Ellen DeGeneres, a US TV celebrity, has made her first public appearance since migrating to the UK, stating that she decided to stay in England the day after Donald Trump was re-elected president. The comedian and host told an audience in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, that life “is just better” in the United Kingdom. Ellen and her partner Portia de Rossi stated they were thinking about getting married again in England given some movements in the US to repeal the right to homosexual marriage, adding that America may still be “scary for people to be who they are”. She also addressed charges of a hostile workplace, which led to the cancellation of her long-running chat show in 2022, admitting she could be “very blunt” but dismissing the stories as “clickbait”.
Ellen was a household figure on US television for 30 years, thanks to her daytime talk show, her self-titled 1990s sitcom, presenting the Oscars, Grammys, and Emmys, and voicing Dory in Finding Nemo. After her chat show was cancelled, she embarked on a “final stand-up tour” in the United States in 2024 before purchasing a home in the Cotswolds, a historic and attractive region that primarily encompasses parts of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. On Sunday, she spoke with presenter Richard Bacon at the Everyman theatre in neighbouring Cheltenham, who enquired if claims that she had left because of Donald Trump were true. “Yes,” she responded.
The 67-year-old said she and De Rossi had initially planned to spend three or four months a year in the UK and bought what they thought would be “a part-time house”.
“We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘He got in’,” she said. “And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here’.”
Ellen has been sharing glimpses of her new rural life on social media, including footage of her farm animals, including lambs, which have now been sold after repeatedly escaping. “It’s absolutely beautiful,” she added. “We aren’t used to seeing this level of beauty. The villages, towns, and buildings are all charming, and it’s a simpler way of life. It is clean. Everything is just better here, including how animals are handled and how courteous people are. I adore it here. “We moved here in November, which was not the best time, but I saw snow for the first time in my life. We adore it here. Portia flew her horses here, and I have chickens and we had sheep for about two weeks.”
But it is “a really hard decision” that doesn’t suit everyone, she continued, and said things are better today “in some ways” but not others.
“If it was [better], all these other people that are actors and actresses that I know they’re gay, they’d be out, but they’re not, because it’s still a problem. People are still scared.”
Ellen also mentioned the Southern Baptist Convention’s recent decision to support the reversal of a Supreme Court verdict permitting same-sex marriage. At least nine state legislatures have proposed legislation to do the same. “The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage,” she told me. “They’re literally attempting to prevent it from happening again and maybe reverse it. Portia and I are already looking into it, and if they do, we will marry here. Later, in answer to a question from the crowd, she said, “I wish we were in a world where individuals could be themselves without fear. I wish we lived in a culture where individuals could tolerate one another.
So until we’re there, I think there’s a hard place to say we have huge progress.”
However, the younger generation are “more comfortable with it” and are “just kind of fluid”, she added. “So I think the younger generation is going to show us the way.”
Does being blunt imply that I am mean?
After some former employees on her talk program accused her of a terrible office atmosphere, the celebrity – who finished each segment by telling viewers to “be kind to one another” – was called “mean” by the media. Following the controversy, three producers were fired amid charges of misconduct and sexual harassment, and the last season of the show began with Ellen issuing an on-air apology. She addressed this during her 2024 tour and accompanying Netflix stand-up special. “No matter what piece came up, it was like, ‘She’s harsh’, and it’s like, how can I deal with this without seeming like a victim, ‘poor me’, or complaining? But I did want to address it.
“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?”
English