Back in November, we reported that the comedian Ellen DeGeneres had fled America. She then moved across the world to the United Kingdom. DeGeneres has since been laying low in England with her actress wife Portia de Rossi of Arrested Development fame.
Now, DeGeneres and de Rossi’s $190 million secret has been revealed.
DeGeneres’ $190 Million Secret
Over the past twenty years, DeGeneres, 67, and de Rossi, 52, have quietly made $190 million simply by flipping homes. Indeed, they’ve bought at least 34 homes over the past two decades. Most of the homes that they’ve bought have been located in California cities like Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Montecito.
Since moving to the United Kingdom, however, they’ve been purchasing homes in England to flip.
“It’s not that I get bored, I’m just so passionate about architecture and furniture and you can only buy a certain type of furniture for a contemporary house or a midcentury house,” DeGeneres told The Wall Street Journal.
DeGeneres went on to reveal that she’s lost count of the amount of homes that they’ve bought and flipped. According to The Journal, DeGeneres and de Rossi have turned about $190 million in profit with an average return of 37%. However, their business manager Harley Neuman believes that the actual number could be lower if renovations are factored in.
“I would love her to have made that big of a killing,” he said. “Forget about the real-estate agents and the escrow and title people, it’s the cost of the contractors and the designers and the army that comes in once we’ve closed. It takes a village.”
Neuman went on to say that furniture isn’t included in this cost because DeGeneres typically includes it in a sale.
“She takes the art off the walls, but everything else gets sold,” he explained.
Celebrities Want To Own ‘An Ellen House’
Rayni Williams with Beverly Hills Estates represented a Hollywood executive who purchased one of the couple’s homes in Montecito. She stated that there’s a certain allure in owning “an Ellen house.”
“Once somebody knows it’s her house or she had a hand in it, it adds value,” Williams said. “In L.A., she is synonymous with quality.”
Various celebrities have bought homes owned by DeGeneres. These stars include Will Ferrell, Ariana Grande and the late Heath Ledger.
“Every house I’ve sold, I kind of know everyone that’s bought the house,” DeGeneres said. “I go back and everything is the same, all the objects are the same. It is a compliment but it’s also like I’m an idiot [for selling.]”
DeGeneres ‘Kicked Out Of Show Business’
This comes after a difficult few years to DeGeneres when it comes to the world of celebrities. She’s complained that she was “kicked out of show business” for being “mean” in the wake of her infamous toxic workplace scandal that exploded in 2020. That year, DeGeneres was accused of presiding over a set on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that was full of racism, sexism, and bullying.
“The hate went on for a long time. And I would try to avoid looking at the news,” DeGeneres claimed last year. “The ‘be kind’ girl wasn’t kind. That was the headline.”
This played a major role in DeGeneres and de Rossi fleeing America. Indeed, they left at the end of 2024 and moved to England.
“Ellen really felt she had made her mark on the industry. But that was diminished when she was canceled over her alleged treatment of her staff,” a source told Daily Mail back in November. “Then to have celebrities call her out one by one was so hurtful.”
DeGeneres Flees America
The insider went on to say that the “all the ill will towards” DeGeneres in America partly led to her decision to leave the country.
“She has the one person that still loves her, Portia, and she is ready to leave everyone who in her mind left her hanging out to dry. If she considers it her retirement, so be it,” the source continued. “An enormous part of the U.S. doesn’t like her because of her sexual preferences. And others were turned off by her persona, which some perceived to be fake in the wake of the work place allegations.”
“For Ellen, it’s easier to move away from her problems than to confront them,” this insider concluded. “It seems like a sad end to what she once was in people’s minds.”
Now that DeGeneres is living in retirement in England, she has all the time in the world to focus on house flipping. It will certainly be interesting to see how much money DeGeneres can make with this endeavor in the years to come!