Ellen DeGeneres is breaking her silence two years after her long-running talk show ended in the wake of allegations of a toxic workplace.
The former “Ellen DeGeneres Show” host, 66, returned to the stage Wednesday night to kick off Ellen’s Last Stand…Up Tour with a set at Los Angeles’ Largo at the Coronet. According to Rolling Stone and People, DeGeneres took the opportunity to address the elephant in the room: Her absence from the limelight in recent years.
“We were both just laying low for a while,” she said of herself and her wife of 15 years, Portia de Rossi, per the outlets.
Reflecting on the backlash she experienced after a Buzzfeed News published a report in July 2020 detailing current and former employees’ claims that they faced racism, fear and intimidation while working on the show, DeGeneres summarized: “The ‘be kind’ girl wasn’t kind. I became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps.”
When asked by an audience member whether she was able to dance through tough times, DeGeneres replied, “No, it’s hard to dance when you’re crying. But I am dancing now.”
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The comedian took a moment to be vulnerable with fans on the first show of her tour.
“I’m making jokes about what happened to me but it was devastating, really,” she said. “I just hated the way the show ended. I love that show so much and I just hated that the last time people would see me is that way.”
In a monologue commemorating her final episode after 19 years on air, DeGeneres said, “I walked out here 19 years ago, and I said that this is the start of a relationship. And today is not the end of a relationship. It’s more of a little break. It’s a, ‘You can see other talk shows now. And I may see another audience once in a while.'”
DeGeneres’ contract expired in May 2022, when the show aired its final episode, and before this, she spoke publicly about potentially ending the show.
