, any article that came up, it was like, “She’s mean,” and it’s like, how do I deal with this without sounding like a victim or “poor me” or complaining? But I wanted to address it,’ she said in the accompanying Netflix stand-up special.
‘It’s as simple as I’m a direct person, and I’m very blunt, and I guess sometimes that means that… I’m mean?’
The accusations against Ellen and her talk show gained widespread media attention when the complainants came forward in 2020. The host was said to have enabled not only the ‘toxic’ atmosphere but also ‘racism, fear, and intimidation’.
Furthermore, Ellen was accused of failing to address higher-ups sexually harassing female employees and directing ‘racist micro-aggressions and abuse’ towards employees of colour. Other accusations included staff members being fired for taking medical and bereavement leave.
After the internal probe into the show’s culture, three producers were sacked for alleged misconduct, with Ellen giving an on-air apology in her final show opening.
Ellen, who had also vowed to retreat from showbiz for good after fulfilling her contractual commitments, now admits that life is ‘just better’ in the UK, having splashed out on a blissful 43-acre property in the countryside.
Speaking tonight about her big move, she revealed she and former actress wife Portia, whom she wed in 2008, originally wanted it to be a ‘part-time house’.
They had planned to spend three or four months a year in the UK, but she now confirms it’s true that the last US election swayed her decision.
‘We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, “He got in”,’ she recalled.
‘And we’re like, “We’re staying here”.’
Ellen and Portia—who was present in the audience along with several other family members and celebs when Ellen’s show ended—first met at a party in 2000.
In their first joint interview in 2009, Portia confessed to Oprah Winfrey that she knew she loved Ellen the moment she laid eyes on her.
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