Ellen DeGeneres dubbed herself “the most hated person in America” and has deliberately spent the past two years out of the spotlight.
But she’s now making a comeback with what she claims will be one final Netflix special and a comedy tour called “Ellen’s Last Stand . . . Up.”
After battling toxic workplace allegations related to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” the star — who has a reported net worth of $450 million — is ready to talk in detail about the downfall of her Emmy-winning daytime series.
“She needed some time to recover,” a longtime DeGeneres friend told Pvnew. “But she’s an artist, she wants to entertain — she can’t just sit at home.”
Back in 2020, DeGeneres, 66 — whose catchphrase is “Be Kind” — became embroiled in a scandal that hit at the very heart of her longtime show.
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Staffers accused the comedian of fostering a culture of racism, fear and intimidation — and of demanding that no one on set make eye contact with her. Guests were allegedly told to compliment her on air.
DeGeneres replied to this by telling employees, “I don’t know where it started. Please talk to me. Look me in the eye.”
Since the show ended in May 2022, DeGeneres has spent her time flipping very expensive houses in Santa Barbara, looking after her rescue chickens, gardening and focusing on the gorilla conservation campus that was founded in her honor in Rwanda.
People who know the former talk-show host say she won’t be rushing back to TV anytime soon.
“Why would she go back?” said one Hollywood insider who worked with her for decades. “She accomplished so much, she made great entertainment.
“She has refocused her life and her priorities.”
However, when asked about the return the standup, another old friend told us, “Ellen is a comedian. They all have their peccadillos, but this is her life and she wants to talk about everything she went through and where she is now in her life, sharing who she is.
“Look at Jerry Seinfeld, he does stand-up all the time. Why shouldn’t she get back on stage?”
In April, DeGeneres dipped her feet back in the water with a low-key show at the Largo theater in LA, and told the crowd how her TV persona had been detonated by the reports.
Indeed, she called herself “the most hated person in America”.
“I’ve been kicked out of show business,” she joked, noting that this was not the first time she was excommunicated from Hollywood.
“For those of you keeping score, this is the second time I’ve been kicked out of show business,” she said, referencing the cancellation of her sitcom “Ellen” in the ’90s after she came out as a lesbian. “Eventually they’re going to kick me out for a third time because I’m mean, old and gay.”
But she made it clear how hard times have been: “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.”
DeGeneres, who had apologized to staffers and her audience, added, “I became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps. Do you know how hard it is to dance up steps? Would a mean person dance up steps? Had I ended my show by saying, ‘Go f–k yourself,’ people would’ve been pleasantly surprised.
“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 idolize you or they hate you, and those people somehow are louder,” she added.
“I couldn’t do anything to make myself understand that it wasn’t personal,” she continued. “I just thought, ‘Well, this is not the way I wanted to end my career, but this is the way it’s ending.’ ”
Another old friend told us, “Truthfully, Ellen was battered, she was so tired. She had been doing the show for 19 years and she wanted a rest.
“She had helped millions and millions of people, and look at all the money they gave away on the talk show. She loved her audience.”
DeGeneres was also left “devastated” according to friends, by the death of her show’s DJ, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, in December 2022. The 40-year-old father-of-three died by suicide. DeGeneres spoke at his memorial, and we’re told she remains close to his widow, Alison Holker and their children.
DeGeneres, who said she didn’t get out much after the show ended, admitted that her wife, Portia de Rossi, also suffered under the strain of her talk show scandal.
“She was watching it happen to me,” DeGeneres told the audience at Largo. “She went through it with me.”
Several senior staffers left Degeneres’ show following a damning BuzzFeed News expose in June 2020.
Employees had complained of being penalized for taking medical leave, instances of racial micro-aggressions and fear of retribution for raising complaints.
A year later, it was announced the show was ending.
DeGeneres was joined by Jennifer Aniston, Pink and Billie Eilish for the final show on May 26, 2022.
“If I’ve done anything in the past 19 years, I hope I’ve inspired you to be yourself — your true, authentic self. And if someone is brave enough to tell you who they are, be brave enough to support them, even if you don’t understand,” she told her audience.
“I just hated the way the show ended,” she shared at Largo. “I love that show so much and I just hated that the last time people would see me is that way.”
For the past two years, DeGeneres has been at home in Montecito with de Rossi.
She remains close friends with her neighbors Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, sources confirm to Pvnew, after introducing them to her money manager Adam Lilling.
DeGeneres — who says she loves the “instant gratification and the adrenaline rush” — has bought and sold at least 20 properties around Santa Barbara since 2003 with her wife, according to Architectural Digest.
Her most recent flip was an eight-acre Mediterranean-style estate known as Pompeiian Court, that she sold for for $32 million to mining industry billionaire Robert Friedland in March after buying the property for $22.5 million last June.
She will film her Netflix special in Minneapolis in August. It will be produced by Ben Winston, the Emmy-winning business partner of James Corden, who also made the “Friends” reunion special. It will be DeGeneres’ first comedy special since 2018’s “Relatable.” She also had celebrity pals including Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner support her at another show at Largo last week.
“Ellen has spent a lot of time writing and working on something very funny,” said the old friend. “The bottom line is that for her own soul she needs to work and to entertain people.”
“I used to say that I didn’t care what other people thought of me and I realized . . . I said that at the height of my popularity,” DeGeneres said, prompting laughter at a gig in April. “Right now I’m hoping you’re thinking, ‘This is marvelous, I’m so happy to be here.’ But you could be thinking, ‘Let’s see how this goes.’ ”
