‘Blunt’ Ellen DeGeneres ‘Hates’ How She Can’t Change Her Reputation After Talk Show Scandal

Ellen DeGeneres recently reflected on her damaged reputation following the 2020 drama surrounding her former eponymous daytime talk show.

In her first public appearance since relocating to the U.K. with her wife, Portia de Rossi, in November 2024, the comedian host spoke to English broadcaster Richard Bacon at the Everyman Theatre in Gloucestershire, England, on Sunday, June 20, according to the BBC.

DeGeneres, 67, recounted how reports of her being a “mean” person stuck with her after her former employees alleged a toxic workplace culture in a July 2020 Buzzfeed article.

“I don’t think I can say anything that’s ever going to get rid of that [reputation] or dispel it, which is hurtful to me,” she confessed per the BBC. “I hate it. I hate that people think that I’m that because I know who I am and I know that I’m an empathetic, compassionate person.”

“No matter what, any article that came up, it was like, ‘She’s mean’, and it’s like, how do I deal with this without sounding like a victim or ‘poor me’ or complaining? But I wanted to address it,” she remarked.

“It’s as simple as, I’m a direct person, and I’m very blunt, and I guess sometimes that means that… I’m mean?” she admitted.

DeGeneres apologized to her staff during the season 18 premiere of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in September 2020. The long-running series went off the air less than two years later, after the conclusion of season 19. DeGeneres noted it was “certainly an unpleasant way to end” during her conversation with Bacon.

The actress also said that it was “kind of crazy” that calling someone mean “can be the worst thing that you say about a woman”.

“How dare us have any kind of mood, or you can’t be anything other than nice and sweet and kind and submissive and complacent,” she added.

As for the future, the Emmy Award winner told Bacon that she’s “very carefully” thinking of her next career move, according to the BBC.

“I just don’t know what that is yet,” she shared. “I want to have fun, I want to do something. I do like my chickens but I’m a little bit bored.”

She also noted that she doesn’t foresee herself having a talk show in the same format as before.

“I would do the same thing here. I would love to do that again, but I just feel like people are watching on their phones, or people aren’t really paying attention as much to televisions, because we’re so inundated with with information and entertainment,” she stated.