Veteran talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has revealed that she and her wife, Portia de Rossi, have decided to settle in the United Kingdom, citing growing concerns about the state of civil rights in the United States under President Donald Trump.
In her first interview since leaving the US last year, DeGeneres said the couple made the decision the day after Trump was re-elected in November 2024. "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','" DeGeneres told British broadcaster Richard Bacon, according to a BBC report. "And we're like, 'We're staying here.'"
DeGeneres praised her new home, saying life in the UK is "just better" than in the US. "It's absolutely beautiful," she said. "We're just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture - everything you see is charming and it's just a simpler way of life."
She also addressed the efforts in the US to overturn the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage and said she and de Rossi are considering renewing their vows in the UK. "The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage," she said. "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."
Speaking with Bacon, DeGeneres also touched on the widely publicized allegations of a toxic workplace environment on her former talk show and on being labeled "mean" by some media outlets. "It's as simple as, I'm a direct person, and I'm very blunt, and I guess sometimes that means that... I'm mean" she said, half-jokingly.
"I don't think I could ever say anything that would free me from that image or disprove it, and it hurts me," she added. "I hate it. I hate that people think that of me, because I know who I am and I know I'm an empathetic and compassionate person."
