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 have celebrated have celebrated a major milestone as they continue their new lives in the English countryside.
DeGeneres And de Rossi Celebrate Milestone
DeGeneres, 67, and de Rossi, 52, celebrated their seventeenth wedding anniversary on Sunday. The comedian marked the occasion by taking to Instagram to post a 2008 clip depicting their wedding on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“Happy 17th anniversary of the best day of my life. Portia, I love you more everyday,” DeGeneres wrote alongside the video. She added the hashtag “”#MarriageForAll.”
Months after they got married, de Rossi opened up about the “lovely” way her life had improved since marrying DeGeneres.
“Marriage is a different way of being together,” de Rossi told People Magazine at the time. “There’s a peace to [being married] and a sense of togetherness that we just didn’t have before. And I didn’t even realize it would change as much as it has, but it’s so lovely.”
DeGeneres’ Gay Marriage Fears
Last month, DeGeneres claimed that she and de Rossi fled America partly because they feared that gay marriage would no longer be legalized.
“The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage,” DeGeneres said during a July Q&A in England. “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.”
“I wish we were at a place where it was not scary for people to be who they are. I wish that we lived in a society where everybody could accept other people and their differences,” she continued. “So until we’re there, I think there’s a hard place to say we have huge progress.”
DeGeneres has also alleged that they fled America because of Donald Trump’s second presidential victory last November.
When asked during that Q&A if she left the United States because of Trump’s win, DeGeneres replied, “Yes. 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.’ And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here.'”
Real Reason DeGeneres Fled America
However, media experts believe that gay marriage and politics had nothing to do with DeGeneres’ decision to leave the country. Instead, they think that her move to England was nothing more than a desperate attempt to “escape from a bruised brand.”
“As a media expert, I believe Ellen DeGeneres’ relocation to the UK represents less a strategic career pivot and more an escape from a bruised brand in America,” media expert Michael Levine told The Mirror.
“The strong feeling in America currently is that Ellen’s career is like yesterday’s lunch — not very appealing,” he continued. “While she was once one of the most beloved figures in American television, the end of her show amid controversy left a residue that audiences haven’t forgotten.”
Many would argue that DeGeneres only has herself to blame when it comes to just how badly she’s perceived in America these days.
For decades, DeGeneres was known as “The Queen of Nice.” She even ended every episode of The Ellen DeGeneres 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.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show went off the air in 2022. In the years since then, DeGeneres has lamented 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 To Escape ‘Hate’
This was another major factor in DeGeneres’ decision to flee America and move to England.
“Ellen really felt she had made her mark on the industry. But that was diminished when she was cancelled 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.”
Here’s hoping that DeGeneres and de Rossi enjoyed celebrating their wedding anniversary in their new home. Only time will tell if they actually stay in England longterm, or if they come crawling back to America!