EXCLUSIVE Ellen De Generes' Cotswolds farmhouse could be yours for £22.5m - £7.5m more than the TV star paid for it a year ago

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

Ellen DeGeneres has put her Cotswolds farmhouse on the market for £22.5million - a staggering £7.5million more than she paid for it just 12 months ago.
High end estate agent Sotheby's International Realty is marketing the seven-bedroomed home as a 'A landmark country estate in the heart of the Cotswolds.'
In a rare public appearance in the UK, Ellen, 67, told an audience this week: 'We decided we needed a different house, and now we are selling that house. So if anyone wants a house, it's a beautiful stone farmhouse!'
The agent's marketing material describes the farm as 'discreetly set at the end of a long private driveway…beautifully reimagined over the past year to an exceptional standard.'
It continues: 'The estate blends period character with sleek, modern design across 43 acres of rolling Cotswold countryside. The main house unfolds around a central landscaped courtyard, a lovely focal point that brings light and flow to the interiors.
'Designed for both grand-scale entertaining and relaxing, the layout combines sharp architectural detail with a contemporary eye for volume, proportion and finish.'
But it is the astonishing price increase which has surprised some estate experts familiar with the property - even if it has been 'beautifully reimagined'.
One estate agent, who was familiar with the initial sale to Ellen back in June of last year simply said: 'Well, £22.5million is an absolutely crazy price.
'I know Ellen has had some interior decorating work done, and there has been some landscaping too.
'But she bought the place for £15million 12 months ago. And even then she paid £2.5million over the asking price which was just £12.5million.
'So £10million has been added to what it was being marketed at 12 months ago. Good luck to her of course. A house is always worth what someone will pay for it!'
The pricing may seem audacious but history suggests Ellen knows what she's doing: she has an extraordinary track record as a buyer and seller of real estate.
According to US magazine People, DeGeneres is a well-known collector of 'multi-million dollar homes' including a £24million property in the Montecito area of California where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex also live.
In 2023, she told one US outlet of having bought and sold 'over 50 houses' including a house in Malibu that once belonged to Brad Pitt. Earlier this year it was reported that she had put two homes in Montecito on the market - thought to be among her last remaining properties in California.
Ellen has revealed publicly that she has put the farmhouse on the market less than a year after moving there from the US.
The US talk show host told a 700-strong audience of British fans at a one-off show at Cheltenham's Everyman Theatre the farmhouse she moved into last year was now for sale.
Yet she has also insisted she is staying in Britain 'for good' - with the decision to stay confirmed following Donald Trump's re-election as US president last November.
She has been living in the UK with her actress wife Portia de Rossi, 52, currently based in a new second home - having left the initial one that is now up for grabs.
DeGeneres, 67, said at the Cheltenham event where she was in discussion with broadcaster Richard Bacon: 'We decided we needed a different house, and now we are selling that house.
'To clarify, I'm not selling the new one we now live in. I'm selling the old stone farmhouse.'
Sources have confirmed that Ellen has quietly let it be known through her property agent that the farm is now available to the right buyer.
The stunning farm, which is set in 40 acres among the rolling Cotswolds hills, was bought by DeGeneres and de Rossi in June of last year for £15million.
Ellen was so enamoured by the property that she paid £2.5million above the asking price.
However, the couple's new life in the quaint English countryside quickly went dramatically wrong after the field next to the house flooded just days after they moved in.
Ellen DeGeneres bought the £15million farmhouse she shared with her wife Portia De Rossi in Asthall, a hamlet with only a handful of other houses, in June last year
They were left virtually marooned after a tributary of the River Thames running beside the property broke its banks.
Speaking at Cheltenham last week, Ellen told how she had decided to move permanently to the Cotswolds as a reaction to Donald Trump's second American presidential win last year.
She said her and Portia had visited the English rural region often and always planned to spend some of the year there while reverting to the US as their main home, but that changed with Trump's victory over his Democrats rival Kamala Harris.
Asked if she was staying here because of Mr Trump, she said: 'Yes. We were hopeful for Kamala. We were very hopeful and we thought at least let's get a place here.
'The idea was that we would be here for three or four months of the year - but always when we came here we loved it and we thought it was beautiful.
'We thought when I stopped the show [Ellen's eponymous US talk show] one day, that it was so beautiful here that we would get a farm here and then go back there.
'And we got here the day before the election. We woke up to lots of texts from our friends and crying emojis. And we were like, 'He [Trump] got in. So we are staying here. We are not going back. We are not leaving'.
Speaking further about her first year in Britain, DeGeneres pondered on 'the best thing about life in the UK', telling her audience: 'I really like the people. Fish and chips are delicious too.
'The UK is beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful. We [Americans] are just not used to seeing this kind of beauty.
'Even in the villages and the towns, I love the architecture and houses. Everything you see here is charming. It is a simpler way of life.
'It's clean. Everything here is just better. The way animals are treated, the way people are polite. I just love it here.'
However, she did admit the weather was an early issue, adding, 'We moved here in November, which was not the ideal time' - prompting laughter from the audience.
She went on: 'The winter is tough. I would definitely say the winter is tough. But I still enjoyed it because we are not used to seasons.
'In California it is pretty much always the same and that gets a little boring - and I like the seasons.
'There is no worse thing than that [the winter]. I enjoy going to British pubs. Of course we go to pubs. We love pubs.'
She and de Rossi were pictured and filmed last November enjoying a visit to fellow Cotswold resident Jeremy Clarkson's pub The Farmer's Dog.
Putting a positive spin on the winter, DeGeneres has now said: 'I saw snow for the first time in my life.
'I had honestly never seen snow before - it was just like a fairytale, it was beautiful.'
They have now moved to the safety of higher ground in a spectacular new property perched on a hilltop on the edge of a village in Oxfordshire.
It is about a 30-minute drive from their original home and planning documents show it has a 'sustainable drainage system' and is not 'at risk of flooding'.