Ellen DeGeneres Addresses Her Toxic Workplace Scandal in New Netflix Special
DeGeneres' alleged mean-girl behavior was exposed in 2020.
Ellen DeGeneres is putting it all out there in her new Netflix special regarding the end of her longtime Emmy-award winning talk show amid an investigation into her fostering a toxic workplace. She addressed her exile from showbusiness in For Your Approval, her first standup taping since the scandal. When updating the audience on what she's been doing since the end of her show, 20 minutes into the show, DeGeneres tells the audience, "Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business," per TV Line.
The 70-minute set is being coined at DeGeneres' official send off, marking her retirement. And she obviously wanted to tell her side of the story.
"You all heard I was mean?" she asks. "Everywhere I go, I know everyone's heard that I'm mean. I know when I walk into a restaurant, people are watching, waiting to see if I'll be mean."
She then encounters two people at a restaurant talking about her, which she overhears. "'Do you think she'll be mean first, then dance? Oh, she was reaching for butter. I thought she was going to hit somebody,'" she jokes.
"That was a big story, huh? That had some legs on it," she says. "The first I heard about it, I came across a headline that said 'How Ellen DeGeneres Became the Most Hated Person in America.' Now, I didn't see the other names on the ballot, but… it's an impressive title. It really is. It's a horrible thing to say about somebody — and to make it worse, there was no trophy, no awards banquet, nothing. Just the title…. It was quite a shock for me because for 17 years, there were all these polls basically saying that I was one of the most trusted people in the country."
The public scrutiny wasn't easy for the comedian, so much so that she began therapy to help her navigate her reality at the time. At one point, my therapist said, 'Ellen, where do you get this idea that everyone hates you?' And I said, 'Well, um, New York Times, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Us Weekly… I think Elmo may have said something recently on an episode of Sesame Street,'" she joked.
DeGeneres' "nice girl" public persona began to unravel following a 2020 BuzzFeed expose. There were allegations from past and then-current staffers who alleged DeGeneres used intimidation tactics to get her way, they feared retaliation for speaking up, many claimed they were overworked and underpaid…or not paid at all during the height of the pandemic, and there were even claims of racism.
