While she had a successful stand-up career, a groundbreaking sitcom, and for years the top-rated talk show in the country, Ellen DeGeneres is apparently calling it a career.
According to SFGate, during a Q&A session following a performance at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa on Monday evening — part of her final stand-up tour — Ellen reportedly said, “I’m done.”
The response was from a patron who asked if she’d ever consider a Broadway turn or back to movies after her tour concludes. “Um, no,” Ellen reportedly said. “This is the last time you’re going to see me. After my Netflix special, I’m done.”
Ellen’s daytime talk show ended its 19-year run in 2022, following a Buzzfeed expose in 2020 that The Ellen DeGeneres Show‘s behind-the-scenes environment was the opposite of its “be kind” mantra: Accusations of racism, sexual misconduct and intimidation were leveled by former staffers.
Following that, supposed examples of DeGeneres being “mean” went viral.
On stage Monday night, Ellen reiterated material she has said earlier on the tour, specifically concerning her being “canceled.”
“I got kicked out of show business for being mean,” she snarked, when talking about what she’s been up to lately. “I used to say, ‘I don’t care what people say about me.’ Now I realize I said that during the height of my popularity,” was another line she’s repeated.
On stage, she insisted, “I am many things, but I am not mean.”
Ellen’s final Netflix special will drop later in 2024.
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