Ellen DeGeneres says toxic workplace allegations "devastated" her

Ellen DeGeneres in her 2024 Netflix stand-up special Photo: Netflix screenshot

Lesbian comedian Ellen DeGeneres says the allegations of her toxic workplace culture that occurred just before she canceled her long-running talk show “devastated” her and that she wants to remain beloved amongst her viewers and fans.

“I’m here because I love doing stand-up, and I miss doing stand-up, and I like making people happy, and I do care what people think,” DeGeneres said at the beginning of her recently released Netflix stand-up comedy special, Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval.

“When you’re a public figure, you’re open to everyone’s interpretation,” she continued. “And I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that, ‘What other people think of me is none of my business.’ Because people will say all kinds of things and you have no control over that. But you know the truth and that’s all that matters.”

After a nearly 20-year run with over 3,200 episodes and 60 Daytime Emmy Awards, DeGeneres aired the final episode of her daytime talk show, Ellen, on May 26, 2022. Throughout its run, the “Queen of Kind” ran warm interviews with celebrities and with everyday people trying to do good in the world. She’d often challenge them with lighthearted games or surprise them with generous gifts meant to aid their work.

But in 2020, the comedienne came under fire from former employees who accused her of rudeness and not communicating with them during the height of the COVID pandemic. Some said they’d lost their jobs for taking medical leave and were targeted for sexual harassment by powerful and unaccountable producers.

Several producers resigned from the show after Buzzfeed published the allegations.

While DeGeneres took responsibility and apologized to her employees, less than a year later, she announced her intention to end the show, stating that it was “not a challenge anymore.” She has since said that she will retire from show business after the airing of her Netflix special.

“I got kicked out of show business. Yeah, because I’m mean,” DeGeneres said in the special. “You can’t be mean and be in show business. They’ll kick you out. No mean people in show business.”

Referencing the May 1998 cancellation of her TV sitcom, Ellen, shortly after she came out as lesbian, DeGeneres said, “Kicked me out before because I told them I was out. No gay people in show business. They kick you out. Can’t be gay and be in show business. Eventually, they’re going to kick me out a third time for being old — mean, old and gay, the triple crown.”

“[I] spent an entire lifetime trying to make people happy,” she added, “I’ve cared far too much what other people think of me. So, the thought of anyone thinking that I’m mean was devastating to me, and it consumed me for a long time.”

“After a lifetime of caring, I just can’t anymore. So I don’t. But if I’m being honest…And I have a choice of people remembering me as someone who was mean or someone who was beloved. Be-lov-ed? Beloved? Beloved. Someone who is beloved? I choose that.”

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Originally published here.