Former Staffer Claims Stories About 'Cold' Ellen DeGeneres Are 'All True'
She's one of the warmest personalities on daytime TV, but rumours of Ellen DeGeneres' off-air antics continue to bubble to the surface.
This week the New York Post ran a story quoting a "former staffer" of The Ellen DeGeneres Show who they claim said "The stories are all true!"
"Is she always nice? No," the quote continued, "It irritates me that people think she's all sweetness and light and she gets away with it."
The 62-year-old comedian and host tells her audiences to "be kind" at the conclusion of every show. The quote has become so synonymous with DeGeneres her online store now sells a wide range of merch brandishing the slogan.
Face masks, hoodies, playing cards, underwear, badges and umbrellas to name just a few, fans can wear the phrase proudly. But more and more in the industry are coming forward, slamming DeGeneres for not living up to her own advice.
Earlier this month a former bodyguard told Fox News he experienced the dark side of DeGeneres when he worked for her at the 2014 Academy Awards.
The bodyguard, Tom Majercak, told Fox he felt DeGeneres was "very cold", "sly," and "demeaning".
"You start hearing these stories and I was like, 'Man, there's got to be more to this'. She's not the person she portrays to be that she's playing off of society. That's my opinion," he said.
Majercak's comments came after YouTuber NikkieTutorials -- real name Nikkie de Jager -- spoke out several times about her recent experience on the show.
Claiming she was greeted by an "overworked" intern, banned from using a bathroom near her dressing room which was reserved for the Jonas Brothers as well as calling DeGeneres herself "cold" and "distant".
In recent months there have been viral Twitter threads crowd-sourcing horror stories of DeGeneres' behaviour and compilations of trainwreck interviews resurfaced showing the host's disinterest or downright rudeness to celebrity guests.
DeGeneres has also been hit with criticism over her shift to a quarantine edition of her show, likening life in her $27 million mansion to being in prison.
Late last year the host had to defend herself after she was photographed sitting next to George W Bush at a football game. During his presidency Bush was staunchly anti-LGBTQ+, but DeGeneres again preached to her audience to "be kind".
"When I say, ‘Be kind to one another,’ I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do. I mean, ‘Be kind to everyone, it doesn’t matter,'" she said.
For what it's worth, longtime executive producer of The Ellen Show, Mary Connelly refuted the many claims against DeGeneres saying, "None of what’s being said speaks to the Ellen I know".
"Ellen is not afraid to tell you when she doesn’t like something. She’s had tough conversations with me. That’s a function of everyday life. But the person I know is someone who comes in every day and wants to put on a fun show in a fun environment and help people."
Featured image: NBC.