'They were scared': Bombshell Ellen allegations emerge after talk show host fled Trump's America

Sky News AU

5 days ago

Comedian and podcaster Adam Carolla recently appeared on the After Party podcast and reignited criticism of disgraced talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, 67.
During the podcast, the former Man Show host, 61, claimed Ellen's staff were traumatised by her behind the scenes behaviour and lived in constant fear.
Reflecting on his experience as a former guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show 13 years ago, he said the atmosphere backstage was unusually tense and unlike anything he had ever seen.
Carolla said, 'I once talked to someone who wrote for Ellen and he said, 'She's not the worst person I've ever worked for… she's the worst and meanest person I've met.''
"I knew they were scared because it's like, I was just sitting in the my dressing room and their like segment producer came in, and he went, 'All right, so we went over all the stuff we're going to talk about,' you know, Christmas vacation or whatever it was," Carolla began.
"And and I go, 'Yeah, yeah.'
"And he goes, 'You're not going to talk about meat or beef or anything like that, right?" 'And I go, 'No, I'm not.'"
During that time Ellen was widely known as a committed vegan.
Carolla continued: "And [the segment producer] like came back like 20 minutes later right before I went out, and he's like, 'Okay, but don't talk about beef or meat or any[thing]'."
'This guy is scared to death,' Carolla recalled thinking at the time.
'Now everyone knows what I knew 15 years ago,' he added.
'I knew how her staff were cowering.'
Carolla made an appearance on Ellen's show in March, 2012.
In 2020 a BuzzFeed investigation revealed accounts from ten anonymous former employees and one current staff member who described the toxic environment involving racism, discrimination, intimidation, and being fired for taking medical leave or attending family funerals.
One employee said they quit after becoming fed up with the racist comments.
Others described a workplace culture built on fear, where raising concerns risked losing their jobs.
Her show was eventually cancelled in 2022 in the wake of widespread backlash.
DeGeneres and her wife, Australian actress Portia de Rossi, permanently relocated to the UK after Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Earlier this month, DeGeneres told the BBC the pair initially planned to spend just a few months each year in the UK and purchased what they believed would be a "part-time house" in the Cotswolds in 2024.
But the couple decided to stay put after Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the latest US election.
"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'," she recalled.
"And we're like, 'We're staying here'."
She expressed fears over proposed rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights under Donald Trump's influence, describing America as a scary place for people to be who they are.