Ellen DeGeneres says Donald Trump is the reason she left the U.S.
Ellen DeGeneres has confirmed that she decided to leave the United States because of the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as addressing the allegations of a toxic work culture at her former show, according to British media reports.
The comedian and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, moved to the United Kingdom ahead of the US election in November.
They bought what they initially thought would be a 'part-time house,' DeGeneres told a crowd at the Everyman Theatre in the southern English town of Cheltenham on Sunday, according to reports by the BBC and the Guardian.
However, '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.''
CNN has reached out to the White House and DeGeneres' representatives for comment.
DeGeneres' remarks come a week after she showed support on social media for talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, whose US citizenship Trump has threatened to revoke.
'Everything here is just better'
DeGeneres went on to enthuse about the English countryside to the crowd in Cheltenham, saying, 'It's absolutely beautiful,' the BBC reported. 'We're just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture – everything you see is charming and it's just a simpler way of life.'
'It's clean. Everything here is just better – the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here,' added the 67-year-old, who in May shared a humorous video on Instagram of herself riding a lawnmower on her British estate.
'We moved here in November, which was not the ideal time, but I saw snow for the first time in my life. We love it here. Portia flew her horses here, and I have chickens, and we had sheep for about two weeks,' she continued.
The comedian and LGBTQ activist also announced that she and De Rossi would get married again in the UK if the US reversed its legalization of gay marriage, adding that being gay in Hollywood is 'still a problem. People are still scared.'
Referring to the US Southern Baptists' overwhelming endorsement of a ban on gay marriage in June, DeGeneres said: 'The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage. They're trying to literally stop it from happening in the future and possibly reverse it. Portia and I are already looking into it, and if they do that, we're going to get married here.'
Reputation as 'mean' is 'hurtful'
The former daytime talk show host, who wrapped up 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' in 2022 after facing allegations of a toxic work culture two years prior, also opened up about her show ending in an 'unpleasant way.'
DeGeneres, who last year announced that she was 'done' after her Netflix special and had 'got kicked out of show business for being mean,' said, '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.'
'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 continued.
The comedian added that it is 'hurtful' to her that she does not think she can say anything to get rid of that reputation. '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,' the BBC reported her as saying.
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