Ellen DeGeneres has revealed how “devastating” bullying allegations affected her marriage with Portia de Rossi.
In 2020, the comedian was forced to end the Ellen DeGeneres Show after a Buzzfeed News investigation accused it of being a toxic work environment, with alleged sexual misconduct, racism and workplace bullying taking place behind the scenes.
DeGeneres, who was shocked by the claims at the time, has now addressed the backlash she received during a stand-up comedy show.
“I’m making jokes about what happened to me, but it was devastating,” she told the crowd at her show Ellen’s Last Stand…Up Tour in Los Angeles. “It took a long time for me to want to do anything again.”
The former chat show host then reflected on how the accusations impacted her marriage, saying: “It’s hard to dance when you’re crying.”
According to Rolling Stone, the comedian said the allegations began to damage her relationship with her wife of 16 years, Arrested Development star Portia de Rossi, as she struggled to leave her home during the “hard time”.
DeGeneres said: “She was watching it happen to me. She went through it with me.”
The couple first met in 2001, before de Rossi had publicly come out as a gay woman. They began dating in 2004 and married once same sex partnerships became legal in California in 2008.
Elaborating on the backlash she received over the bullying allegations, DeGeneres added: “The hate went on for a long time and I would try to avoid looking at the news. The ‘be kind’ girl wasn’t kind. That was the headline.
“It’s been such a toll on my ego and my self-esteem. There’s such extremes in this business, people either love you and idolise you or they hate you, and those people somehow are louder.”
DeGeneres, who maintained that she was unaware of the show’s toxic work environment, issued an apology shortly after the accusations became public. “Things happened here that should never have happened,” she told her audience at the time.
A year after her show came to an end, the comedian claimed that the press coverage surrounding the story was “misogynistic”.
