The 66-year-old comedian says the ordeal diminished any chance of maintaining her television persona. Photo: TNS
Ellen Degeneres is back in the spotlight two years after the cancellation of her talk show and signalled that the end of her long-running talk show wasn’t entirely her choice.
During a Wednesday (April 24) performance of her Ellen’s Last Stand...Up Tour, the comedian, 66, used the stage to express how she really feels about how The Ellen Degeneres Show ended.
The former talk show host joked about getting “kicked out of show business” for being “mean.”
She also says she was the “most hated person in America” after former staffers spoke to Buzzfeed, alleging a toxic work environment on set.
The complaints included racial microaggressions, penalisation for taking medical leave, fear of retaliation for raising concerns, favouritism by executive producers and unexpected terminations.
Degeneres says the ordeal diminished any chance of maintaining her television persona.
“The hate went on for a long time and I would try to avoid looking at the news,” she expressed. “The ‘be kind’ girl wasn’t kind. That was the headline.”
The comedian went on to say that ending the show saying “Be kind to one another” on a daily basis turned her into a “one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps.”
After the stand up show, Degeneres held a Q&A. When asked if she was still able to “dance” during that “hard time” she responded “No... It’s hard to dance when you’re crying.”
The scandal also left the Emmy-winning host “in a funk” that started to affect her wife, Portia de Rossi. “She was watching it happen to me... she went through it with me,” she said of her spouse of 16 years.
She added, “I’m making jokes about what happened to me, but it was devastating,” she said. “It took a long time for me to want to do anything again.”
Though she has seemingly moved forward and is “dancing now,” Degeneres also admits she “hated the way the show ended” because she “loved that show so much.”
At the time, Degeneres issued an apology during the season 18 premiere opening monologue, saying, “I take that very seriously, and I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected.”
Degeneres ended the stand-up show telling the crowd, “I think that we need more laughter and less drama.” – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
