Yesterday, we reported that Ellen DeGeneres had been hit with disturbing new bullying claims by former staffers on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Now, things have gotten even worse for DeGeneres, as it’s been revealed that her former staffers got their revenge on her with a brutal prank. Indeed, this shows just how unpopular DeGeneres really was with her own employees.
DeGeneres ‘Flipped Out’ Over Prank
Insiders are claiming that DeGeneres, 67, “flipped out” when they pulled a clever prank on her involving her shoes.
It seems that DeGeneres had a particular pair of sneakers that she wore for each episode of her eponymous talk show. After her alleged nightmarish behavior towards them, her staffers reportedly swapped out these shoes for an identical pair in children’s size. This was a clear dig at the childish way that DeGeneres behaved on set.
“She likes Vans shoes with white laces,” a source told Daily Mail. “And someone swapped it with a toddler version of the same shoes – basically to say, like, you’re being a baby.”
“She went to put them on, and she flipped out,” the insider added.
The source went on to reveal the one silver lining of DeGeneres’ alleged terrible behavior on set.
“Tapings were usually 45 minutes to an hour,” the former staffer explained. “When she was in a bad mood, we had extra quick tapings.”
More Bad Behavior From DeGeneres
This comes after another insider claimed that DeGeneres allowed executives to pressure a senior staffer into rescheduling a bone marrow transplant for their child to a date that would be more convenient for herself.
‘It was asked of this particular person if the kid’s ‘thing’ – that’s what they referred to it as – was the same week as the Christmas holiday week,” this ex-staffer recalled.
“This was a person pretty high up,” the insider continued. “This person was asked if they could move the procedure around the Christmas holiday week, for Ellen. They were there on the day of the taping that week – Ellen got exactly what she wanted. It was all loyalty to the show, but no loyalty to staff.”
The Ellen DeGeneres Show ran from 2003 until 2022. For much of that time, DeGeneres was lovingly known as the “Queen of Nice.” She even closed out each episode of her show by telling her viewers to “be kind” to one another.
That all changed in 2020, when DeGeneres was accused of presiding over a workplace at her talk show that was full of racism, sexism, and bullying. It was even alleged that her own staffers were told to never make eye contact with DeGeneres.
In the years since her talk show went off the air, DeGeneres has complained that she was “kicked out of show business” for being “mean.”
“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.”
DeGeneres Flees America
This played a major role in DeGeneres fleeing the country at the end of 2024. She’s settled in England with her wife Portia de Rossi, 52.
“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.”
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.”
When DeGeneres fled America, she was hoping that she could leave her negative past behind as well. Unfortunately for her, it’s clear that her former staffers have no intention of letting her off the hook for the way she treated them.
In the end, this serves as a reminder that karma really will follow a person wherever they go. Sorry, Ellen: you can run, but you can’t hide from your past!